Apple Stock AI Boom: iPhone Sales Soar!

The State of Apple Music on Mac: A Mixed Bag of Issues and Opportunities

The native macOS Apple Music app is plagued by issues like a messy UI, random song interruptions, erratic warnings, and AirPlay failures. These issues don’t seem to be an issue on the iPhone or iPad versions of Apple Music, which suggests Apple needs to put some serious work into bringing the Mac app up to scratch.

UI Issues and Inconsistent Experience

The UI is a mess. The native macOS Apple Music app is, at best, unpredictable. I feel like I’m constantly having to coax it into doing what I want, as the interface works against me. This is not the experience I have when I’m using the service on my iPhone (even when interacting via CarPlay).

At the heart of the problem is a “two libraries” approach that feels like two sides of the app working against one another. You’ve got your library or all the music you’ve added to your collection, and the broader Apple Music library. Which one shows up when you click on an artist’s name feels like rolling a dice.

Let’s say I pick an album recommended to me on the “Home” tab from a section titled “1990s” and, in order to see more releases from that artist, I click on the artist’s name. I get taken to the wider Apple Music page, with all of the artist’s available releases listed (which is exactly what I think should happen).

But let’s say I use the “Recently Played” section of the same “Home” tab to pick an album I listened to earlier in the day. I click on the artist’s name to see more but this time I’m taken to my own personal library. There are no new releases or playlists to choose from, only the albums I have already added.

From here I have to click the “…” ellipse button next to the artist name and choose “Show in Apple Music” to find things not in my library. This might sound trivial, but it’s frustrating.

On the iPhone, the exact same operation takes me to the main artist Apple Music catalog.

Ultimately, this leads to me trying to “head off” this behavior by relying way too much on the right-click (Control+click) context menu. Even there, you have three options: Show in Apple Music, Show in Library, and Show in iTunes Store. It feels clumsy and unintuitive.

Music Spontaneously Goes Silent

I’ve been experiencing a weird bug where music randomly drops out and goes silent for a few years now, but it only happens on my Mac. The problem seems to be well-documented with Reddit threads describing the issue that go back to 2022.

This can happen without warning in the middle of a track, but more likely happens when the track changes. It’s not related to an external output, since it affects both AirPlay devices and my MacBook’s internal speakers.

Most frustrating of all, the track keeps playing. The playhead moves as if everything is working fine, which means you’re “listening” to music you can’t actually hear. This is particularly egregious with long tracks since you can miss a lot of the action while you’re distracted.

The AI Advantage: How DeepSeek May Not Be a Direct Threat

Big Tech companies are spending big on artificial intelligence (AI), with Amazon set to spend more than $100 billion in capital expenditures in 2025. However, this may not necessarily translate to direct competition in the consumer space.

Big Tech’s AI Spending

Faisal Hoque, author of Transcend, notes that the market may be conflating consumer and enterprise applications of AI. This means that while Big Tech companies may be developing AI solutions for enterprise use cases, these may not necessarily be adopted by consumers.

“The larger business tech companies’ business models are enterprise; it’s not necessarily just consumer [products],” he explains. “When you look at tech like DeepSeek and the things that are coming out in the market, the enterprises are not going to adopt those kinds of technology and this whole kind of sort of risk associated with it.”

“I’m not surprised at all that Amazon or Microsoft or any other Big Tech are spending more money to gear up their infrastructure and their models so that they can be utilized in a secure environment in an enterprise setting.”

The use of AI in Apple’s ecosystem, including the Apple Music app, may not be a direct threat to competitors like DeepSeek. Instead, it could be a key factor in Apple’s ability to provide a seamless and personalized experience for users.

The Shure MV7+ Review: A Refinement of an Industry-Leading Mic

The Shure MV7+ is a refinement of the successful MV7, with minor but welcome improvements. However, the new mic does not present a sufficient enough departure from its predecessor to warrant an upgrade for most users.

A Refinement of an Industry-Leading Mic

I was happy — excited, even — to check out Shure’s latest USB microphone. Its predecessor, the MV7, has been my default podcasting mic since it was launched toward the end of 2020.

If you’re looking for a desktop microphone for podcasts or streaming and don’t mind investing a bit of cash, but don’t want to bother with a separate audio interface (mind you, there’s also XLR on-board, if that’s your thing), you’d be hard-pressed to beat the MV7 — until now, that is.

As the name suggests, Shure’s MV7+ doesn’t represent a massive departure from its predecessor. If you’ve asked me at some point over the past year and a half to recommend a USB mic, I likely suggested its predecessor.

More than anything, the MV7+ is the refinement of an industry-leading mic.

A Glaring Oversight: The Lack of USB-C

I was frankly a bit surprised when Shure reached out to offer the new microphone for review. It’s a (relatively) fast follow-up to a well-received product.

That’s not to say the MV7 didn’t have its shortcomings, of course. In fact, there was one glaring issue about the product. It’s the first question I asked the company when it told me the new product was coming.

Yes, the MV7+ has USB-C. It was, frankly, bizarre that a $300 or so device released at the end of 2022 didn’t.

With day-to-day use, this oversight was more of an annoyance. But the longer I used the product as my daily driver, the more pronounced the issue became.

I am my own podcast producer. This generally doesn’t present a huge issue for the shows I record, but every so often, something will happen to the sound quality and I won’t be able to respond in real time, as I’m too focused on the conversation.

It took me a bit to realize why my audio quality suddenly went on the fritz for a few episodes. Turns out the micro-USB cable was coming loose.

Upon closer inspection, the cord was beginning to split at the connector. I invested in a longer, braided micro- to USB-C cable to fix the issue, but the damage had already been done for those episodes.

Looking online, it appears I’m not the only person to have that issue.

I haven’t had any accidental unplugs with the MV7+ — though, granted, I’ve only been using the microphone for a couple of weeks at this point.

That said, USB-C cables are, as a rule, more robust and durable than their predecessors and generally more up for the sorts of wear and tear you’ll put a cord through when attached to something like a swiveling mic arm.

Of course, if robustness is your only concern, both systems also support XLR cables, for those who want to take an extra step beyond plug and play functionality.

As for sound, I’ve been quite pleased with the MV7+. I unintentionally put the mic through the ultimate test last week, when I had producer Don Was on my show.