Apple, your deals with the record companies are painfully obvious

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dinosoar Author

Level 1

23 points

Apple, your deals with the record companies are painfully obvious

Here are the artists I added to a radio station I've made up:

Tom Waits

Randy Newman

The Replacements

Laura Nyro

Kings of Leon

Kate Bush

Frank Zappa

Eric Johnson

Imogen Heap

Stevie Wonder

Tower of Power

Steely Dan

Paul Westerberg

Todd Rundgren

Elvis Costello

So far, here are some of the artists iTunes Radio has decided fit in well with the above line-up:

Faith Hill

Taylor Swift

The Glee cast

Hairpsray soundtrack

The Muppets soundtrack

Exactly.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), 27" 3.4 i7

Posted on Sep 20, 2013 10:24 AM

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Answer 1

C F McBlob

Level 4

2,885 points

Sep 20, 2013 11:05 AM in response to dinosoar

And your point is?

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Answer 2

dinosoar Author

Level 1

23 points

Sep 20, 2013 11:13 AM in response to C F McBlob

My point is, it would appear that whatever algorithms or methodology Apple uses REALLY need tweaking, in my opinion; all the hype and positive pre-release reviews about how "scary accurate" iTunes Radio is about predicting what to play notwithstanding. Just for context, this poster is an avid Mac user since the early 90s, not someone who is just baiting for the sake of creating mayhem in this forum.

I get that Apple will use iTunes Radio to sell songs, but shouldn't they try to steer you toward music that you are more likely to purchase, based on the artists contained in your station?

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Answer 3

C F McBlob

Level 4

2,885 points

Sep 20, 2013 12:41 PM in response to dinosoar

Okay, you've got a valid gripe. I can't really relate since I don't use iTunes Radio or purchase from the store.
This being a user to user forum, I don't know what good posting here will do, but you DO have a valid gripe.

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Answer 4

Sep 20, 2013 1:23 PM in response to C F McBlob

I think what would be useful here (and there are a few other threads like this) is to have somebody knowledgable comment on if this is an bug, feature, can we expect it to improve etc or if anyobdy has heard from Apple on this. I have been testing out itunes radio for the last couple of days with similar results to dinosaur. I also have huge amounts of Apple equipment so using Itunes Radio instead of Pandora would be huge plus for me but I will stick with Pandora if this does not get better.

Made a station with 8 of my favorite artists. It rarely plays any of my artists and plays a bnuch of other stuff that at times has me scratching my head wondering how it could be related to my selection. (Justin Bieber would be one good example!!!!). Also it is repeating the same songs way too frequently. I have had numerous times where it plays the song again after playing just 2 or 3 others in between. it even did it once after I clicked in "never play this song again".

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Answer 5

dinosoar Author

Level 1

23 points

Sep 20, 2013 1:33 PM in response to Terry 440

Terry, this is exactly what I am hoping for -- that Apple, who I understand regularly peruse these forums, would start reading about our and others' cases.

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Answer 6

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Sep 20, 2013 2:02 PM in response to dinosoar

dinosoar wrote:

Terry, this is exactly what I am hoping for -- that Apple, who I understand regularly peruse these forums, would start reading about our and others' cases.

They do but they won't comment.

Changing will take some time to gather data, analyze the issue and come up with a "fix" (if there really is a problem).

I suspect that as with Genius, it takes time while users are accessing it to build the database and adjust the selections.

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