Update: I heard from Apple that this was caused by a bug on their servers, and it has been resolved.
One of my favorite ways to listen to music is my personal Apple Music radio station. Apple added this feature, which it initially called “Personal DJ,” about two years ago. (See this article.)
To create it, just ask Siri, on any device, to “Play some music.” A new station is created using whatever image you have attached to your Apple Music profile (if any). (Read this article to learn how to set up an Apple Music profile.)
I often go back to this station because it generally plays a good cross section of my music. It includes purchases, music I’ve added to my iCloud Music Library, music that I’ve loved, and other music that I’ve played recently or a lot. So if I’m in the car, and I don’t want to spend time deciding what to listen to, I put this on, and skip what I don’t want to hear, but am never really disappointed.
But since yesterday, it’s been broken. It only plays two songs: I Must Have That Man, by Adelaide Hall, and Bengali Blue, by Bobo Stenson and Lennart Åberg. Until just a few minutes ago, when I was about to start writing this article, it only played the first song, and since then, a second song has been added. Sometimes the first song only plays a second or two then stops; sometimes it plays, then the second song plays, then the first one comes back again for a few seconds. And this has happened to other people; I found a number of people posting on Apple’s forums, and on Reddit, who had similar issues: sometimes with a single song, sometimes with two or three.
Feel free to try it out: you can share links to your personal Apple Music Radio station.
But I don’t know how this can be fixed. Some algorithm has gone all William Gibson, and the only way to correct this would be for someone with the keys to the kingdom to reset something in the Apple Music database. It’s unlikely that any first- or second-level Apple Care technician would be able to do that. So I can’t use this personal radio station any more, unless somehow the algorithm figures out that there’s an issue.
Because you cannot delete Apple Music radio stations. Not this one, not any that you create based on songs, albums, artists, or genres. This has long been an annoying, but in most cases, you just shrug it off and move on. They pile up in your Recently Played list, but you can ignore them, because you can just create others with other songs, artists, or genres. But this radio station is special.
If I could delete it, then I could recreate it, and that might fix the logjam – or, the broken record – and it would work as it should again. So, for now, I will no longer have one of the best features of Apple Music at my disposal. This makes me sad.
Have you try disconnecting your account Apple Music from your iPhone and then, reconnect. Or is that too obvious?
It’s not device specific; it happens on all my devices.
Hi Kirk.
I have a similar experience. In my case it affects all Apple Music as a whole. I have talked to the technical service, so that they try to fix it from their side (database, etc …) Even I raised the possibility that they deleted any data from Apple Music associated with my account, to start from scratch. They tell me that They can’t do that. From what I’ve experienced, if something strange happens in an Apple music account at certain levels, it’s impossible to fix it. I am currently subscribed to Spotify. A few months ago I subscribed to Apple Music again, to test if something had been fixed with the simple passage of time. Everything remains the same, nothing works (strange recommendations (Apple Music only recommended songs from Bollywood movies, I’ve never heard that music), no recommended playlist, no album, everything empty …)
Currently, if I wanted to return to AM, my only solution would be to create a new AppleID. Apple Music should have some data deletion option or some similar option, for cases where the database gets corrupted, or when problems of this type arise.
Sorry for my English, it’s not my native language.
Hi Kirk.
I have a similar experience. In my case it affects all Apple Music as a whole. I have talked to the technical service, so that they try to fix it from their side (database, etc …) Even I raised the possibility that they deleted any data from Apple Music associated with my account, to start from scratch. They tell me that They can’t do that. From what I’ve experienced, if something strange happens in an Apple music account at certain levels, it’s impossible to fix it. I am currently subscribed to Spotify. A few months ago I subscribed to Apple Music again, to test if something had been fixed with the simple passage of time. Everything remains the same, nothing works (strange recommendations (Apple Music only recommended songs from Bollywood movies, I’ve never heard that music), no recommended playlist, no album, everything empty …)
Currently, if I wanted to return to AM, my only solution would be to create a new AppleID. Apple Music should have some data deletion option or some similar option, for cases where the database gets corrupted, or when problems of this type arise.
Sorry for my English, it’s not my native language.
On my iMac it is still working. I didn’t know about this feature. So today is the first time I used it. I hope it comes back for those that have lost this feature.
I have the same issue actually. You said that apple fixed it but it seem not to be. Actually my personal radio is not working on all my devices. Have you some news about this issue from Apple ?
I was told that it was a transient bug that affected a small number of accounts. They detected it on their end, and fixed it. How long have you had the problem?