My house is filled with music. Every day we have music coming from at least one HomePod Mini. Drifting between rooms having the same music playing seamlessly is a wonderful way to entertain and party. We will regularly shout into the air “Hey Siri, play…” the genre or decade that strikes the mood. I have found many new and interesting songs that I would not have without an algorithmically generated playlist.

There are two types of Apple Music days: Days in which the algorithm picks the perfect mix, and days that the algorithm kills the vibe. In both cases, there is a similar pattern of musical loops. A musical loop is a playlist that has a “seed” song that repeats. Each time I hear that “seed” song, I think of it as one complete loop. Eventually, the playlist will come back to the first song played.

The most interesting thing about these music loops are the quality of the songs that are in the loop. There is the “seed” song, a hit, one that everyone can tap their toe to. After the anchor, the next several songs fit the genre, but are by bands that I have never heard of, not covers, but adjacent to popular songs. Then there are the B-sides or the tracks that were before the artist’s hit on the album. After the B-sides, the loop heads into the weird part, songs that are in the genre but are either bands that I have never heard of.

The other item of note is the source for the hit songs. It is rare that the hit songs in a given loop come from the original artists album, instead they are from a compilation album or a re-release or remaster. The number of times a hit song is from “Soul Chillout” or “90s Hits Best 90s Music” (a real album that is a compilation).

Does Apple algorithmically push the music towards songs with lower royalty payments? It is not hard to imagine in a world in which Spotify has been using AI generated music and listeners that Apple favors lower costing versions of popular songs. Maybe I’m reading too much into the ambient music in my house, but I keep looping back to the same observations.