Skip to main content

Apple Music’s iOS 10 update includes new personalized playlists to compete with Spotify

apple macbooks russian registration appears thursday event music screenshot
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The 17 million Apple Music subscribers will get access to a fresh new batch of tunes from the streaming service when they update their iOS devices to iOS 10 on September 13.

The company has released its My New Music Mix playlist for Apple Music on the iOS 10 operating system. It’s a personalized list of 25 songs that is updated each Friday and based on a listener’s previous streaming history.

The new feature will compete with Spotify’s popular Discover Weekly playlist, which is updated each Monday. Apple previously announced the feature, then called the Discovery Mix, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

In addition to the My New Music Mix playlist, the company has launched a list that will be updated each Wednesday called My Favorites Mix. It includes songs that a user has played many times before, alongside songs that the company’s algorithm thinks sound similar. This playlist is designed for those who are set in their musical ways, but who might want to hear some new jams from time to time, rather than 25 songs that they don’t know all at once.

Whether or not Apple’s algorithm will prove as beloved by streaming listeners as Spotify’s Discover Weekly remains to be seen, but given the company’s decade-plus history as a force in the digital music industry, Apple probably had plenty of internal data with which to hone its music-matching skills. Apple Music itself has been a success for the company, with Apple presently accruing nearly 1 million new paid subscribers each month.

That growth has largely been fueled by exclusive releases from big-name artists, with the company getting first rights to more than 70 key releases in the past year.

Apple Music has become the premiere destination for new and existing artists to launch their music,” said CEO Tim Cook at the company’s press event today, doubling down on the company’s approach to subscriber acquisition.

Still, adding features is always a great way to get new users, and the company was smart to create two rivals to Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist.

The new playlists can be found in the “For You” section of the Apple Music application. Those without a beta will have to wait patiently for the imminent iOS 10 launch.

Editors' Recommendations

Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
Apple is updating one of the oldest apps on your iPhone
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro showing the screens.

Apple iPhone 14 Pro (left) and iPhone 15 Pro Max Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Apple has updated one of its original iPhone apps, the Clock app, in the first iOS 17.4 beta. Specifically, the update includes a small, but significant change to the Stopwatch function.

Read more
iOS 18 may be a giant iPhone update. Here are 6 things it needs
iPhone 15 Pro display with iPhone 15 Pro Max in background.

A new year means new software updates. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, iOS 18 could be the “biggest” update for iOS in quite some time, though this is something we tend to hear every year. I’m not sure any iOS update has been as big as the jump from iOS 6 to iOS 7, as a lot of the features and design changes since then could be considered iterative.

Personally, I think the last “biggest” iOS update for me was iOS 14, as it allowed for home screen widgets and app icon customization without a jailbreak for the first time. Since then, there haven’t been as many new features in iOS that have been game changers for me, but this is all subjective. What was a big deal for me may not be the same for you, and vice versa.

Read more
I need this iOS concept feature on my iPhone right now
An iOS concept showing a Smart Stack of widgets below the app dock.

It's always fun to imagine and speculate what new smartphone operating systems will bring. With Apple's iOS 18 update launching later this year — and reported to be a big one — there's a lot of anticipation over what Apple's next iPhone update will bring to the table.

We don't know much about what the next iOS update will offer, but there is one feature that I now need it to have. Product designer Gavin Nelson recently shared an iOS concept feature on X (formerly Twitter) and Threads, and it looks incredible.

Read more