Apple Music debuts new algorithmic Discovery Station radio

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited August 2023
Apple Music users hoping for more algorithmic discovery options akin to Spotify now have a new personal radio station called Discovery Station.

Discovery and Personal Stations on Apple Music
Discovery and Personal Stations on Apple Music

Finding new music can be a challenge, especially on a service like Apple Music which hasn't caught up
with Spotify's algorithmic suggestions, but a new Discovery Station may help bridge that gap. Apple doesn't add new algorithmic playlists or stations often, so the new personal radio option arrived as a surprise on Monday.

The Discovery Station appeared for users sometime early Monday, August 7, without any official announcement or popup. Users browsing the Apple Music app can see the new option under the "Listen Now" tab in the category "Stations for You."

AppleInsider found this new playlist thanks to a small change to the Personal Station that's been around for years. The artwork for the Personal Station changed from a basic red play button to an animated red arrow pointing to the right.

This curious change led us to believe something else must have been updated, and that's when we saw the Discovery Station in "Stations for You." Its artwork is the inverse of Personal Station's, with a blue color scheme and an inverted arrow animating inward.

We can only guess how it functions based on the Personal Station without any documentation or explanation of this new station. The Apple Music Personal Station appears after asking Siri to "play music that I like," and is an algorithmically built station based on play history, likes, and other factors in the Apple Music algorithm.

As its name implies, the Discovery Station appears to be an algorithmically-generated station built to play music the user hasn't heard but may like. So, it functions like the New Music Mix playlist but can play continuously.

Apple Music offers very few easy discovery options
Apple Music offers very few easy discovery options



This kind of continuous listening experience for music discovery built on an algorithm has been missing from Apple Music so far. Users could run stations based on genre, artists, or songs, but those didn't account for the user's tastes.

It seems that Siri isn't yet aware of this new radio station. At least, we haven't discovered what command is required to get it to play.

There is a direct link to the station that was discovered by MacRumors.

We will have to test this Discovery Station to determine its efficacy at finding music we're willing to add to our library. Apple may not officially announce this new station but may instead mention it in update notes in a future iOS release.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    mayflymayfly Posts: 385member
    Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I don't want some algorithm telling me what "I may like" or what I want to hear next. I choose.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 14
    OferOfer Posts: 265unconfirmed, member
    mayfly said:
    Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I don't want some algorithm telling me what "I may like" or what I want to hear next. I choose.
    Well here’s the magic part: you don’t have to listen to that station. Amazing, right?
    edited August 2023 byronldewmeappleinsideruserlolliverwilliamlondonJapheydavITGUYINSDmayflyStrangeDays
  • Reply 3 of 14
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,680member
    Thanks for pointing this out.

    So far I'm finding it surprisingly good, at least within a couple of the music genres I tend to gravitate towards. I have not used it long enough to know whether it will eventually "discover" a wider swath of music that is more indicative of my total library of music outside of the genres it seems to have emphasized. I'm a little surprised Apple has not provided a way to submit feedback to rate how well the algorithm matched my preferences for a "discovered" song. I suppose Apple's algorithm already has a large enough dataset to use based on my library of about 25K songs. Providing additional validation through a feedback mechanism may not make much of a difference at this point.

    The reason I emphasized "discovered" is that the algorithm seems to be weighted towards finding music that is quite similar to what you already listen to based on what's in your library. I can't tell whether it uses your play history too. I've also found that it also "discovers" music that is already in my library. This begs the question of what "discovery" means to to the algorithm and to you.

    I can definitely see where I could leave this playlist running all day long and be totally comfortable with it. No problem, it sounds good and right up my alley. But it really seems to be discovering music that's very close to what I've already discovered on my own. Is this really discovery of new music or simply confirmation of what I've already latched on to?  It's more along the lines of "music we think you'll like" (including music you already own - duh) than challenging you to consider discovering something that's a little more outside of your currently chosen collection of music. This latter case may be where having a feedback mechanism would allow the algorithm to gauge how far off your current path you are willing to expand your scope of music discovery.

