I have not been able to figure out how to set up a custom Apple Music radio station in iTunes 12.2, with multiple artists as in previous iTunes version.
This would be a deal breaker for me if it is not available.
iMac
Have found a way to add a station from an artist or song (right click with mouse on album cover etc.), but cannot seem to add other similar artists to station like we could with iTunes Radio. This is rather unintuitive, not at all like Apple.
The only way I can get this functionality back is to do that search on an IOS device and create the station there. Then exit out of iTunes on OS X on my Mac and then restart it. When it opens the new station is there. I think Apple wants us to not do this and to possibly subscribe to Apple Music?
I figured out a temporary solution.
Instead of downgrading, which is inaccessible for many, there is a convoluted way to create an Apple Music Radio station (on the Mac.)
1. Select Music.
2. Select the Radio tab.
3. In the search field, search for your song or artist that would normally be in the iTunes Store (or Apple Music.)
4. A list of stations should pop up based on your search.
Now, I understand these custom stations don't offer as much customizability as we previously enjoyed (like the frequency of new or obscure tunes,) but until Apple does something about it this is what we have to do.
I choose to use Spotify's radio now, but since Spotify still lacks the obscure tracks, I sometimes like to use the Apple Music Radio.
Best of luck to you guys, miniluigi
Re: "Unintuitive" in Apple.
You are 100% correct. I've wasted more time clicking on icons that do nothing. Most are symbols that have very little to do with their function, and returning is a completely different symbol in a different place. [Try playing with mini-player and try to get back with icons and the menu. Why does my pointer arrow turn to a finger, on the image, but I have to click on the circle in the lower right? Super-non-intuitive.]
They are doing more and more MS-like hidden right-clicks; items not listed in the menu.
I, too, wanted to adjust my Paul Simon Radio to play less obscure songs, but those adjustments went the way of many other good GUI ideas, into the Trash. Your comfort, ease of use, gets totally blown out of the water with every upgrade.
Personally, this eroding of custom settings, moving further and further from what Apple was known for, but to push me to buying a subscription is only making me move farther away faster.
I can see having no control over the office's elevator music, but I have an entire computer at my disposal, and recreating an FM radio is the best they can do, no control over songs or ads? Soon that will be pay, too. You have a choice to buy it and own it or rent it. Either way, it will cost the user, they depend on the hidden "Internet Radio" as a free "Upgrade" substitute and we would still not have much control. It's like boiling a frog; we're the frog.
The king has died, the magic is gone, and Camelot has become just another crumbling ancient castle on a tourist Google (not Apple) map; a tale we can tell our grandchildren of a land with magical devices, nearly mind-reading user interfaces, with spectacular announcements and major technology advancements.
They won't believe us.
In short, it's not you. I spent the past 2 hours trying to learn Apple's imitation of an Android user interface.
Good luck.
So I need to find someone's old device, still running an older iOS and log them out of iTunes and log into it using my account and customize radio stations on their device. Because the new iOS, takes away the entire point of why I fell in love with the product to begin with. This is ridiculous! Remember when iTunes was actually useful??? This is so senseless. So I'm not messing with this crap anymore, I'm going to cancel my family trial of their iTunes Music - the massacre and downfall of a once perfectly good product, and subscribe to Pandora again because it simply works like it should, a concept lost on Apple. When iTunes Radio was FREE, it was useful. It worked! You were able to create...gasp! radio stations that actually were useful! They worked! What a concept they lost! How do companies screw up so badly! So all this crap trying to find a work around for the last three hours, for nothing. They've taken away the functionality! As soon as they figure out how to make money off of a golden egg they crack it open by taking away all of its functionality and lose the whole point of the product! So first of all, something I've been using for free for the last year and a half is now going to cost me $14.99 a month, and if I do fall for that trap, it doesn't even work like it did for the last year and a half, it's useless now. Custom radio stations are the only thing I used iTunes for! Now Pandora is better. Never thought I'd say that! I'd have to add all of the music in the world related to what I like to a playlist and hit shuffle to get the equivalent of what I've been doing for the last year and a half. Alright, Pandora, I'm back! What's next, will I be sporting an Android???
miniluigi008I figured out a temporary solution.
Instead of downgrading, which is inaccessible for many, there is a convoluted way to create an Apple Music Radio station (on the Mac.)
1. Select Music.
2. Select the Radio tab.
3. In the search field, search for your song or artist that would normally be in the iTunes Store (or Apple Music.)
4. A list of stations should pop up based on your search.
Now, I understand these custom stations don't offer as much customizability as we previously enjoyed (like the frequency of new or obscure tunes,) but until Apple does something about it this is what we have to do.
I choose to use Spotify's radio now, but since Spotify still lacks the obscure tracks, I sometimes like to use the Apple Music Radio.
Best of luck to you guys, miniluigi
The only problem is, I still have customized radio stations from my last year and a half. I finally sold my parents on switching from their paid pandora to this and buying beats studio 2 wirelesses to listen to it, so they don't own any music on iTunes - I was going to use the subscription of iTunes Music add the albums of people they like and create customized radio stations from them like I did over a year ago to the shock that iTunes has destroyed all of that. They don't have any music on my Mac for me to click, and I'd have to mess up my iTunes, because even though I made a spare account for my mom to use iTunes on a computer on my Mac, which I'm on, I'd have to transfer the entire library of purchases on this machine to her account to use iTunes library on this machine! MADNESS! Could they make this any worse???
Honestly, I think Spotify is way better than Pandora. I'm pretty sure they still have free trials (even if they'll be doing away with them soon.)
You know you can have multiple iTunes libraries, right? You just hold down the option key when launching iTunes.
About those customized radio stations– I still have them too. The problem is that I can only access them from Recently Played, so if I play too many other radio stations I won't be able to access them anymore (which is a drag.)
The bad part about creating stations from albums like you mentioned– it's going the way of the dodo bird (even though I'm not sure if it's still extinct anymore, didn't they find some or something?)
Even Spotify doesn't really have that feature. The way iTunes does it is the way Spotify does it– you star songs you like on the radio, then it tries to play songs that are like the songs you starred. The closest thing iTunes has is Genius. The only alternative I can think of is if you use an iCloud Music Library, then save albums you like from Apple Music there, then Genius will be able to use those albums even though you don't own them (technically.)
Sometimes we just have to adapt. Other times we have to get angry and send passive aggressive feature requests.
So far, this seems to be the best solution that I have found: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/os-x-how-to-create-custom-radio-stations- in-iTunes-12-2
Not as awesome as it used to be for creating a station (I miss doing a straight up search and creating a station just based on a music genre) but it works. Hope this helps.
They should just add the ability to create a station from a playlist. How was this overlooked?
Outstanding Chris...very helpful
Clearly Apple wants to push folk to Apple Music. They pushed me back to Pandora.
How do you set up a customised radio station in v.12.2?
