When the music stops

Your article in Issue 309 on Apple Music was informative, but was based – as is so often the case nowadays – on one huge assumption. That you have a good internet connection. Now I do at home, with fast WiFi, and 4G when out and about. But I’m writing to you at this moment from a cruise ship where internet connection is by satellite. It takes one back to those dial-up days, when you went online because you needed to, and then quickly logged off, except satellite is far more expensive as well.

This cruise is when I realised that nearly all my hundreds of hours of bought and downloaded music have been migrated to iCloud, and I have had the disastrous realisation that I have hardly any music with me on my phone. The connection is far too slow and expensive to download this music now, so I’m left bereft. The same would be true – and worse – if I was on a camping holiday, etc. When I get home, I’ll re-download my music to my phone, and will very likely unsubscribe from Apple Music.

Your article only serves to look at the frills and benefits of Apple Music and completely ignores the major disadvantage, that you could well find you have no music on your phone when you actually have time to listen to it. by mi ke a rnold

ALEX says… It’s true, we live in a connected world, and many of the Mac’s core features are starting to depend on a decent internet connection. With an Apple Music subscription there’s nothing to stop you downloading tunes to your iPhone so they can be played offline before you go on a trip.