Apple Music's 'For You' Section Now Offers Theme-Based Recommendations, More Personalized Suggestions

Monday April 15, 2019 1:03 PM PDT by Juli Clover
Apple appears to be updating the "For You" section of Apple Music to provide ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers with more customized suggestions and music recommendations based around different themes.

The updates to the ‌Apple Music‌ app's "For You" section appear to be rolling out starting today, and we're seeing the new recommendations on devices running both iOS 12.2 and iOS 12.3 According to 9to5Mac, these changes will be coming to all ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers on all platforms over the course of the next few weeks.


‌Apple Music‌ is now recommending content based on specific bands you've listened to before, and there are categories such as "Case of the Mondays," "Start Your Week Right," and "To Make You Smile." There are also category recommendations for music genres you've listened to in the past.

Recommendations can be shifted using the Love and Dislike features in ‌Apple Music‌, and going forward, Apple plans to provide more regular updates to the "For You" section so you'll have fresh content and recommendations more frequently.

Apple is maintaining already existing playlists such as Friends Mix, Chill Mix, New Music Mix and Favorites Mix, and there are still sections like Recently Played, Recently Updated, Friends Are Listening To, and New Releases.

Tag: Apple Music Guide
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BWhaler
8 months ago
The rate of improvement for Apple Music is impressive.
Rating: 6 Votes
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iRutherford
8 months ago
I hope this improves Apple Music. I hate listening to one genre and being told, "Since you like rock: Céline Dion's Falling Into You, Lorde's Pure Heroine, The Carters' Everything Is Love and Weezer's Pinkerton". The latter is the only one even representative of the genre. I don't know how they do it.
Rating: 4 Votes
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19SK91
8 months ago
I was excited. But after going through the sections, there‘s a bunch of albums and playlists I disliked long ago. Plus albums that don‘t even fit in their sections. Why does Apple Music have to push Hip-Hop/Rap on me? I don‘t have a single Hip-Hop/Rap song in my library and have disliked many hundred songs, albums and playlists over the months to finally get rid of those recommendations. This change is actually a step back for me.
Rating: 4 Votes
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ipedro
8 months ago
Apple Music has always been pretty great for me, having learned my tastes and playing songs I love or that it knows I will love but I’ve kept around a Spotify account for the themed curated playlists Spotify is famous for. The new a For You looks like it’ll fill that void. Adding to the much more rich Browse tab introduced a couple of weeks ago, Apple is doing all the right things. Paired with a HomePod at home and AirPods on the move, Apple Music is one of my favourite Apple products right now.
Rating: 3 Votes
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iRutherford
8 months ago

Strange, I listen primarily to metal/punk/etc. and it is showing no hip-hop/rap at all for me. Maybe it hasn't fully rolled out yet?


I share his problem. I get so many hip-hop recommendations despite disliking and avoiding them. The only one even close to the genre that I've listened to was Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots, and that's even a reach considering it's not really hip-hop. It just happens to have "white" rap in a couple of songs.
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I dislike whatever algorithms Apple uses for Music and find them completely inadequate compared to Spotify. It's not even close. Don't believe me? Make a playlist with Spotify about a theme of your choosing and the songs it will start recommending you add to that list are eerily spot-on. Until Apple has something as powerful as that, Apple Music is objectively worse than Spotify. That said, I do use Apple Music because it ties in with all my junk and my family and I'm hoping this change is a sign of more good things to come.


I agree with you. It didn't even take long for Spotify to give me spot on recommendations. Even my "Browse" page lists my four main genres: rock, metal, indie and punk. I also love Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Great inclusions every time.

Apple Music has four different "personalized" playlists, yet none of them reflect my listening habits. I'm unsubscribing this coming month.
Rating: 2 Votes
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DNichter
8 months ago
This is awesome! I have already gotten a bunch of really good recommendations with the type of music I like. This is exactly what I was hoping we would see eventually and may be able to beat Spotify when it comes to curation. Definitely a pleasant surprise.
Rating: 2 Votes
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lunarworks
8 months ago

Strange, I listen primarily to metal/punk/etc. and it is showing no hip-hop/rap at all for me. Maybe it hasn't fully rolled out yet?

When people are always complaining that Apple Music constantly pushes hip-hop on them I begin to suspect that they don't actually use Apple Music.
Rating: 2 Votes
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iObama
8 months ago
Sweet! Hoping it becomes much more like Spotify in that respect. Apple Music recommendations tend to feel very algorithmic, rather than just being algorithmic and me not noticing.
Rating: 1 Votes
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mcfly88
8 months ago

The rate of improvement for Apple Music is impressive.

Definitely loving all these improvements over the last few weeks. New Releases in the For You tab is night and day better. I just hope they finally fix pre-release singles.. I'm so sick of having to delete / re-download songs.
Rating: 1 Votes
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19SK91
8 months ago

When people are always complaining that Apple Music constantly pushes hip-hop on them I begin to suspect that they don't actually use Apple Music.


Yeah, about two hours daily use with constant disliking and liking for a year, I’m definitely not using Apple Music. /s
Rating: 1 Votes
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