in iOS7 I was able to set the MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.nowPlayingInfo with the standard stuff (making sure I had an AVAudioSession, with the category AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback). Everything worked fine. Now with the update to iOS8, the information gets flashed on the screen and then resets to nothing. (The exception is when I first start playing the audio file, and set the data, then lock. If I don't touch anything, then the information stays on screen). I store a dictionary with all the key/values that the info center requires, and see that they contain the correct values when any changes need to be applied (eg if the user taps play/pause, skip buttons).
edit: if I take out my code that updates the info center after play or pause are tapped, the info center is cleared regardless (and I don't have any code that does that). I've gotten around this by dispatch_after with a 200ms delay to adjust the playback rate in the info center. This adds back in everything, however the fact that it's clearing it seems to be a new ios8 bug that I am not properly handling. This is on an iPad 2. :@