Artist Radio Stations...what exactly are they?

[Taustin Powers]

Say I search for "Opeth" in Apple Music. On the bottom of the search results page, there is a section called "Stations" with one result "Opeth Radio". (This works for any artist, it seems.)

What exactly is this? A list of songs picked by Opeth? A list of songs that sounds similar to Opeth? A "people who liked Opeth also liked" list of songs? Is it generated as I go and like/dislike songs?

 

[MentalFloss]

What exactly is this? A list of songs picked by Opeth? A list of songs that sounds similar to Opeth? A "people who liked Opeth also liked" list of songs? Is it generated as I go and like/dislike songs?

It will be "A list of songs that sounds similar to Opeth" and possibly "A "people who liked Opeth also liked" list of songs" (Apple probably won't reveal how they really create this playlist). So when you pick a soul artist, you will get songs from soul artists, if you pick an alternative artist, you will... well, you get the picture. I don't think that it is based on songs you like/dislike (that goes into the "For You" recommendations).

It is a little bit hit and miss. I found that for American artists and typically American genres, it works great. Really great. Wonderful way to discover other music you might like. But I picked Taro Hakase, a Japanese violinist who plays both classical and popular music, and all I got were other Japanese artists, as opposed to other pop violinists from around the world (like Lindsey Stirling). It's a bit weird to say "Oh, you seem to like Japanese music - here, have some more!" when someone likes an instrumentalist who doesn't really play "traditional" Japanese music.

 

[HunterGather]

It's like what Pandora and other services do, and play music by that artist and similar artists. You can do the same for a particular song, as well.