Tim Hardwick for MacRumors:

Details about the upcoming Apple Music redesign have been shared by 9to5Mac. It is said to feature a “bolder, yet simpler” design that puts an emphasis on black and white backgrounds and text and more of a focus on album art. The “New” tab in Apple Music is being replaced with a “Browse” option with better organizational tools for finding new content, and Apple will encourage users to use a simplified “For You” section.

Connect, Apple Music’s artist-focused social network, will remain unchanged, as will Beats 1 Radio.

Judging from what we’ve heard about it, this seems like more of a handful of UX changes than a full overhaul but considering the fact that Apple Music has gone almost a year without any major changes, this seems like it’ll go a long way in fixing some of the initial shortcomings. Washing out the colours, cleaning up the interface, and reorganizing the tabs and information (not unlike the rumoured Instagram app changes that are incoming) will go a long way to making the service closer to some of simpler ones such as Google Play Music.

I’ve always liked the idea of having my music deeply integrated into my iPhone and iPad but the confusing way everything is organized and the fragmented system of local and cloud music just doesn’t work for me. Play Music’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” playlists, and simple interface won me over long ago. I’m interested to see if Apple can win me and others back.

Micah Singleton for The Verge:

Let’s lay out just how large the head start its competitors have. Apple Music is essentially in fourth place, miles behind Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube, and all the companies ahead of Apple are only getting bigger and better. Pandora, which has 78 million active users, just bought Rdio and has plans to launch an on-demand service late next year, giving its users an in-house option and push it into direct competition with Apple Music.

We live in a world where 6.5 million paying subscribers is considered a “failure”. The service isn’t perfect, sure, but it’s far from terrible. For the millions of people out there with iPhones that are looking for the easiest way to listen to music, it’s right there in front of them and it’s only going to get better.

It doesn’t take Spotify losing for Apple Music to be considered a success. It’ll be improved over time and will likely attract and lose users as most other services do. At five months, I think it’s a little early to consider it a non-contender.