How Apple Music's Liking System Works to Customize 'For You' Recommendations

[esaruoho]

Apple needs better "experts" I've never skipped so many songs on any other music service. Both the UI and song selection is frustrating. Eventually I just gave up and went back to Pandora.

Yeah, how about that Future Garage mix on my For You. I actually sent it to two mates going "fook this is brilliant, I can't wait", then listened to it and skipped every single track, all of it was garbage, and NONE of it had ANYTHING to do with Future Garage, which is very close to skittery skattery 2-step uk garage type stuff with massive shuffles and slinky grooves. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, was so disappointed.

 

[esaruoho]

It is pretty clear several people think apple should indeed to read their minds.

A thought occurred. So, let's say you're a big fan of Squarepusher, and have all his LPs on your iTunes. Then your "For You" sends you an "Introduction to Squarepusher". Instead of yammering on and on and on about how crap that is, since you already like Squarepusher - look at it for what it is:

It's trying to give you a playlist you can send to some friend of yours who you want to like Squarepusher, who you want to introduce to Squarepusher.

Right?!

 

[esaruoho]

It looks like "For You" and "Like" might just be Apple marketing tactics in disguise, pushing certain sponsored "star" artists down our throats. Remember U2?

What really made me feel like puking was when Apple Music Connect suddenly started showing me U2.
Even after I _expressly_ used the Apple-made U2 removal app to remove it from my iCloud & everywhere!

Why would I be forced to watch their "Another Irish boyband" posts after I expressly removed them..?!?!

 

[esaruoho]

I don't have "I don't like this suggestion" on my iPad Mini. Isn't that an iOS device? What the hell?

I wish I had "I don't like this suggestion" on my OSX. Because For You just recommended me "Madonna: Like a Prayer". Like I care about that stuff.

Actually, maybe I should skip through the album and see what it's like as a cohesive whole. But I don't know why I have to go and unlike things on my iPhone when I can very well dislike stuff on iTunes on OSX.

 

[2IS]

It is pretty clear several people think apple should indeed to read their minds.

Pandora seems to do a pretty good job of it. Besides, Apple has no intention of reading minds and giving you what you want. They're all about assimilation.

Either way, I've given up on the complete mess that is iTunes Radio/Apple Music, especially after my stations were deleted after I signed up for the Apple Music trial period.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

I wish I had "I don't like this suggestion" on my OSX. Because For You just recommended me "Madonna: Like a Prayer". Like I care about that stuff.

Actually, maybe I should skip through the album and see what it's like as a cohesive whole. But I don't know why I have to go and unlike things on my iPhone when I can very well dislike stuff on iTunes on OSX.

Like a Prayer is a good album.

Those were the days when Madonna was worth listening to.

 

[Jstuts5797]

I've got great news for you then, because "create radio station based on song" or "create radio station based on artist" does not actually work, at least for me, here in Finland. does it work for anyone else?

This has to either be a bug or due to license/legal issues in your country. It works just fine for me.

 

[Keirasplace]

Spotify: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"

More seriously, I'll stick to my Spotify Premium subscription, its a lot more stable for the time being, thats not to say Apple Music is bad, I like the overall design (I do dig the bubbles ) but I've got a soft spot for the underdog. With the pile of cash they're sitting on they can keep operating this thing for centuries without profits taking a hit, its not exactly eye level competition.
People say it integrates into the Apple eco system, I fail to see how this matters. Spotify keeps me synced across all my devices, not sure why I would need more integration. I don't have an Apple Watch yet, but I'm sure a Spotify app is underway.

Kudos to Apple for fixing my car interface tho, I've been having all sorts of issues with my Iphone connected to my Hyundai i20, at least thats been taken care of in 8.4.

Spotify will be massively affected within the year that is a certainty; it will not die but its growth will be curtailed, which for a tech company is very bad. Apple will learn fast from its slight mistake and it will only get worse for Spotify.

 

[macUser2007]

I've been comparing Apple Music to Google Music over the weekend and so far, Apple Music largely fails. Just like Beats did.

--- First I tried creating a new station from Wondering Star by Portishead.

Google Music created it without a problem. Apple Music has the Dummy album, but Wondering Star and two other songs are grayed out, so it failed to create a station.

Then I tried creating a station from the track Mysterons in the same album. For my taste, Google Music selected a much better playlist than Apple Music. Apple Music tends to be much more pop-rap/pop-soul than what I expected, and this applies across the board in my tests.

--- Then I tried creating a station from London in the Rain by Variety Lab, which is on one of the old Hotel Costes albums. Google Music created a list which was relatively varied, but Apple Music started playing tracks mostly from the Hotel Costes albums, with the occasional pop addition, some of which were kind of random.

--- Finally, I tried creating a station from the song Angel by Weekend Players. This time, Apple Music simply did not have it (Google Music did). When I tried creating a station from the artist Weekend Players instead, Apple Music started playing mostly random techno dance songs, while Google Music actually got closer to what I was looking for.

Apple's UI also makes it harder to vote down a song.

Neither algorithm is as good as Pandora's, which has by far the best taste-matching scheme for its stations, in my experience.

Google Music, which is what I switched to after trying the seriously cr@ppy Beats service, is significantly better than Apple Music, for the same price and with a lot more videos, too.

Apple Music just sucks at this point (and I've never been a great fan of Spotify).

 

[Jstuts5797]

http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-offers-ibook-user-guides-to-help-you-with-ios-8-4/

This may help a LOT of people

 

[jicon]

Well I don't know... I thought I mastered how to add a song to 'My Music' in iTunes, and download, but the option isn't coming up for a NIN song on the Still album. Ironically, I can add all of the album except for the one song I want.... called 'Something I Can Never Have'. I don't know if Trent is being ironic.

 

[Yumbo]

Well I don't know... I thought I mastered how to add a song to 'My Music' in iTunes, and download, but the option isn't coming up for a NIN song on the Still album. Ironically, I can add all of the album except for the one song I want.... called 'Something I Can Never Have'. I don't know if Trent is being ironic.

Works for me.

 

[adamtore]

Forstall needs to be fired, again!

 

[cdpage]

ok so it's not just me, it seems the "play less like this" doesn't work in iTunes on the MAC. it's only on the iphone.

Can anyone else seem to get this to work on the computer?

it's too new to find results for this yet i guess.

 

[cdpage]

Apple Music in iTunes actually DOES have both the heart and the star. I'm using right now. Although, it seems like you have to be in mini-player mode to see the star feature. Yes, you do, I just checked.

but the Star is broken it seems. There is no Play less like this option. you can only ad to music or add to wish list.

 

[jicon]

Works for me.

Figured out an alternate way. Every other song on the album works fine. Not a nice find... On my iPod, it had mislabeled an already existing song with the same name, different album (Natural Born Killers) with the different album art. If I deleted the Natural Born Killers version then it could add the different song from Apple Music... though only if I added to a playlist.

 

[I.B.]

Press and hold on the suggested playlist or album on For You tab and the context menu containing this option will show up. I know, very intuitive.

I just updated to IOS 9.0 and noticed this option ("I don't like this suggestion") only works for Playlists and not Albums in the "For You" Section. It could be a bug or intentional not sure.

 

[KisonBY]

I just updated to IOS 9.0 and noticed this option ("I don't like this suggestion") only works for Playlists and not Albums in the "For You" Section. It could be a bug or intentional not sure.

Yep, same for me - no pop-up menu of any kind for albums now. Hopefully a bug that will get fixed.