I stream my music collection from the internet on my watch and it’s instant. I don’t know why you are trying to follow a pattern from 1995 and wondering why we don’t do that anymore.
One of the selling points of the Apple Watch is being able to use it (though not own it since it needs an iPhone at some point) in isolation. Having to stream content isn't always an option or isn't the best option. I use mine on my runs, but it has no cellular data of its own so I downloaded music and audiobooks to it. Even if it did have cellular data, streaming the music would drain the battery even faster since I'd be using every capability: health stat monitoring, bluetooth, GPS, and cellular data.
A lot of snark for someone who's trying to use what many considered a core scenario of the non-cellular Apple Watch... listening to music without your phone. Even my iPod from 2003 synced music more reliably than an Apple Watch. It's definitely one of the most frustrating experience with an Apple product I've had.
If Apple didn't expect users to use this feature then they shouldn't have released it (or advertised it at WWDC no less) in the first place. It's like selling a manual transmission car with a broken clutch and then complaining that nobody uses clutches anymore, who cares if the clutch is broken?
Not everyone is like you. I do not stream my music. My phone does not even have mobile data plan. I have hard copy. Since my phone has high capacity SD card all my music fits though. I just play it on random using foobar2000.
> I do not stream my music. My phone does not even have mobile data plan. I have hard copy. Since my phone has high capacity SD card all my music fits though. I just play it on random using foobar2000.
...though sounds like probably more people are like birdyrooster than like you.
Okay this was too snarky and if I could flag my own post I would. I need to be more thoughtful about what I post. Sorry to people who sync their music.