    Overall, I think it's a very nice addition to Apple Music. Even though it doesn't appear to stray too far outside your current listening comfort zone, if it only puts one or two new songs/artists in front of you every week or every month, that's still a win because it'll add more variety within the genres that you already enjoy. I've keyed in on a couple of new artists in the few hours I've been listening. This begs the question: How do I quickly flag a song on my iPhone or iPad so I can dig into other songs from the same artist? I can select "Show song in Apple Music" on my Mac, but I haven't figured how to do the same thing on other platforms.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 14
    dewme said:
    This begs the question: How do I quickly flag a song on my iPhone or iPad so I can dig into other songs from the same artist? I can select "Show song in Apple Music" on my Mac, but I haven't figured how to do the same thing on other platforms.
    Tap Three dots, choose Show Album. From there you can get to the rest of the Artist’s material.

    So far (2 minutes!) I’ve not had your positive experience. I’ve not liked the 3 things it’s pushed (from artists I know of, but don’t really like). Counter to your experience, I find the My Station, often inserts unknown stuff that I like… Go figure!
    williamlondondavwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 14
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,680member
    dewme said:
    This begs the question: How do I quickly flag a song on my iPhone or iPad so I can dig into other songs from the same artist? I can select "Show song in Apple Music" on my Mac, but I haven't figured how to do the same thing on other platforms.
    Tap Three dots, choose Show Album. From there you can get to the rest of the Artist’s material.

    So far (2 minutes!) I’ve not had your positive experience. I’ve not liked the 3 things it’s pushed (from artists I know of, but don’t really like). Counter to your experience, I find the My Station, often inserts unknown stuff that I like… Go figure!
    Thanks. 

    I only commented on the Discovery Station. For me it inserts unknown music that I generally like, but not in every single case, and it also inserts known music that is already in my music library, which I obviously like already. My point is that the "discovery" seems to be more geared towards reinforcing more variety into genres you already like, based on what is already in your library, as opposed to finding things that aren't as closely adjacent to what you've already committed to by virtue of what you already have in your library.

    To be clear, I'm not suggesting that I want Discovery Station to throw in a heavy metal track when it "thinks" I prefer, for example, traditional bluegrass. That would be pretty harsh and something I would want to "discover" all on my own. I'm more thinking along the lines of bringing in earlier or later work by an artist I already follow, or work that an artist did with another band or as a studio musician for a different artist, or in a different genre, for example, Duane Allman or Jimmy Page. 
    edited August 2023 appleinsideruserwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 14
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,525member
    dewme said:
    Thanks for pointing this out.

    The reason I emphasized "discovered" is that the algorithm seems to be weighted towards finding music that is quite similar to what you already listen to based on what's in your library. I can't tell whether it uses your play history too. I've also found that it also "discovers" music that is already in my library. This begs the question of what "discovery" means to to the algorithm and to you.


    I don't think Apple is collecting data from your library as much as it is from songs you have liked/loved, and then polling similar artists you don't appear to have listened to on any of the other "stations" they have. That might be why it occasionally plays you something you already have, perhaps.

    My own quick take on it pretty much matches yours: this is a station I could listen to for quite a while, occasionally asking Siri to identify a particular song so I can investigate further. It's good to bust out of your pre-ordained "era" or "genre" or "set of artists" every now and again. :)
    appleinsideruserwilliamlondondewmewatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 14
    dewme said:
    dewme said:
    This begs the question: How do I quickly flag a song on my iPhone or iPad so I can dig into other songs from the same artist? I can select "Show song in Apple Music" on my Mac, but I haven't figured how to do the same thing on other platforms.
    Tap Three dots, choose Show Album. From there you can get to the rest of the Artist’s material.

    So far (2 minutes!) I’ve not had your positive experience. I’ve not liked the 3 things it’s pushed (from artists I know of, but don’t really like). Counter to your experience, I find the My Station, often inserts unknown stuff that I like… Go figure!
    Thanks. 

    I only commented on the Discovery Station. For me it inserts unknown music that I generally like, but not in every single case, and it also inserts known music that is already in my music library, which I obviously like already. My point is that the "discovery" seems to be more geared towards reinforcing more variety into genres you already like, based on what is already in your library, as opposed to finding things that aren't as closely adjacent to what you've already committed to by virtue of what you already have in your library.

    To be clear, I'm not suggesting that I want Discovery Station to throw in a heavy metal track when it "thinks" I prefer, for example, traditional bluegrass. That would be pretty harsh and something I would want to "discover" all on my own. I'm more thinking along the lines of bringing in earlier or later work by an artist I already follow, or work that an artist did with another band or as a studio musician for a different artist, or in a different genre, for example, Duane Allman or Jimmy Page. 
    Makes sense, thanks. I'd like to explore it more, but the article says you can't trigger it through Siri. As I listen via HomePod, it'd be convenient to be able to trigger it that way.
  • Reply 8 of 14
    chasm said:
    dewme said:
    Thanks for pointing this out.

