There are two interesting articles dealing with Apple Music and curation. Fast Company has an interview with Tim Cook in which he criticizes other services relying heavily on algorithms to suggest new music to users. At the same time, 9to5Mac reports that Apple has just added a new Friends Mix to Apple Music.
If you use Apple Music, you are familiar with the weekly-updated playlists like Favorites, New Music and Chill mixes. Friends mix takes its songs from the friends you have linked with on Apple Music. It is kind of like curation without any effort. Just by listening to songs, and probably favoriting them too, you are helping to curate the playlists of your friends.
You can already make and share mixes on Apple Music, as well as other services like Spotify. As long as your friends are on the same service as you, it is a great way to make “mix tapes” of songs. Apple could be in a better position than others to provide a music-centric service as Cook claims that the focus for Apple Music is still to support hardware sales, and not to make a profit as a stand-alone service.
