iPad Music App – iOS 4 Versus iOS 5

Since the release of iOS 5 one thing about the iPad Music app has become clear, people hate it.

I’ve heard many complaints, most of them have to do with the new user interface and a few missing features. The changes started with the icon itself going from an iPod icon to a music icon with iOS 5. I actually preferred the iPod icon but is a relativity small change.

Let’s compare the two different interfaces for the iPad’s Music app.

iPad iOS 4 Music App

iPad iOS 5 Music App

The top portion of the iOS 4 Music app has an iTunes like appearance to it with the round play, fast forward and rewind buttons, where iOS 5 changed the buttons to squares.

You will notice from the photos above that the sidebar is gone in iOS 5 and now to access Podcasts and Audiobooks you will need to go to the More button at the bottom right. If you do not have any Audiobooks or audio Podcasts these items will not display in the More section. That has left many people wondering where they are located. Video Podcasts are now stored in the Video app and are no longer accessible from the music app, only audio podcasts.

The Genius logo moved from the bottom left in iOS 4 to the top in iOS 5. I suppose that was to make room for the new Store button added in iOS 5. The plus button for creating playlists on the bottom left disappeared in iOS 5. You still have the option to create your own playlist you just need to go to the playlists section to do so.

One other thing to note is you must go to Settings-> Music and enter your Apple ID and password for either app to display your shared music library.

Missing Lyrics

The iOS 4 Music app allowed iPad users to view the lyrics for their music if the lyrics were saved in iTunes.

iOS 4 Music App Lyrics

Lyrics are no where to be found in iOS 5. I though this may have been just a bug because lyrics are still available on the iPhone and iPod touch with iOS 5 but they were still not added with iOS 5.0.1 for the iPad.

Here you will see that there is an option to turn the lyrics off and on in iOS 4 but the feature is missing in iOS 5.

iOS 4 Music Settings

iOS 5 Music Settings

Hopefully Apple will correct this soon because it seems strange for lyrics to work on the iPhone but not the iPad. The photo on the right shows the option to turn ON lyrics in setting on an iPhone with iOS 5. You can tell it is iOS 5 from iTunes Match being at the top and the rounded buttons.

Other Complaints

The other complaints I’m hearing involve the loss of Chaptering and the rewind 30 seconds function in Audiobooks and the ability to get more episodes of the same podcast in the Music app.

I’ll admit that I don’t listen to Audiobooks and I normally just stream Podcasts from the iTunes app on my iPad. My complaints involve the interface and missing lyrics. I still find the Music app decent but given the choice I would go back to the iOS 4 Music app.

We are interested in hearing what your thoughts are on the Music app but more importantly let Apple know.