Apple Music needs more algorithmic control

Apple Music is the best, but needs more user controls

I set off last week to write about how Apple Music's algorithm is aggressive and requires additional user control. That story ended up appearing on AppleInsider, so I wanted to share that here as well.

What I hope for, and have continuously asked for over several years, is a simple toggle within the app. Let me long press or right-click a selection and say "do not track." This should work for songs, albums, playlists, radio stations, and entire genres.

The solution could be that simple. While I'm not a programmer, I do understand that filtering inputs and assigning values to allowed inputs can help train an algorithm. Give users that ability and we can finally listen to music without concern of how it may affect recommendations going forward.

Speaking of viewing our listening data, the Apple Music Replay playlist for 2026 is now available.

My playlist reflects that I'm spending more time on albums than endlessly shuffling singles. That means the list is only 52 songs long for now, but I'm also quite happy with the selection here. It's very reflective of the music I enjoy.

This is an example of a shorter post I might make here on the blog. I had a fairly busy Monday (I'm trying to buy a house), so sometimes I'll find just enough time to point you all to something that's on my mind. Hope you're enjoying the daily posts, and thank you to everyone that signed up for the newsletter so far!