Why You Should Use Love for Songs in Apple Music (With a Bonus Tip)
Personalize Apple Music and discover new artists and songs with Love.
What is Apple Music
Apple Music is a streaming platform that lets you listen to millions of songs. You can browse genres, playlists, artists, albums, radio stations, and more. There are no ads or other distractions, you can download tracks to your device for offline listening, and some tracks already offer spatial audio with Dolby Atmos (to hear sound all around you, but you’ll need accessories like AirPods Pro headphones).
It’s very convenient to sync your music library across multiple devices such as iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. It’s also available for Windows and Android, but it’s primarily designed for Apple devices. You can find out more about the Apple Music app on the official website here.
Price
Apple Music is not free. They offer a free trial and I recommend it to familiarize yourself with the service. Apple offers voice, student, individual, and family subscriptions. I think they are fairly inexpensive compared to other services, especially the family plan. This plan is advantageous because you can share your subscription with five other users. Check the prices here.
I like the Family plan, but also check out Apple One. It’s a bundle of services that includes iCloud+, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade. Depending on your country, you can also get Apple News and Apple Fitness with this bundle. Check service availability here.
I chose this plan mainly because I use iCloud+ for my custom domains, music, and TV. In addition, games are available in Arcade. Plus, you can share all of this with other members of the Apple family, so I find it very convenient and a perfect solution for my (our) needs.
Alternatives
Apple Music is a streaming service that is not alone in this area. There are many alternatives that are just as good or, for some, even better. Some alternatives are Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music, Tidal, and many others. Mostly it depends on the user’s preference which service the user will need and how much money the user will have to spend each month.
Why use Love for a song in Apple Music
I use Apple Music all the time. The sound quality is excellent, and I can find music I like quickly enough. The seamless integration with all my Apple devices is just another plus.
Occasionally, I don’t know what to listen to. The easiest way for me is to go to Listen Now and choose my station. Using the algorithm behind Apple Music, the service will pick songs you might like, some you already know and have listened to, and some that are new. Or I can go to the Made For You section and select one of the pre-made mixes.
But how do you narrow down your tastes so that the service “knows” what you like? I use Love all the time. This is how you tell Apple Music which songs or albums you prefer. You can also dislike music; the service will suggest less music you don’t like.
How to Love a song or album in Apple Music
I mostly listen to music at home on my Mac, but I also enjoy it while driving in the car. There are several ways to love a song in Apple Music on your Mac. On the album or track view, find and click the three-dot menu, then select Love. You can also click the three-dot menu in the music player at the top of the window.
In Apple Music on iPhone or iPad, you can love or unlove (yes, that’s what Apple Music calls the Dislike feature on mobile) a song similarly. Simply tap the three-dot menu, and it’s easy to find.
Another way is to use Siri. I’m not used to it, so I keep forgetting to use it, at least in the car while driving. You can just say ‘Hey, Siri, I like this song’ and that’s it. Here’s the list of Apple Music commands for Siri.
BONUS TIP
I don’t like to be too distracted by my love and dislike of songs while I’m listening or even doing something important on my Mac. For these situations, I use a third-party app called NepTunes, where I can set up a shortcut for the Love feature. I set it to ⌘+L, and regardless of which app I’m in, I just press that shortcut to love the song. You can also set the shortcut for the dislike function. I think other apps allow this, but this one works for me and I like it a lot. It’s so handy.
Conclusion
As you can see, you can personalize Apple Music with the Love and Dislike features. I constantly use it, and I’ve discovered many other artists in the genre I like. But occasionally, it’s good to manually browse through music to find something entirely new. There are so many wonderful musicians out there.
I’m overly interested to know which streaming service you use to listen to your music. If it’s Apple Music, do you use the Love feature? Kindly let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading. Always appreciated.
Tom
Originally published at https://www.tomathosblog.com on October 11, 2022.
