Digital Payola??? (1 Viewer)

[John Dirk]

So... I attended a concert earlier this year by a band I'm a longtime fan of. Since this approximate time I've noticed my iPhone selects an extremely inordinate number of songs from this group when I tell it to randomize my selections. I'm talking sometimes as many as 5 consecutive songs. This particular group has spawned a few solo artists and spinoff groups over the years and their songs are also frequently selected in random mode. I'm not an Apple Music subscriber. My library consists solely of songs and albums I've either imported to iTunes or purchased outright from the iTunes Store.

Am I being paranoid here or could Apple be trying to convince me I want more songs from this family of artists? Honestly, it seems too creepy to be true but I did have my phone with me when I attended the concert and I'm not imagining what's happened since then.

Thoughts???

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My guess would be something less than the phone tracking your location at the concert, and more that either iTunes is drawing upon your collection of purchased and uploaded music to point you in the direction of more of the same. If you do web surfing or email on Apple devices, it might have noticed you purchasing tickets or looking up concert information, and might be drawing its recommendations based on that information.

I started researching engagement ring designs six months before I proposed and it probably took two years for ads for engagement rings to stop showing up on all my devices. Freaking cookies.

 

[DaveF]

My experience with iTunes and Apple Music it it’s heavily weighted by:

• Favorites
• Recently listened
• Similar music
• Overall popularity / rankings of songs

I’d wager you were listening to these songs a lot before your concert — that’s what we do, right? And probably listened again after the concert. And I bet some these repeated songs are “Favorite” or highly rated in your library. So, I expect, you sent strong signals to iTunes to give you this music and music like it — which are the handful of songs you own by the same artists in different bands. And that’s what iTunes is doing.

But because iTunes seems to be weighted strongly by popular music, it tends to go with hits and doesn’t pull deep cuts very much. And that feels like it leads to random mixes getting stuck in a rut, a lot of repetition at times.

Listen to something else. LIsten to some albums in a different genre by different artists that you like. I bet that will “fix” it. My random selection is swayed profoundly by what I’ve listened to recently. It can swing wildly from heavy metal to electronica to ‘80s pop depending.

 

[Chip_HT]

I've been researching epoxy resin for a project I'm attempting around the house, and not only has my Facebook feed been flooded with ads for epoxy products, but so has my wife's.

We joke that the Alexa device in our kitchen can pick up on our conversations about that, but yet somehow has hearing problems when we tell it to play music.

 

[John Dirk]

My guess would be something less than the phone tracking your location at the concert, and more that either iTunes is drawing upon your collection of purchased and uploaded music to point you in the direction of more of the same. If you do web surfing or email on Apple devices, it might have noticed you purchasing tickets or looking up concert information, and might be drawing its recommendations based on that information.

I started researching engagement ring designs six months before I proposed and it probably took two years for ads for engagement rings to stop showing up on all my devices. Freaking cookies.

I have thousands of songs in my library and this family of artists probably represents less than 5%, total. Also, this only began after we attended the concert and my library hasn't changed much since then. My wife bought the tickets and she's an Android user, so that shouldn't be a factor.

I don't know how they may have done it, but it does seem like more than a coincidence.

 

[John Dirk]

I’d wager you were listening to these songs a lot before your concert — that’s what we do, right? And probably listened again after the concert. And I bet some these repeated songs are “Favorite” or highly rated in your library. So, I expect, you sent strong signals to iTunes to give you this music and music like it — which are the handful of songs you own by the same artists in different bands. And that’s what iTunes is doing.

But because iTunes seems to be weighted strongly by popular music, it tends to go with hits and doesn’t pull deep cuts very much. And that feels like it leads to random mixes getting stuck in a rut, a lot of repetition at times.

Now that much is true, especially after the concert. Does Apple Music automatically assign higher ratings to songs and artists based on listening frequency? I never adjust ratings manually.

 

[Jason Goodmanson]

I've been researching epoxy resin for a project I'm attempting around the house, and not only has my Facebook feed been flooded with ads for epoxy products, but so has my wife's.

We joke that the Alexa device in our kitchen can pick up on our conversations about that, but yet somehow has hearing problems when we tell it to play music.

I wish I remembered where the article was that I read, but it went into depth about how this happens. It always seems like our phones are listening, but it's all about tracking. Not just about the website (and the cookies) that I visit on my phone, but if we're both on the same wi-fi network or our GPS coordinates put us in similar locations, these advertisers figure that we're together and start blasting similar ads to each other. It's how malls and such can pump ads at you about the GAP when you just walked by.

(It's kind of funny when you opt out as much personalized ads as you can (never all) the ads you see are BIZARRE at best (especially on YouTube, at least for me.))

I'm sure concerts are similar - since all of these apps have basically what amounts to an invasion of privacy, but we all us them, it wouldn't be far fetched to think that since Apple knows you were at a concert (because you had to use Ticketmaster's app (damn I miss physical tickets!)) Apple will suggest more songs by that artist and then Facebook will start giving you more ads for similar music or other artists on that label or management company. And on and on it goes.

 

[Jason Goodmanson]

On an aside - having an app like uBlock Origin installed on your browser is frightening sometimes when you see just how many trackers are trying to get onto your machine when you visit websites.

HTF shows 10 which is surprising by just how minuscule that number is. My primary financial institution has 16, my local newspaper has 32, Best Buy shows 13, and Amazon shows 17, no wait, it slowly keeps climbing - up to 22 now. 25. 29. You sneaky bastards!

 

[DaveF]

Now that much is true, especially after the concert. Does Apple Music automatically assign higher ratings to songs and artists based on listening frequency? I never adjust ratings manually.

It doesn’t change your ratings. But its shuffle feature for the subscription service is obviously based on recently listened music. I assume it works the same without the subscription, using only your library.

It’s clearly an algorithm designed to give you more of what you listen to. Listen to an artist and you get more of that artist and its genre.

Now, I don’t know what shuffle and playback feature you’re using. I assume you’re using your “Station” or “Recently LIstened” in the “Listen Now“ tab.

 

[John Dirk]

Now, I don’t know what shuffle and playback feature you’re using. I assume you’re using your “Station” or “Recently LIstened” in the “Listen Now“ tab.

No. Just the "shuffle" feature at the top when the app is opened.

 

[DaveF]

No. Just the "shuffle" feature at the top when the app is opened.

I expect it works the same way. But I never shuffle my raw library. That’s just madness!

 

[DaveF]

You might check if songs are downloaded to your phone beyond those particular high-repeat songs? if you’re not paying for any of the subscription stuff, and have optimize storage on, there might be a smaller set of music available for shuffle than you assume?

 

[John Dirk]

Perhaps there is something weird going on as this seems counterintuitive. Either way I appear to have plenty of local storage space available so would my music library be affected as you described?

 

[BobO'Link]

And yet you've not told us the name of the band so how can you be generating payola? That would occur when *we* all start listening to and buying their material after your recommendation...

 

[John Dirk]

And yet you've not told us the name of the band so how can you be generating payola? That would occur when *we* all start listening to and buying their material after your recommendation...

LOL - My thought in naming the thread was Apple Music steering me to purchase more music from their store after assuming I'd be interested based on the concert I recently attended. It may not have been an accurate description of "Payola" as it applies to radio stations of old.

The "band" was New Edition.