Love How Apple Music Introduces Me to Musicians

When Apple Music officially launched this week, I was one of the first to sign-up. It’s easy to use. They did a solid job. The baseline functionality isn’t that different than Spotify or any of the other services.

One thing that’s stood out is some of the personalized playlist recommendations under the “For You” tab. I get recommendations like “Intro to Queens of the Stone Age” or “Intro to Dave Matthews.” The playlist has some background about the artist. It then gives you a tour of all the hits that you need to know to get to know that artist.

Especially with music, we often shy away from new musicians and only go with what we know. Trying something new can feel intimidating. When approaching a new music genre, where do you start?

The Apply Music playlists start you off with the greatest hits. For the “Introduction to Dave Matthews,” you started with “Crash Into Me.” If you’ve never listened to the band before, this absolutely should be your first song. It’s something you’ve heard before. You’ll get drawn into wanting to listen to more. Then they hit you with “Don’t Drink the Water.” BOOM! There’s another great one. You want more.

When I was in college, my roommate loved this niche of electronic dance music. It gave me a headache. The whole genre turned me off. It wasn’t till I lived in Vegas for a year and saw advertisements for Calvin Harris that I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly impressed with how much I enjoyed it. I was also surprised how much of his music I’d already heard from popular culture. It’s made me want to listen more.

In today’s internet age, we have platforms provide TONS of options. If you want us to consume more, you need to find ways to get out of our comfort zone and try something new.

What do you not like? Country music? Rap music? Jazz? I’d bet, if properly introduced to it, you could learn to appreciate it.