David Emery Online

Curating your curation

2 December 2024

I know from personal experience that if you work with an artist or band, you very frequently end up liking, or even loving, their music. This is true even for music that is wildly out of your comfort zone. This is also partly why whenever you see a flotilla of music execs in a industry magazine choosing their favourite music of the last year — or their tips for next — they will invariably choose their labels’ own.

The wonderful thing about this is that it is not, I think, really about egos, or capitalistic nepotism; No, it’s because music is good. In almost any piece of music you care to identify there is joy to be found, you just have to pay attention. And, if you’re being paid to do so, you may well do just that. I remember, quite some time ago now, I had the immense fortune of visiting Scott Walker for a playback at a studio of his (then) forthcoming album ‘Bish Bosch’. There was about four of us there, along with Scott, baseball cap seemingly permanently affixed to his head, sat round a mixing desk. We shared some pleasantries until he clearly was getting either bored or annoyed by us, upon which he stood up, went over to the console and hit play. The resulting album, as Pitchfork describes it, starts off with 30 seconds of what sounds like a jackhammer, and it only gets stranger from there. I would never have normally listened to that record, but it is a marvel.

All of this to say: I’m starting to quite like Las Vegas pop-rock band Imagine Dragons.

Now, this is not my fault, it’s my kids. They love Imagine Dragons. They know all the songs, all the lyrics, and ask our HomePods to play them every day. And, while I don’t and never have worked with Imagine Dragons, I’m starting to appreciate their approach to writing a very hummable, ear-wormy pop song. But, that appreciation doesn’t extend out to actually choosing to listen to them.

Unfortunately, if you looked at my Apple Music Replay roundup for last year, you would think differently, with Imagine Dragons coming in as my #6 most played artist. Of course it wasn’t me (honest), but I’m sure many parents can relate — if it’s not Imagine Dragons, it’s the Frozen soundtrack, or Pepper Pig, but also it could be whatever euro-pop you listen to at the gym, or white noise to help you get to sleep.

Fortunately, if you’re an Apple Music user you can fix this, and rid your Replay and recommendations of songs that don’t properly represent your music taste. I’ve had enough people ask me about this in the last few weeks that I thought it would be useful to write it up:

How to curate your Apple Music Listening History and Recommendations using Focus Filters

Focus Filters are a customisable version of the “Do Not Disturb” feature on your iPhone, and you can use them to make a button you can tap whenever you don’t want whatever you play to effect your listening history.

First, head to the settings app on your iPhone, then scroll down to ‘Focus’. Next, tap on the ‘+’ button top right to create a new focus, tap ‘Custom’, give it a name and customise the icon, then tap ‘Customise Focus’ on the next screen.

On the customise screen, scroll all the way down to the bottom and tap the ‘Add Filter’ button, then select the Music App Filter. On the next screen, make sure that ‘Use Listening History’ is turned off.

And that’s it — turn on your new Focus Filter in Control Centre by tapping the “Focus” button whenever you accidently find yourself listening to Imagine Dragons.