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Issues with "For You" section of Apple Music displaying music that has nothing to do with my music

M

Matth3w

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 24, 2008
160
12
So I don't listen to ANYTHING but EDM (Electronic Dance Music). I have some pop stars that are remixed into EDM, like Ellie Goulding and a few others. I don't even own music that isn't EDM. The problem is, EDM, from the iTunes store, is often classified as "dance" genre (sometimes electronic, but usually dance). Unfortunately, a ton of other artists that I consider absolute garbage (just my opinion, not saying they are to everyone) like Rihanna, Ne-Yo, and blah blah are also classified dance. I have "hearted" or "loved" every. single. song. in my EDM album. Mostly artists such as Armin van Buuren, Tiesto, Zedd, Avicii, Guetta, Alesso, Mitis, Sound Remedy, Seven Lions, Nero, Calvin Harris, and Minnesota. Just to name a few. Also the ONLY two bubbles I even have (the rest I long pressed to delete completely) are Dance and Electronic. Nothing else.

However, allow me to share with you the suggestions from my "For You" section:

- Britney Spears

- Jay Z

- Tim McGraw

- Sara Bareilles

- Daughtry

- Jason Derulo

- Wiz Khalifa

- Nicki Minaj

- Janet Jackson

To name a few. How do I get these artists that I consider garbage out of my "For You"? I recognize that the issue isn't completely with Apple Music. It's unfortunate that "Beyonce" is considered the same dance genre as "Calvin Harris". But there has to be more weight to the fact that all the songs I listen to, own, buy, and "heart/love" are all EDM.

Also, the "hearts" on my phone, despite being logged in to the same iTunes account, don't appear to be hearted in my iTunes on my computer. Don't they sync???
 
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I have the same issues as you. "Heart-ing" songs really doesn't make a difference because I keep getting the same crap recommendations that you're getting. It's like constant visual advertising which I don't want to see. My mobile devices don't seem to sync with my desktop PC in regards to "Heart-ing" things either. I have iCloud activated on everything.

It won't take me 3 months to decide what I want to do when my trial is over. Besides, I've recently taken the time to delve deeper into SoundCloud and I'm enjoying that much more and it's free. I can follow all my favorite DJ's/Artists, listen to their latest releases, and build my own playlists.
 
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LaurieAnn said:
I have the same issues as you. "Heart-ing" songs really doesn't make a difference because I keep getting the same crap recommendations that you're getting. It's like constant visual advertising which I don't want to see. My mobile devices don't seem to sync with my desktop PC in regards to "Heart-ing" things either. I have iCloud activated on everything.

It won't take me 3 months to decide what I want to do when my trial is over. Besides, I've recently taken the time to delve deeper into SoundCloud and I'm enjoying that much more and it's free. I can follow all my favorite DJ's/Artists, listen to their latest releases, and build my own playlists.
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I might have to go back to using pandora or something once the free trial is up. Unless they fix this crap. I'm getting junk suggestions from "bollywood" (I'm serious), Janet Jackson, and a bunch of other garbage. You can even long press and choose "I don't like this suggestion". I went through the entire list of suggestions and "not liked" every single thing that wasn't EDM. Refreshed, still there. Including the top suggestion of "songs from apple music commercials". Ridiculous.
 
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I mainly use this stuff as a way to discover new music I like. I'm not worried about paying for music. I actually prefer to. But I can't discover music when all the suggestions are garbage.
 
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1) it's going to take time to establish preferences.

2) I don't think the system works well for people with extremely narrow musical interests.

The whole point is to broaden your musical interests and horizons. If you are only going to listen to a singular narrow niche of music for you is probably not for you.
 
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There are some suggestions in For You that are outside my listening experience; maybe about 10%. The rest is based on what I have in my library, what I 'hearted', and listen to. However, like before AM, radio stations don't really allow me to discover new music based on my likes. In fact, of all the streaming services including iHeartRadio, Pandora does the best job at discovering new songs.
 
whsbuss said:
There are some suggestions in For You that are outside my listening experience; maybe about 10%. The rest is based on what I have in my library, what I 'hearted', and listen to. However, like before AM, radio stations don't really allow me to discover new music based on my likes. In fact, of all the streaming services including iHeartRadio, Pandora does the best job at discovering new songs.
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I'll probably mainly use Pandora after the trial period.
 
Arndroid said:
1) it's going to take time to establish preferences.

2) I don't think the system works well for people with extremely narrow musical interests.

The whole point is to broaden your musical interests and horizons. If you are only going to listen to a singular narrow niche of music for you is probably not for you.
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Not sure if completely agree with your last sentence. After all, most of the suggestions are "intro to..." which leads me to believe they'd like you to discover music...when they get it right, the suggestions are pretty good and seemed to be geared towards new music in the same genre.

