Are the music apps going to improve?

[Donald Stanfield]

I must be in the minority here but I feel the music apps HAVE gotten better since Sept ‘22 when I got my R1T. Especially the addition of Apple Music and Atmos support. It’s the best vehicle sound stage I have.

Sponsored

 

[RedRaiderRivian]

I must be in the minority here but I feel the music apps HAVE gotten better since Sept ‘22 when I got my R1T. Especially the addition of Apple Music and Atmos support. It’s the best vehicle sound stage I have.

I agree that music overall has gotten much better in my Rivian. I only use Amazon Music but the reliability and sound quality have improved dramatically since my 22 months of ownership.

 

[jemkewl]

"apps" - that's honestly laughable.
It is a bit absurd for Rivian to think they can develop a better app than Amazon, Apple, tidal, etc. with the APIs those companies make available and then keep it up to date. And the results speak for themselves.
To be clear, Rivian is free to do whatever they want... And they should be able to create a great "app" for the hardware, software, and features they control. However, thinking that they can provide a music app for Amazon better than Amazon (replace Amazon accordingly) is not grounded in the engineering prowess they claim to use as their differentiation.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

The latest update literally has a list of improvements for Apple Music (see below). The first bullet point is the biggest issue IMO.

One improvement I would like to see is the ability to cache music either in the infotainment system itself or on a USB drive. When I lose ATT, I lose music. Normally, on my iPhone, I have all my music playlists downloaded so I can still listen when I’m deep in the Rocky Mountains.

• Apple Music improvements
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Apple Music from resuming following a wake from sleep.
  • The Explicit icon is now displayed in Show More view and Artist view.
  • A subtitle for content is now displayed in Show More and Artist view.
  • Fixed an issue that displayed an incorrect message of “no media here” as you typed in the Search bar.
  • Added a message to indicate that no content was found if there are no results for a search.

All that said, I do think Rivian is failing to provide enough value to justify Connect+.. I’ll subscribe this year but I will not renew unless I see some significant improvements.

 

[agentfive]

I would love to have the audio stay when you switch to another app and then when you hit something new switch to that apps audio. I hate that it cuts out while you switch.

 

[KRG]

That 'Atmos' is purely marketing garbage. It is Atmos in the same way that 2.0 channel Dolby Digital is Dolby Surround...
Atmos for headphones is not object based, multichannel, or lossless like real Atmos TrueHD.

As for Audible, you are right. It also supports Atmos.

Maybe slapping the name Atmos on it is marketing garbage, but it certainly makes a difference for some music. It’s also cool and creates a better experience for movies. True Atmos? Perhaps not, but still very impressive for headphones.

 

[KRG]

I must be in the minority here but I feel the music apps HAVE gotten better since Sept ‘22 when I got my R1T. Especially the addition of Apple Music and Atmos support. It’s the best vehicle sound stage I have.

I agree. I think it sounds fantastic now. All my friends with high end vehicles have enjoyed truck’s sound system and audio UI recently too. I think most people are happy, forums just skew toward complaints.

The first iteration of Apple Music was very buggy (was in Teslas also when it launched) but the current version is pretty good! I’m an Apple Music and Audible user so I’m pretty happy with the additions and both supporting Atmos.

 

[True Brit]

Why can't I load MY music onto my USB drive plug it in and enjoy it? I would have high bit-rate fantastic quality sound and not have to wait for streaming or the loss of sound quality.

This was touted to be an "adventure vehicle." As such, when I go off-road without cell coverage let me listen to my music RJ. Is this a novel idea? Bloody hell, other manufacturers have this available to owners for over 10 years so it can't be that hard to implement.

Is it just that he gets a kickback from the subscriptions?

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I agree. I think it sounds fantastic now. All my friends with high end vehicles have enjoyed truck’s sound system and audio UI recently too. I think most people are happy, forums just skew toward complaints.

The first iteration of Apple Music was very buggy (was in Teslas also when it launched) but the current version is pretty good! I’m an Apple Music and Audible user so I’m pretty happy with the additions and both supporting Atmos.

