Using Apple Music Connect

Apple Music Connect is a free part of iTunes that lets you view posts from artists you like. The artists can post updates, pictures, music and video. You can like or comment on a post. Following artists can be tricky as you've got to use the Apple Music side of iTunes, not the iTunes Store.

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. On today's episode let's take a look at using Apple Music Connect to follow your favorite artist.
So you can use Apple Music Connect on your iOS device or on your Mac. I'm going to demonstrate on the Mac here. I'm going to go into iTunes here with a demo account and I see all the different tabs at the top. I'm going to go to Connect and you see it just comes up with this screen here because I haven't done anything with Connect yet so it is giving me some artists that are examples that I can follow and I just have to click the follow button to follow them.
I don't have Apple Music on this sample account here and I want to demonstrate that you don't need to have an Apple Music subscription to use Connect. It is free to use. It is a little difficult to get into if you don't have Apple Music but we will use this as an example.
So I'll scroll through these and just as an example here I'll Follow one of the groups here and now it changes to Following. Now I can hit Go To Connect and it will jump to what the normal screen looks like for Apple Music Connect which is just updates, little posts, from those artists that I followed with information. There could be some music that I could play, just posts with some information, there could be links, all sorts of different things that they can post here that I can view. 
I can like something, I can leave a comment, I can share for all these different posts. So it is very much like using a social network but the only people that are posting are artists. You can then come in and follow and like and do other things with what they post.
The next thing you may want to do is follow more of your favorite artists. There are a lot of different ways to do this. For instance, if you've got music already stored in My Music, here I've got that default U2 album everybody has, I can go in and list by artist and under the artist's name here I have a Follow button so I could follow U2 there. I can just go through all my different artists and the ones I want to follow I can Follow.
Now when I go to Connect I should have there both Nine Inch Nails and U2. 
You may think that by going to the iTunes store and going to an artist here that you should be able to follow them. But that is not the case. You won't find a Follow button anywhere in the iTunes store. However it is in Apple Music.
Now, of course, if you don't have Apple Music in this example here. So how do you find things? Well you can go to New, under Apple Music, For You and New are both Apple Music things. You can search. So let me search for an artist. I will go to their Apple Music page even though I don't have Apple Music. I can't play any of this stuff. I can look at the top results here. Now I'm at the Apple Music, not the iTunes Store page for the artist.
There, sure enough, is a Follow button. Now I've got Lana Del Rey also added among all the other artists I've got in Connect. I can go and search for any artist I want by starting with New, do a search, and then go to their artist page and click the Follow button.
Another way you can follow artists is if you click on your account information here, there is my little sample account, I can go and click on my name. I can add a nickname that I use when I post. It is kind of like a Twitter name or something like that. Then when I post comments I will have that name. 
I also have this Automatically Follow Artists checked so as I add artists from Apple Music I will automatically start following them in Apple Music Connect. Since I am not an Apple Music subscriber in this sample account then that won't ever happen. But in my regular account, if I have that checked, every time I add an artist they will add to Connect.
Unfollowing an artist is pretty easy. All you need to do is in Connect just click on their name and you will go to their artist's page and you then when you roll over the Following button you can Unfollow. Now note that unfollowing means you no longer get new posts from that artist but you will still have the current posts. So all the old posts won't disappear. You just won't see anything new appear from that artist.
Now in addition to artists you can also follow the DJ's on Beats 1 radio. So you can go into Radio, click on Beats 1 and you can see the featured show. So you can go say to Abstract Radio here and you can see there is a Follow and Unfollow there so you can add that as well. It will mix in with the artists and you can actually, in those stations, jump right to the Connect stuff and see what they've posted to Connect just for that one DJ.
Now how much back and forth there is really going to be between the artist and the audience really depends on the artist and how involved they want to get and how big their audience is of course whether it is manageable or not for them. But so far there seems to be some amount of back and forth. At least the posting of new and interesting materials. Apple seems to be encouraging that from artists and Apple has a lot of clout through iTunes and Apple Music now. So certainly artists want to pay attention to that and they want to be able to promote themselves through Apple Music Connect. So it is kind of worth it for us as fans to at least see what they've got to say.

Comments: 9 Responses to “Using Apple Music Connect”

Ertugrul

8 years ago

A question: I have no options on iTunes main page like yours, such as "For you", "New", "Radio" and "Coonect". The titles I have are "My Music", "Playlists" and "iTunes Store". Is there any way to have them all? Regards...

Gary Rosenzweig

Which version of OS X are you using and which version of iTunes. You need the latest of both since Apple Music is very new.

OS X Yosemite 10.10.5
MBP 13, late 2011
iTunes 12.2.2.25

Did you by any chance turn off Apple Music? iTunes, Preferences, General, Show Apple Music.
Another possibility is that you are in a country where Apple Music is not available. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204956

Thank for your interest and quick reply Gary,
Now it is obvious that Apple Music is not an option in my country, except iTunes Match (only). But I don't know what is iTunes Match either... Regards

dick Engel

I subscribed to Mac Music free 3 month trial. How do I unsubscribe before the end of the 3 month trial period before Apple starts charging me monthly in October???

In iTunes on your Mac, choose Store, View Account. Then sign in. Then look under settings for Manage Subscriptions.

JoAnn Weisel

Hi Gary, Is there anyplace I can get info on the new ITunes? I'm having a terrible time figuring the new one out.
Thank you

I've done this video, and a previous one on Apple Music (http://macmost.com/apple-music-basics.html). What sort of problems are you having?

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Using Apple Music Connect

Comments: 9 Responses to “Using Apple Music Connect”

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