    The reason I emphasized "discovered" is that the algorithm seems to be weighted towards finding music that is quite similar to what you already listen to based on what's in your library. I can't tell whether it uses your play history too. I've also found that it also "discovers" music that is already in my library. This begs the question of what "discovery" means to to the algorithm and to you.


    I don't think Apple is collecting data from your library as much as it is from songs you have liked/loved, and then polling similar artists you don't appear to have listened to on any of the other "stations" they have. That might be why it occasionally plays you something you already have, perhaps.

    My own quick take on it pretty much matches yours: this is a station I could listen to for quite a while, occasionally asking Siri to identify a particular song so I can investigate further. It's good to bust out of your pre-ordained "era" or "genre" or "set of artists" every now and again. :)
    Interestingly, I've never loved or liked any tracks, yet for me My Station does a fine job of playing stuff I like from my library. It often goes for recently added stuff, but also happily tosses in old stuff from my library and new (similar genre) stuff I'm happy to discover. 

    I'm also intrigued by how it seems to pick wildly varying genres to start when I say "Play some music". I suspect it might use time-of-day (or just random luck that sometimes picks a welcome track) to influence appropriate mood music.
    dewmewatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 14
    wdowellwdowell Posts: 234member
    Am I the only person who remembers when they launched Apple Music theu went about human curation and how it was much better ?
    williamlondondewmeFileMakerFeller
  • Reply 10 of 14
    wdowell said:
    Am I the only person who remembers when they launched Apple Music theu went about human curation and how it was much better ?
    Isn't that still there with the other lists?
    mike1dewmeStrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 14
    ITGUYINSDITGUYINSD Posts: 536member
    I don't see Discovery Station in my Apple Music app yet.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    mayflymayfly Posts: 385member
    Ofer said:
    mayfly said:
    Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I don't want some algorithm telling me what "I may like" or what I want to hear next. I choose.
    Well here’s the magic part: you don’t have to listen to that station. Amazing, right?
    Good point! I guess I'll keep that Sirius XM radio account after all. That "Deep Tracks" (less known tracks by well known bands) station never tells me what I might like. And I don't like everything they run. But I get to hear hundreds of great tunes I've never heard before.
    dewme
  • Reply 13 of 14
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,060member
    mayfly said:
    Ofer said:
    mayfly said:
    Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I don't want some algorithm telling me what "I may like" or what I want to hear next. I choose.
    Well here’s the magic part: you don’t have to listen to that station. Amazing, right?
    Good point! I guess I'll keep that Sirius XM radio account after all. That "Deep Tracks" (less known tracks by well known bands) station never tells me what I might like. And I don't like everything they run. But I get to hear hundreds of great tunes I've never heard before.
    Radio by its very nature is “telling” you what you may like, they’re making decisions and putting stuff out for you to listen to. So by electing to pay for SXM you’re paying for them to do the same thing, but you also don’t have the ability to select exact artists or songs you want to listen to. I dropped SXM years back (when it was also more expensive than AM; tho they may have finally wised up and dropped its price). 
    williamlondonFileMakerFellerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 14
    mayflymayfly Posts: 385member
    mayfly said:
    Ofer said:
    mayfly said:
    Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I don't want some algorithm telling me what "I may like" or what I want to hear next. I choose.
    Well here’s the magic part: you don’t have to listen to that station. Amazing, right?
    Good point! I guess I'll keep that Sirius XM radio account after all. That "Deep Tracks" (less known tracks by well known bands) station never tells me what I might like. And I don't like everything they run. But I get to hear hundreds of great tunes I've never heard before.
    Radio by its very nature is “telling” you what you may like, they’re making decisions and putting stuff out for you to listen to. So by electing to pay for SXM you’re paying for them to do the same thing, but you also don’t have the ability to select exact artists or songs you want to listen to. I dropped SXM years back (when it was also more expensive than AM; tho they may have finally wised up and dropped its price). 
    Actually, I'm hearing music they think certain people (not specifically me) will like. They don't target me with "you may like." They choose their own playlists, regardless of my preferences.
Sign In or Register to comment.