Open Radar

 
Summary:
As Apple — perhaps more than any other company — should know, things that are good aren’t necessarily popular. And things that are popular aren’t necessarily good.

Android is very popular, for example, but it’s not good. Macs are good, but — compared to Windows PCs — aren’t popular.

Of course, personal taste comes into account — people who keep buying Android phones probably like them. But for the rest of us, we don’t think they’re good, and their popularity baffles us.

Likewise, with music. There’s a lot of very popular music that the majority of people might like, but — like Android, and Windows — it’s popularity doesn’t make it good. Especially when taking into account personal taste.

So, when Siri is asked to “play good music”, she shouldn’t just play music that’s in the charts. She should take into account personal taste in music — as expressed by the genres and artists that was liked when setting up Apple Music, the songs that have been liked, and the music in a user’s library — or that has strongly positive ratings from music critics.

Steps to Reproduce:
Ask Siri “play me some good music”

Expected Results:
She should play me something that I’ll probably like, based on what I’ve told her about my taste in music.

If she’s going to play popular music, take critical acclaim into account — David Bowie’s music made it into the charts following his death. His work is popular, and is also critically acclaimed. In this case — even if it falls outside my usual taste in music — play it because it’s still “good”.

Actual Results:
She plays me some garbage about “without your kisses, I’ll be needing stitches” that’s far from my taste in music, and that critics have rated very poorly.

Version:
iOS 9.2.1 (13D15)

Notes:
Asking Siri to “play me music you think I’d like” should yield the same results; just now, she just gets confused and tries to play a song with “I’d like” in the title.

Configuration:
iPhone 6s