How to Get Better Apple Music Recommendations

Part 1. How Does Apple Music Recommendations Work?

Apple Music's recommendation system works in a way that feels both familiar and unique compared to other music streaming services. At its core, it combines advanced algorithms with human curation to understand your listening habits and deliver suggestions that match your taste.

However, unlike other platforms, Apple Music often takes more time to truly adapt to your preferences.

How Apple Music Evolves with You:

Here's how this process works: users who have been subscribed to Apple Music for several years - not just cycling through free trials - tend to experience far better recommendations.

Why? When you first open the Home section (previously Listen Now), you're prompted to select your favorite genres and artists - and those are your preferences right from this second. Over time, Apple Music builds a detailed history of your musical interactions, such as the artists you appreciate, the albums you revisit, and the songs you play on repeat. This allows the platform to make truly personalized suggestions - tracks that feel like a natural extension of the music you already love.

Apple Music refines its recommendations by tracking something like:

But here's the thing: Apple Music's approach often requires more patience. If you've recently moved from another streaming service and imported your playlists, you might notice Apple Music initially recommends mainstream hits or popular tracks. Artists like Taylor Swift or well-known chart-toppers often dominate early suggestions. For listeners with niche or specific tastes, this can feel a little frustrating at first.

On the other hand, Spotify is often seen as the "safer choice" for music recommendations. It delivers quicker and more precise suggestions, with features like its "Recommended" section in playlists and personalized Daily Mixes that adapt in real time.

For me, this difference makes sense. Spotify is all about efficiency, delivering results quickly and predictably. Apple Music, on the other hand, takes a slower, more curated approach. It's not always immediate, but it can surprise you. While Spotify gives you what you expect, Apple Music can introduce you to tracks that resonate deeply, even if you didn't know you'd like them. It's a longer journey, but when it works, it feels worth it.

Part 2. How to Get Better Recommendations on Apple Music

1. Favorite Albums, Songs, and Playlists

When I first started using Apple Music, the recommendations were okay because I had already selected the genres and artists I love. However, I started getting a lot of mainstream pop, which wasn't really my thing. I prefer more niche genres, so I knew I had to make some changes.

Here's what I did: I already had my music collection on another streaming service. Thankfully, you can easily bring that over to Apple Music with services like ViWizard. After that, I went through all my bulk content—like playlists and albums - and favorited them. You can access the "Favorite" feature on your iPhone by tapping on the menu button > Favorite. All the favorited tracks are accessible in your "Favorite Songs."

How to Use the "Favorite"/"Love" Feature:

• On iPhone/iPad:
  1. Play a song you like.
  2. Tap the star icon next to the song title, album artwork or playlist profile. This indicates that you love the song, which helps refine recommendations.
• On Mac/PC: While the song is playing, click the heart icon next to the track in the Now Playing section or in the album view.

Read More: How to Add/Find/Remove Favorites on Apple Music

2. Use the "Love" and "Dislike" Features

The first thing I did was start favoriting albums and playlists that matched my taste. Over time, though, I found some things I didn't want. A quick reminder: iTunes still uses "Love" for the "Favorite" feature, but they are the same thing. This helped Apple Music understand what I liked. I also began using the "Favorite" feature on tracks I really enjoyed, and the "Suggest Less" button when something didn't fit. It didn't take long before the system started to get the hang of my preferences.

How to Use the "Suggest Less" Feature:

• On iPhone/iPad:
  1. If a song or artist is playing and you don't like it, tap the three dots (more options) next to the song.
  2. Select Suggest Less. This tells Apple Music to stop recommending this song or artist as much in the future.

3. Curate Your Library Carefully

One thing I realized is that if you don't curate your library carefully, Apple Music will pick up everything you add—even if it's just for a listen or out of curiosity. I decided to clean up my library and only keep the music I actually loved, and that made a noticeable difference in my recommendations.

How to Create Your Library:

• On iPhone/iPad:

  

  1. Open the Apple Music app.
  2. Navigate to an album, song, or playlist that you like.
  3. To save an album, tap the plus icon next to the album title (the album will be added to the "Albums" section).
  4. To save a song, tap the three dots next to the song, then select Add to Library (the song will be added to the "Songs" section).
  5. For a playlist, open the playlist and tap Add (this adds the playlist to the "Playlists" section).
• On Mac/PC (Apple Music or iTunes):
  1. Open Apple Music or iTunes.
  2. Search for the album, song, or playlist you want to add.
  3. Click the plus icon next to the album name, song, or playlist to save it to your library.

