Okay, so those of us running the betas have had a few weeks with these playlists. So far I've had 3 Favorites Mixes and 2 My New Music Mixes.
Favorites Mix has been so incredibly spot on. The first week it was almost all hip hop, the 2nd week was indie, and this week has primarily been 90's alt rock, but very obscure 90's alt rock. This week has been maybe the best yet. It dug up stuff from my library that I haven't listened to in years, but nonetheless were old favorites that have playcounts in iTunes going back nearly a decade.
The My New Music Mix was really rough for me the first week. I didn't much care for it, and realizing it was basing everything off the Love/Dislike system, I went through my library last week and gave it as much feedback as I could. After just one week, the playlist drastically improved on Friday. I discovered at least a half dozen artists I'd never heard of that I absolutely loved, and even more I'll be keeping an eye on. None of it was anything I'd ever heard of, and I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to new music.
Overall I have come away very impressed with both of these playlists after just a few weeks. They both do exactly what they say they will in the description, and evidently only get better with more user input. The thing I find myself most impressed with is the flow of the playlists. As someone who has always prided himself on knowing how to make a good mix tape, these mixes all feel like they were hand made, with the flow of one song into another heavily considered throughout. I know it has to be an algorithm, there's no way a team of people are curating these for millions of users every week by hand. But it feels that way. I am legitimately blown away.
Has anyone else been checking these out? There was a thread in the iOS 10 Beta Forum, but I thought it would be nice to get something going here now that the feature is widely available.
Favorites Mix has been so incredibly spot on. The first week it was almost all hip hop, the 2nd week was indie, and this week has primarily been 90's alt rock, but very obscure 90's alt rock. This week has been maybe the best yet. It dug up stuff from my library that I haven't listened to in years, but nonetheless were old favorites that have playcounts in iTunes going back nearly a decade.
The My New Music Mix was really rough for me the first week. I didn't much care for it, and realizing it was basing everything off the Love/Dislike system, I went through my library last week and gave it as much feedback as I could. After just one week, the playlist drastically improved on Friday. I discovered at least a half dozen artists I'd never heard of that I absolutely loved, and even more I'll be keeping an eye on. None of it was anything I'd ever heard of, and I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to new music.
Overall I have come away very impressed with both of these playlists after just a few weeks. They both do exactly what they say they will in the description, and evidently only get better with more user input. The thing I find myself most impressed with is the flow of the playlists. As someone who has always prided himself on knowing how to make a good mix tape, these mixes all feel like they were hand made, with the flow of one song into another heavily considered throughout. I know it has to be an algorithm, there's no way a team of people are curating these for millions of users every week by hand. But it feels that way. I am legitimately blown away.
Has anyone else been checking these out? There was a thread in the iOS 10 Beta Forum, but I thought it would be nice to get something going here now that the feature is widely available.
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