Apple Music's curated music discovery feature goes live for iOS 10 beta users

AppleInsider

Apple on Friday activated "My New Music Mix" for iOS 10 beta testers, an upcoming Apple Music feature that suggests curated tunes based on previously played music.

When it was first announced at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the My New Music Mix curated playlist was initially dubbed "Discovery Mix," but Apple has apparently decided to rebrand the offering.

Available in the For You section of the iOS Music app, My New Music Mix features 25 tracks selected every Friday based on a user's constantly changing sonic tastes. According to Apple Music global marketing chief Bozoma Saint John, the curated playlist lets users discover new artists and music from Apple Music's vast content library.

Apple Music competitor Spotify fields a similar service called "Discover Weekly," which provides listeners with a fresh tracklist generated each Monday. Like Apple Music, Spotify touts an advanced music curation protocol as one of its service's key features.

Alongside My New Music Mix, Apple rolled out an accompanying playlist called "My Favorites Mix," which appears to surface previously played songs mixed in with related tracks. My Favorites Mix updates every Wednesday.

In iOS 10 beta, users can choose to subscribe to both My New Music Mix and My Favorites Mix with an option to automatically download new tracks when they become available. The two mixes join a selection of human-curated song and album playlists that are updated daily.

Apple is expected to detail new iOS 10 additions like My New Music Mix at a special event next week. Set for Wednesday, Sept. 7, the media bash is also anticipated to bring word of new iPhone, Apple Watch and Beats headphone models. AppleInsider will be on the scene with full live coverage of the keynote starting at 10 a.m. Pacific.

cali

Horrible. "For You" was simpler and easier to understand.

proline

Man I accidentally loaded this page with my content blocker off. Hadn't done that in years. Boy is it bad. Like really, really, bad. You can barely find the story at all!

lostkiwi

proline said:

Man I accidentally loaded this page with my content blocker off. Hadn't done that in years. Boy is it bad. Like really, really, bad. You can barely find the story at all!

Yeah I love Content Blockers.  They make such a big difference to your online experience.  I often ask non techy people if they have them loaded and they look at me blankly.  I think Apple really needs to make the capability more widely known.

rogifan_new

cali said:

Horrible. "For You" was simpler and easier to understand.

Huh? For You is still there. This is basically a playlist updated every Friday with songs Music thinks you'll like. Not sure what's confusing about that.

nolamacguy

cali said:

Horrible. "For You" was simpler and easier to understand.

then you'll be relived it's still there. this is a playlist under For You. reading helps. 

dewme

I like it. It has a good mix of songs I don't already have from artists/bands already in my library (about 1/3rd) and new ones I've yet to discover (about 2/3rds). Having 25 songs (103 minutes this week) cued up for my review every week is just the sort of thing I'm willing to try. Easy. Simple. Noncontroversial. 

baldbear

I'm not sure what algorithm they are using. A lot of David Bowie in my mix and he is not my cup of tea. Spotify's Discover Weekly does a better job at this point. 

My biggest problem with Apple Music is the iTunes integration. It needs to be stand alone. 

lolliver

baldbear said:

I'm not sure what algorithm they are using. A lot of David Bowie in my mix and he is not my cup of tea. Spotify's Discover Weekly does a better job at this point. 

My biggest problem with Apple Music is the iTunes integration. It needs to be stand alone. 

Fairly obvious you don't even have Apple Music:

1. It's a music discovery playlist with 25 songs so there is not going to be a lot of any one artist. I would be surprised if there was even 2 songs from the same artists in anyones playlist. I have no duplicate artisits in my playlist and music from several genres.

2. If your the sort of troll that still likes to complain about iTunes I find it hard to belive your are paying $10 a month for a subscription to Apple Music. One of the best features of Apple Music is that you have access to the streaming catalogue as well as songs from your personal library that may not otherwise be available to you. How would separating those two libraries be a posive thing for the user? Or are you still caught in the past of complaining about iTunes because of the iTunes software itself? I listen to music mostly via my iPhone, iPad and AppleTV and don't even remember the last time I opened up iTunes. But when I did it wasn't a negative experience...

Hope you continue to enjoy your Spotify service. At least until the company goes bankrupt..

gatorguy

Apple is also selling Apple Music gift cards, $99 for a years subscription. That drops the price to just $8.25/mo. With most of these pay services sharing 70% (or thereabouts) of overall subscriber revenue with "the artists" the per-stream payouts seem to be diving ever lower across all the services,. But perhaps they make up for the lowered royalty payments for each song play with a greater volume of subscribers paying in.