4. Engage with Personalized Mixes

Apple Music suggests personalized mixes like the Favorites Mix and New Music Mix, which I started engaging with every week. Over time, the more I interacted with these mixes, the more accurate the suggestions became.

5. Play Music You Love Often

Another key tip is to play the music you love often. The more I listened to tracks I liked, the better Apple Music's algorithm understood my taste.

6. Refine Radio Stations

I also spent some time fine-tuning radio stations by liking songs that fit my vibe and skipping those that didn't.

7. Give It Time

But here's the thing: it took time. At first, the recommendations were all over the place. However, after sticking with it for a few weeks, things started to improve. Apple Music isn't instant - it needs time to adjust to your preferences. But when it does, the results are much better.

So, if you're patient and stick with it, Apple Music's recommendations can get a lot more personalized. It's a process, but one that's definitely worth the wait.

Part 3. How to Change Apple Music Recommendations

If you share your Apple Music account with family or friends, you might notice the recommendations can start to get a little mixed up. You'll likely find that your listening habits start to blend with theirs, and the app may begin recommending a mix of genres or artists you wouldn't normally choose. If you want to change your recommendations to better match your personal taste, there are ways to fine-tune the suggestions and get more accurate recommendations tailored to your listening habits.

1. Manage "Use Listening History" and Recommendations

By enabling "Use Listening History," Apple Music tracks everything you listen to and uses that data to refine your recommendations. If you prefer more privacy, you can turn off this setting, but it will also limit how well Apple Music can suggest new music based on your taste.

Keep in mind that if you disable "Use Listening History," Apple Music won't track your listening habits, which means you'll miss out on features like your annual report and personalized recaps. But if you change your mind later, you can re-enable it and start getting those scrobbles again.

How to Disable Use Listening History:

• On iPhone/iPad:
  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Scroll down and tap on Music.
  3. Toggle off Use Listening History.
• On Mac:
  1. Open the Music app.
  2. Click on Music in the menu bar and select Preferences.
  3. Go to the General tab.
  4. Uncheck Use Listening History.
  5. Note: Disabling this feature will stop Apple Music from using your listening habits to personalize recommendations.

2. Use Focus Filter

The Focus Filter lets you adjust Apple Music's recommendations based on your current activity.

How to Set Up Focus Filter:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on Focus.
3. Create a new Custom Focus.
4. Name the Focus (e.g., "Private Listening").
5. Tap on Customize Focus.
6. Scroll down to Focus Filters and tap Add Filter.
7. Select Music and toggle off Use Listening History.
8. Activate this Focus mode when sharing your device to prevent others' listening habits from influencing your recommendations.

Note: This feature is available in iOS 17.2 and later.

3. Set Parental Control

If you're sharing your account with younger listeners, you can use Apple Music's parental control settings to restrict certain types of content.

How to Set Up Family Sharing:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on your name and select Family Sharing.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to add family members.
4. Ensure each family member has their own Apple ID.
5. Encourage children to use their own accounts to maintain personalized recommendations.
6. Use Screen Time to set content restrictions and monitor usage.

Note: Proper setup of Family Sharing and individual accounts helps maintain personalized experiences for each family member.

Read More: How to Set Up Apple Family Sharing (Step-by-Step)

Bonus Tip: How to Keep Your Apple Music Forever

If you're someone who wants to keep their favorite Apple Music tracks forever, there's a simple solution to make sure you have your music as a safe backup. One great tool for this is the ViWizard Apple Music Converter. It lets you download and save your favorite songs in different audio formats, ensuring that you'll never lose them.

With ViWizard, you can convert your Apple Music tracks into popular file formats such as MP3, M4A, FLAC, AAC, and more. This is especially handy if you want to keep your music on hand even when you're not connected to Apple Music. Plus, the tool allows you to adjust settings like bit rate, sample rate, and even the channels for your tracks, so you can tailor your music to sound just the way you like it.

Another cool feature is the ability to edit your tracks. You can adjust things like the speed and volume, giving you more control over your music. This makes it a great option not just for saving your favorite songs, but also for ensuring that they're in the perfect format and quality for your needs.

So, if you want to hold onto your Apple Music library long-term, consider using ViWizard to download and convert your tracks, creating a permanent backup of all the music you love.

Key Features of ViWizard Audio Converter

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• Convert songs, albums, and playlists from Apple Music to MP3
• Remove DRM protection from Apple Music, iTunes, and Audible
• Save the converted audios with the original quality and ID3 tags
• Support the conversion of up to 100 audio formats to others