ISSUE:

The problem is with Apple® CarPlay, in that ever since iOS 10 & iOS 11, the Music Rating Button went missing. Even after 2 years of repeated feedback reports, Senior Advisor Calls, and even a conversation with Corporate Executive Relations, nothing has been done to resolve that issue other than to tell me that it’s a known issue; a bug. If it takes apple more than 2 years to resolve a silly bug, then I think Apple has bigger problems.

You also have to consider the technical facts here to that will paint a whole different picture about it no longer working and Apple's silence in not fixing this issue. It is very interesting that the “3 dotted” rating button on the CarPlay will actually show up IF .. (1) that music is from your music library on your iPhone that was downloaded from the iTunes Store and has DRM Protection (ACC Protected Audio), or (2) if it is streamed from Apple Music.

Though, if you play any music that doesn’t have DRM protection, such as a previous download song from iTunes that originally had DRM but your converted it to another bit-rate which would remove it, (2) you imported 3rd party music to your iPhone (CD / Online / ect..) Then the “3 dotted” music rating button will NOT show up on your CarPlay Music Screen (aka Now Playing)

When you look at the deeper facts, it is less likely its a bug and “more likely” its just another one of Apple’s silent promotion tactics to pull users to their Apple Music service. Given that the feature now only works with Apples Music .. Hmmmmmm.

IMPACT:

The impact that has come from the disappearance of this feature has made trying to rating music very dangerous and immensely inconvenient. When iOS 10 was around and this feature still worked it only took me 1 .. 2 .. Done (less then 3 seconds to rate my music and go back to focusing on what was important “The road”.

While currently with it not working anymore, since the music rating feature no longer supports my 3rd-party music which makes up 95% off my iPhone music library, I have to (1) unlock my phone, which FaceID will fail (2) wait and use the keypad (3) open music app (4) open playing song (5) scroll down to rating button (6) press button and open menu (7) rate my music … That is 7 steps that takes me a recorded 29.10 Seconds to complete!! When I used to be able to rate my music while driving, and was safe to do then, now with it gone as you can see above it has become dangerous to rate your music. This needs to be fixed, since Consumers desire to want to rate their songs is not going anywhere, and not fair to put their lives at risk with a feature that no longer works.

I think it's well know that having the "music rating" feature at all times made a huge impact on they way we all experienced our music and how we viewed Apple CarPlay, it really made how we interacting and felt about our music fast, convenient, and safe; overall satisfying.

SOLUTION:

To fully resolve the issue and the impact it has on anyone using their music with Apple® CarPlay, the Music Rating Button would have to be restored for 3rd-party Music (Non-DRM music) and all File types (MP3 / ACC Audio File / FLAC / ect...)