Find new music you’ll love with Apple Music’s Discovery Station

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Let’s Try Something… New?
New music — what a concept!
Image: Pedro Ribeiro Simões/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can find new music on the Apple Music Discovery Station, which gives you a tailored playlist to suggest new artists and jams you’ve never heard before but should like based on your personal musical tastes.

Personalized recommendations have long been a reason people cite for sticking with Spotify over Apple Music. Now, you can add the Discovery Station to my list of eight reasons you should make the switch. Apple Music offers personalized music picks, too, and the system works great.

I’ll show you where to find Apple Music’s Discovery Station and how to make the most of it.

Find new music with the Apple Music Discovery Station

With streaming services putting so many songs at our fingertips, and terrestrial radio slipping into utter meaninglessness, it can be difficult to find new music. Spotify made a name for itself with its highly regarded recommendations algorithm, which many listeners love due to its uncanny knack for turning them on to music they never would have heard otherwise.

Now Apple wants in on the music-recommendation action. The Discovery Station appeared in early August in the Apple Music app with no fanfare. (Apple has yet to comment on the new feature.)

To use it and start discovering new music, you do, naturally, need a subscription to Apple Music. (If you don’t currently pay for it, you can sign up here with our affiliate link.)

Table of contents:

  1. Open the Apple Music app
  2. Scroll down and tap Discovery Station
  3. Add songs you like to your Apple Music library

1. Open the Apple Music app

The Apple Music Discover playlist in the Listen Now tab
Find the Discovery Station in the “Stations for You” section of the Apple Music app.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Ready to find new music you’ll like on Apple Music? First, open the Music app and go to the Listen Now tab if it doesn’t open there. You need to scroll down and down until you get to the “Stations for You” section.

2. Scroll down and tap Discovery Station

Under “Stations for You,” next to “[Your name]’s Station,” tap on Discovery Station. It’ll instantly queue up an infinite playlist of music.

I heard about this feature a couple weeks ago. When in the car with my wife, I told her about it and we put the new Discovery Station on. The first song was a miss, but the second track she instantly fell in love with.

I’m a little more picky about how I listen to music, but I gave it a shot nonetheless. The first handful of songs were alternate versions of songs I already have in my library — a side effect of ripping and importing my own music rather than adding it through Apple Music. After that, though, the Discovery Station recommended some good tunes.

3. Add songs you like to your Apple Music library

If you find something you like, you can easily add it to your library. Just tap the ⋯ button at the top of the Now Playing screen, then tap Add to Library.

If you want to know more about the artist who recorded the song, or the album it’s from, you can tap Go To Artist or Go To Album.

To improve the Apple Music algorithm over time, tap Love or Suggest Less to play more or less of that type of music. Discovery Station’s recommendations should only get better the more you use this feature.

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