BBC Music Magazine

I’m not a regular subscriber to the magazine but have used the app to download the magazine when the mood takes me. Last time was less than a year ago and the app worked perfectly. Downloaded the October issue and paid £6.99. Utter waste of time and money. Pages don’t load properly, pages don’t turn when swiped, crashes, in short utterly useless. This appears to be a case of trying to fix something that was never broken in the first place and ending up with an app that is unusable. Uninstalled and switching to another classical music mag. Hope the Beeb are happy about losing revenue due to this truly appalling app.

I just can’t put up with this any more. I much prefer the “magazine experience” way of reading any magazine (others I subscribe to continue to provide that alongside the newer format). The ‘web’ like format might actually be bearable if it actually worked properly. I have a relatively new (2020) iPad Pro which I use to read 4 or 5 different magazines - only the BBC Music Magazine has such a flaky interface. Unable to scroll down some pages, skipping to next page for no good reason, doesn’t remember where in the magazine I have got to. I’m sorry but unless there is a significant improvement (and a return to the magazine format) my subscription will be cancelled.

It’s a great shame that this new version of the app gives a clunky web-style version of the magazine rather than a digitised print version. It’s not an enjoyable experience at all. An outstanding magazine but this app really lets the world-class content down.

I really don’t like it at all. I find it very hard to navigate through it, and it’s nothing like reading the magazine. If I could go back to the old format, I would do so immediately.

I wanted to be fair before I cancelled my subscription as I gave loved the magazine on my IPad. So I looked at the ‘new’ redesigned version again. It’s truly ugly and a shocker. It looks like it was put together on an old Amstrad. How could someone have let this happen?

As others have mentioned, the changes indeed really ruin the user experience. I recently switched to a digital sub and I’m disappointed that reading the issues feels much like scrolling through a clunky website. The app before wasn’t perfect, but I’m sure most readers would prefer a user experience similar to reading the physical magazine, as it used to be pre-change. Please consider reverting back to the more readable older version.

The latest update is poor in comparison to the previous version of the application: the interface provides more a series of individual and rather ‘clunky’ website-like pages rather than the excellent electronic but genuine magazine feel previously experienced. As with the previous version of the app., the so-called ‘Cover CD’ is a misnomer as playback does not provide a CD experience: the tracks do not play one-after-the-other, as per a CD, they each need starting separately; and playback stops when the iPad goes into screen saver mode or if one accesses another page in the magazine. Correcting this issue is, technically, simple to achieve. I’ve noticed that the August 2021 and earlier editions in my library do, indeed, display in the previous and much better magazine format but, the so-called ‘Cover CD’ has disappeared from each of these earlier editions. This is a serious problem as all these ‘Cover CDs’ are supposedly included as part of my subscription payment and, therefore, should remain accessible contractually. LJK - subscriber

I’m afraid the loss of magazine design turns this from a pleasurable coherent read into nothing better than consulting one of many music websites. The essential essence of the magazine is lost. Similarly the presentation of the cover discs is now just the sort of random streaming you can do anywhere rather than a magazine article with associated content. There is nothing left now to justify a subscription. N

Second update: All ok, new version delivered and working. Interface is quite different, more like a tabled edition and not a copy of the magazine, but good all the same. Back to 5 stars. Update: February 2022. No digital magazine available? Last one delivered in December and I am fully subscribed. Zero help from anyone for the past 2 weeks, will reduce to 3 stars and put back up when I get a full response. A full cd worth or music is also in the digital app so it works out well worth the monthly sub, and saves on the paper No need anymore to buy the printed version.

No links to music app like Gramophone Magazine, can’t copy text to paste into Apple Music.