I have been using Apple Music since the service launched in Russia. The ability to listen to any tracks from the huge iTunes database is simply super.
But the main feature of the music service, recommending new tracks that I might like, works very poorly.
After years of trying to tame her with likes and dislikes, I gave up. And I tried Yandex.Music.
After all, access to the service is actually given as a gift for subscribing to Yandex.Plus. Two months have passed since then, and today I can confidently say one thing.
Yandex.Music rules . Place your bet, guys.
How to manage Yandex.Station from your phone
Try controlling playback without Bluetooth connection
A feature that is very convenient to use even without connecting your iPhone to Yandex.Station via Bluetooth. If you ask Alice to play a track, then you can manage the playlist directly from your phone by going to Yandex.Music - you will immediately see the screen that is playing now. This greatly simplifies navigation through the library and finding the tracks you need without connecting to a smart speaker. On my Yandex.Station Light in conjunction with an iPhone, this function works with a slight delay and lags, but the developers should be praised for the very attempt at implementation.
Enabling the control is very simple, just like disabling the function.
- Disconnect from Yandex.Station if you previously connected via Bluetooth.
- In the Yandex.Music settings, turn on the “Music continues” slider.
- Scroll down and select the device you want by toggling the slider.
- Exit the application and ask Alice to play the song.
- Go to Yandex.Music: you will see that at the bottom there is a line with the name of the track that is playing.
- Open this screen and control playback.
Enable control of Yandex.Station without Bluetooth
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The feature has some lag and lag, but it's an interesting experience. If you get tired, you can disable it:
- Click on the "devices" icon in the top right corner.
- Select "This Phone" or "AirPlay & Bluetooth" if you just want to connect to the speaker.
This way you can connect to Yandex.Station without Bluetooth
Something to remember: the coolest Apple features in recent times
Through which application to listen to music on iPhone, what should I choose?
The standard iTunes add-on cannot always satisfy all user needs, so you may need an additional utility to listen to music. In this case, you should pay attention to the Vox player, which has a nice design and excellent functionality.
You can also replace the standard player with the program:
- Music Cloud. This is a functional player that can synchronize with the cloud and the Apple Music library. It has everything you need: an equalizer, automatic generation of playlists, display of song lyrics, visual accompaniment, etc.
- SoundCloud. The utility has an attractive design, no advertising and convenient sorting of songs. The only drawback that can complicate working with SoundCloud is the English-language interface.
Other top iPhone apps include iMusic, Listen, Audissey, and Flac Player+.
Comparison table of music apps for iPhone:
| Application | Price | Functions and features |
| MusiXmatch | 269₽ | -viewing song lyrics -song recognition -translation of song lyrics -karaoke mode |
| Shazam | For free | -song recognition -viewing song lyrics -importing songs into the player |
| Yandex.Music | 169₽ | -listening to tracks -viewing song lyrics -smart recommendations |
| SoundCloud | 379₽ | - offline music - podcasts for every taste - ready-made playlists |
| In contact with | 149₽ | -free listening -podcasts and clips -ready-made collections |
| Genius | For free | -viewing song lyrics -song recognition -translation of song lyrics |
| Tuneln Radio | 329₽ | -Communication -Listening to the radio -Broadcasting |
| Hype Machine | For free | -free listening -ready selections -Popular new products |
| 8Tracks | $9.99 | - ready-made playlists - many remixes - recommendations |
| Songkick Concerts | For free | -music from different applications -concert calendar |
| Vox | 349₽ | -iTunes library -offline music -personal collection |
What you don’t like about Yandex.Music (so far)
Two obvious weaknesses of Yandex.Music for an Apple Music user are the number of tracks in the database and integration into iOS.
There are fewer tracks in Yandex.Music than in Apple Music. Yes, this is an indisputable fact. I didn’t find current data on the service for 2018, but in mid-2017 there were 30 million tracks versus Apple’s 40 million tracks.
From experience, in Yandex it is more difficult to find songs of completely unpopular, new and “non-hype” groups - there may be remixes or collabs, but not the albums themselves. However, this is not the rule, but more often the exception. I regularly find 8 out of 10 songs that exist in Apple Music in Yandex.
There is also a strange topic: sometimes Yandex has a Live version of an artist’s album, but there is no regular version. Perhaps this is a mistake by the curators, but I noticed it more than twice - which means it already looks like a pattern.
Integration into the Apple ecosystem is inferior to Apple Music. Well, there's nothing new here. If you are used to launching standard “Music” in iOS, you will have to relearn or swap the icons. More annoying is the inability to use Yandex.Music on Apple Watch.
The situation with HomePod is better: in playback mode with an iPhone as a source, everything works, but there is a strange delay of 2-3 seconds when switching tracks.
I was also very surprised by the lack of a native application for macOS. However, this can be solved simply: as I already mentioned, Yandex has a web version. You open any browser, log in and listen. You just can’t download it, which is expected.
