Did Apple Change the Music Game Yet Again?

Apple launched it’s new all-in-one music service last week, Apple Music. The reviews are in, and it seems like Apple might be onto something, if they can clean up a few problems. While Apple has the upper-hand on in-house playlist creation and recommending music, they currently have too many problems to give the other streaming services a run for their money.

Reports have shown that there are issues with the social component, the user interface, playlist length, and system bugs among other things. However, the real genius from Apple Music is in Apple’s ability to predict what songs, artists and playlists to recommend for you. Apple Music is now the place to go to discover new music. How does Apple excel at giving users exposure to their new favorite songs, artists, and playlists?

Mostly, Apple uses Beats Music interface and curated playlists to provide users with this experience. Apple acquired Beats Music in 2014 and is heavily relying on the Beats music streaming service. When users first set-up Apple Music, they tap genres and artists that they like on large bubbles, as shown in the image to the left.  After picking their favorite artists and genres, new music is generated for users’ specific tastes.

The algorithm that Apple Music uses can generate songs, artists, and playlists for specific tastes much more accurately than Spotify, Pandora, or Google Music.

Apple Music also has specially curated playlists that, again, come from the Beats service. These playlists are hand-created by editors, artists, and people called “curators.” Each playlist is targeted specifically towards a user’s tastes. These playlists and Apple’s ability to recognize what songs or artists users will like are what make Apple Music stand out in the streaming world.

It looks as though Apple’s ability to recommend music sets it apart, but will that be enough to convince users to switch over? Will finding my new favorite band, song, or playlist be enough to deal with a bad user interface, bugs, and a hard to use product? Time will tell, but I predict that Apple Music will improve drastically over the next three months and it may have the potential to compete with music providers.