Compared to my wife's '24 BMW with the premium sound the BMW is not even in the same league. I guess Tesla is the benchmark many of the complainers are comparing against, and I've never tested the sound out in one to know for sure.

 

[E_Monkey]

I use TuneIn primarily and the app is pretty lousy. It has very few settings, doesn't automatically start playing again when interrupted by phone, etc and lately (update) has been dropping out excessively.
Spotify performs slightly better, but lacks SO many features. It's downright dangerous to try to do anything but let it run through a playlist whilst driving.
I'm an anti-Apple guy, so I don't use Apple Music, but from all the reports here it sounds like that app is terrible.
I don't mind paying the upcoming $15/ month charge for data, but if it's to use these terribly implemented apps, I'll likely just decline out of principle and suffer through the crappy sound of bluetooth through my phone.

I don’t get the hate on Apple Music. 2024 R1T and the app works well, I like the GUI, it’s snappy, syncs with my account efficiently and Dolby Atmos music sounds very good.

I do have good audio Speakers and DAC at the house it can’t be as good as that though it is solid in the Rivian. Sure room gor improvement but folks forget the Rivian is not a luxury vehicle. My biggest wish which won’t come is proper SiriusXM satellite radio and USB tether to play my lossless music from phone or player without compression.

 

[teartags]

I must be in the minority here but I feel the music apps HAVE gotten better since Sept ‘22 when I got my R1T. Especially the addition of Apple Music and Atmos support. It’s the best vehicle sound stage I have.

I'm not knocking the sound. It's not the best I've ever heard, but I'm certainly happy with it.
It's the janky apps that need work.

 

[bfilippo]

For what it’s worth, Tesla is dropping TuneIn, got a message on my app for our Model Y today.

Owning both now, I think Tesla has a major leg up in apps and quality of sound, but that’s many many years and iterations later. I have to imagine Rivian will get there, and having been in a few other EV’s lately (Ford, VW), the UI is still 10x better in Rivian!

 

[beatle]

The latest update literally has a list of improvements for Apple Music (see below). The first bullet point is the biggest issue IMO.

----

Apple Music improvements

• Fixed an issue that prevented Apple Music from resuming following a wake from sleep

I had great hopes for this update, but it still doesn't work well. It has never resumed playing for me without input, and if it does resume after hitting play, it often just skips to the next song instead of resuming the current one. You also can't use voice commands to call up Apple Music which makes for a pretty distracting experience when you're not just listening to a playlist or choosing one of the few options on the home screen. Spotify (or presumably Amazon Music) don't have this limitation.

The sound quality is better than Spotify - at least for Atmos tracks, but Apple Music is still too infuriating to use and unreliable.

I will say in Rivian's defense that using the Apple Music app on my desktop is also unreliable - and this is after getting over the giant "authorization" hurdle.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

I had great hopes for this update, but it still doesn't work well. It has never resumed playing for me without input, and if it does resume after hitting play, it often just skips to the next song instead of resuming the current one. You also can't use voice commands to call up Apple Music which makes for a pretty distracting experience when you're not just listening to a playlist or choosing one of the few options on the home screen. Spotify (or presumably Amazon Music) don't have this limitation.

The sound quality is better than Spotify - at least for Atmos tracks, but Apple Music is still too infuriating to use and unreliable.

I will say in Rivian's defense that using the Apple Music app on my desktop is also unreliable - and this is after getting over the giant "authorization" hurdle.

I've had the opposite experience, so far, with the 1st issue. Tracks have been playing from the beginning when my R1T wakes from sleep. The only time it didn't was yesterday but I found out the Boulder area had been suffering from an AT&T outage (along side the Verizon outage).

I'm going out in a bit, so I'll see if it's working properly again..

Your desktop experience is interesting. I've never had an issue with Apple Music on my Mac.

 

[beatle]

I don't use a Mac. I guess Apple doesn't really want my money.

Sponsored