Apple Music: How to like or dislike music

One of the great things about Apple Music is how it provides customized suggestions for songs, albums and playlists on the For You tab. It does this by noting your likes and dislikes. So as time goes by Apple Music will provide music that is truly personalized to your tastes.

But how do you like or dislike music in Apple Music? No worries, I’ll show you exactly how to do it in this tip. And you’ll soon have lots of great curated suggestions for music that are based on your personal preferences.

How to like music in Apple Music

It’s very easy to indicate that you like a song, music or playlist in Apple Music. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Find the song, album or playlist you want to like.

2. Tap or click on the heart icon.

3. Your like will be saved and Apple Music will note that you enjoyed that song, album or playlist.

4. If you change your mind, just tap the heart icon again to unlike the item in Apple Music.

Each time you tap the heart, you are telling Apple Music what you like and that will have an influence over what music you see appear in the For You tab.

How to dislike albums or playlists on the For You tab in Apple Music in iOS

As great as Apple Music is at finding music that you might enjoy, the service will on occasion show you music that you aren’t interested in on the For You tab. Just follow the steps below to indicate that you disliked the suggestion.

1. On the For You tab find the album or playlist that you didn’t like.

2. Press and hold the album or playlist.

3. A menu will appear.

4. Tap on the “I Don’t Like This Suggestion” option in the menu.

Apple Music will note your dislike of that album or playlist and take it into account when it offers you music in the future.

This feature seems to apply to albums and playlists in iOS only. The For You tab in iTunes in OS X doesn’t seem to offer the same option right now.

How to like or dislike songs on a radio station in iTunes

Apple Music offers the ability to create a radio station based on a song. For example, I created a station based on the “Bark at the Moon” song by Ozzy Osbourne. When you start playing your station in iTunes in OS X, you can tailor it by clicking on the star and choosing from these two options: Play More Like This or Never Play This Song. Using the star rating in a radio station does not affect the For You tab in Apple Music, it just customizes what songs play on that particular station.

Customizing a radio station is obviously a bit different than a song, album or playlist in Apple Music. You still can click on the heart icon to the right of the song’s name in iTunes if you want Apple Music to note that you liked that song when it played on your radio station.

So the bottom line here is that you can customize the songs played on your radio station without affecting the content displayed in the For You tab. But you also have the option to tell Apple Music that you liked an individual song from that station by tapping or clicking the heart icon. This might sound a bit confusing, but it’s not when you see it in iTunes.

Some great suggestions so far in Apple Music

Since I’ve been liking and disliking music in Apple Music, I’ve been finding some great stuff. This morning I got up and found “Blatantly in Love: The 70s” in the For You Tab. It had a list of love related songs from the 70s that even included the Kiss song “Do You Love Me?” from the Destroyer album. I hadn’t heard that song in I don’t know how many years, but it’s blasting on my iMac right now.

Other items on the “Blatantly in Love: The 70s” playlist included songs from the Eagles, Nazareth, Moondog Matinee, Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and the Steve Miller band. So it’s quite an interesting mix. Even Paul McCartney’s band Wings had a song in the playlist: “Silly Love Songs.” That’s another song I haven’t heard in years, but it was fun to hear it again after all this time.

I must admit that I look forward to loading the For You tab each morning when I get up. So far Apple Music has been doing a great job providing rock and roll, a bit of country, some heavy metal, and even a little bit of pop music for me to enjoy.

The more you like and dislike, the more customized Apple Music becomes

If you’ve just gotten started with Apple Music, you’ll need to start liking and disliking things to really customize your music recommendations. When you first start using the service what you see will be based on what you picked in terms of genres and artists. The more you like and dislike suggestions, the more Apple Music becomes customized to your individual taste in music.

Thankfully, Apple has made it very easy to teach Apple Music about your musical preferences. Liking music by tapping or clicking on the heart icon is fun, and it takes just a second to do. Disliking suggestions in the For You tab in iOS requires a bit more effort, but it’s worth doing since it will help filter out music that you might not be interested in.

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