In this, the second part of three tutorials, I’ll show you how to:
- Personalise Apple Music Suggestions
- Create a custom radio station in Apple Music
Personalise Apple Music Suggestions
When you first subscribe to Apple Music, you’re presented with a screen to choose genres and artists you like. This is an essential step because it helps Apple Music:
- To understand what type of music you like and wish to hear
- To recommend music from the genres you selected
- To learn which genres you don’t like and don’t wish to see them in For You tab
- To get better suggestions from music experts or editors in form of playlists or top tracks
If you’ve already joined Apple Music, then you can reset and personalise the suggestions again. But remember it’s not necessary to reset and customise the choice on every device.
On a Mac
Click the Account button in the iTunes toolbar, and click Choose Artists For You.
Enter your Apple ID password, if necessary.
You’ll see floating red bubbles in the entire screen.
- Click the bubble once on the genres you like
- Click the bubble twice on the genres you love and adore
- To remove a genre you dislike, hover your mouse over the bubble, and click X
Click Next to continue. In this screen choose the artists you like or love.
Click Show More button to continue the process, until the screen is full of artists you like.
When you’ve finished, click Done. The For You section will now display recommendations based on your criteria.
On the iOS
Tap the profile icon in the upper-right corner, and then tap Choose Artists For You.
Now repeat with all the steps as described in the Mac section.
On Android
Tap the hamburger menu icon in the upper-left corner.
At the top of the menu, tap the arrow icon just besides your name to get to the account settings. From the next screen, tap Choose Artists For You.
Now repeat with all the steps as described in the Mac section.
Refine the Apple Music Suggestions
As you keep hearing new albums, songs, and playlists you may want to refine your music suggestions and improve their recommendations. The key to refine Apple Music recommendation is through Love and Dislike button.
If you change your mind later on, click or tap Love or Dislike again to clear it.
When you listen to a song, a whole album, song from a playlist, or a radio station, click or tap the Love or Dislike button. You’ll start getting better recommendations based on the items you’ve loved and disliked.
The For You tab will feature artists, albums, and playlists based on your love history.
On a Mac
Hold the pointer over the song name, then click More… icon. Click Love or Dislike from the context menu.
Or, click More… icon from the Albums view and click Love or Dislike from the context menu.
On iOS
While listening to a song, tap the player at the bottom of the screen to open the Now Playing screen. Tap More … icon, then choose Love or Dislike. Or, tap More … icon from the Albums view and tap Love or Dislike from the context menu.
On the Android
Tap and hold the album you don’t like. From the menu that appears, tap I Don’t Like This Suggestion.
The Love and Dislike button is an important metric if you want to keep refining Apple Music suggestions.
At first, the recommendations may not appear to be accurate. But as keep you listening, love and dislike them, the recommendations will get better.
Create a Custom Radio Station in Apple Music
With an Apple Music membership, you can listen to curated on-demand stations or create your own custom stations. These stations don’t have any ads, and you can skip unlimited number of songs.
Apple Music Radio lets you listen only few Featured Stations, in such case your listening experience would be somewhat limited. You can create your own custom radio station and in turn take advantage from the vast Apple Music catalog.
Apple Music Radio stations don’t play music just by that artist; behind the scene they work like a Genius playlist.
For example, if you choose an album for an Apple Music Radio station, you’ll get to listen few songs from that album, others by the same artist, and others by similar artists.
On Mac
Click the Search box in the upper-right corner of iTunes. Type in the artist name, album, or a song and click All Apple Music.
Scroll to the Stations section and choose the station to which you wish to listen. You can access the new station in the Recently Played section of the Radio view.
While listening to a custom radio station, click the Star icon in the Now Playing screen, and choose either Play More Like This or Never Play This Song.
When you do this, Apple Music learns from your preference, your Likes and Dislikes, which in turn gives you better recommendations.
Click Add to Library to save the song to your library.
On iOS
Tap the Search tab at the bottom of the screen. Type in the artist name, album, or a song and click Apple Music.
Scroll to the Stations section and choose the station to which you wish to listen.
ccess your new station in the Recently Played section of the Radio tab. Recently added station syncs with a Mac, too, when you enable iCloud Music Library.
When you find a song or artist, for which you'd like to create a radio station, use 3D touch or tap the More… icon.
Tap Create Station to start playing your radio. You can also ask Siri to Start a station from… and then say the name of the song, album, or artist.
On Android
Tap the Search icon at the top of the screen. Enter the artist name, album, or a song and click All Apple Music.
Scroll to the Stations section and choose the station to which you wish to listen. You can access your new station in the Recently Played section of the Radio tab.
Recently added stations sync with a Mac and iOS devices when you enable the iCloud Music Library.
When you find a song or artist, that you would like to create a station from, tap the More… icon, and then tap Radio icon to start the radio.
The Love and Dislike button is an important metric if you want to keep refining Apple Music suggestions. At first, the recommendations may not be accurate. But as keep you listening, love and dislike them, the recommendations will get better.
Up Next
In the previous tutorial, I showed you how to:
- Personalise Apple Music Suggestions
- Create a custom radio station in Apple Music
In the following tutorial, I'll show you how to:
- Manage offline music in PCs and smartphones
- Get lyrics for the songs you love
- Share an Apple Music membership