I doubt they designed Apple Music to get death metal fans to discover hip hop and country.
 
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Maybe explanation:

You say you like David Guetta - who has worked with Nicki Minaj and Britney Spears. Also Calvin Harris (another one you like) wrote a top Rihanna song, "We Found Love".
 
It might be related to iCloud Music Libary issues. If your loves aren't syncing to your iPhone from the PC; they probably haven't updated in the cloud yet. I'd make a smart playlist of loved tracks and check your phone to see how many have actually been updated.

The suggestions work extremely well for me. The artists/producers for whom I have a lot of tracks offer me "Deep Cuts" and the ones I only have a couple songs offer me "Intro to" playlists.
 
Just like iTunes Radio has the same issue since the beginning as many times you tell to keep playing music from a Artist or same style of music all of a sudden NSYNC or Britney Spears starts playing and after telling it you do not want to hear that crap that same crap comes up again.

I also listen to EDM and in the For You same crap as yours and the only reason I come up is because garbage like Pop music gets Apple Music to exist, imagine Taylor Swift did not get the pay she wanted or she does not get any because no one listens her music Apple Music trust me you do not want to get her panties in a twist.


To keep it simple people enjoy crap and that is why even if you heart a bunch of EDM artist they will still offer you the crap.
 
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I had the opposite. For You keeps on recommending me tracks I already own and albums I already own. I went to the trouble of hearting lots of albums in my library, Depeche Mode, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Bjork. The day after For You suggested I listen to "Justin Bieber: Influences" and, like every day, a Janet Jackson playlist. Now unlike OP I love Janet Jackson but really, I have my six Janet playlists for different moods and that's enough. Give me "Bjork: Deep Cuts" or "New Order: Influences" damn it! But Apple Music decided I ONLY like R&B.
 
Yeah the "For You" section isn't that good I hearted a lot of songs as that was where people were saying the For You was going to come from but I can't really see the link.

I own all Jay Z albums but it is suggesting - You guessed it - Jay Z

It isn't a deal breaker for me but it certainly doesn't work for me
 
I don't think that hearting everything you like, and disliking absolutely everything else and then expecting it to react instantaneously is going to get you any good results. It's just not how systems like this are designed to work. Pandora has the same kind of issues - I once added an artist I kind of liked to my best Pandora station, and it completely wrecked the station. Even after I removed the artist it took weeks for the station to get back to anything like what it had been before.

For You is supposed to suggest some things you own. It's supposed to be a starting point for you to find something to listen to. As such, it will suggest some new things that are safe bets, some new things that might be off the mark or might work for you, as well as some stuff from your own library. I presume at some point you've had a friend look through your music and play something you hadn't chosen in a while and had the experience of really enjoying that album again. Think of For You kind of like that.
 
I mentioned it elsewhere that For You indeed feels as if a friend came over, went straight to my CD shelf, picked a CD at random and tossed it at me saying "why don't you play this?".
 
And my counterpoint, as another example of one, is that it's recommendations are spot-on. Way better and more interesting than anything Pandora or Spotify have ever done for me. It pulls suggestions from my extensive collection of owned music, obviously taking play counts and ratings into account, as well as the data it has pulled from my listening habits and hearts. As far as I'm concerned it's working really well.
 
I believe my problem is due the fact that I have thousands of songs from nearly 15 years ago in my iTunes library when my taste in music was drastically different than it is now. Back then I was into Alternative and Metal. Then my kids added their songs to my library. Life changes quite a bit and now I'm into Deep House, Chillstep, and occasionally Jazz.
 
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Interesting. I certainly have a wide variety of stuff in my library, some of which I'm certainly no longer interested, and some kids stuff that has a LOT of plays. Fortunately AM seems to be ignoring that stuff for me!
 
I'm done. I give up. I spent a lot of time this week trying to help AM learn my likes/dislikes. Today I'm seeing "For You" recommendations that include Selena Gomez, One Direction, Kesha, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, & Kayne West. But what sent me over the edge was the recommendation for Lady Antebellum. I even told Apple Music from day one with the floating bubbles that I hate Country!
 
LaurieAnn said:
I'm done. I give up. I spent a lot of time this week trying to help AM learn my likes/dislikes. Today I'm seeing "For You" recommendations that include Selena Gomez, One Direction, Kesha, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, & Kayne West. But what sent me over the edge was the recommendation for Lady Antebellum. I even told Apple Music from day one with the floating bubbles that I hate Country!
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Yeah its not perfect. But why can't you just skip/bypass those you don't like? It will never be prefect.
 
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