I think it's quite unlikely to be as you're suggesting. Call it a coincidence.

Remember this one - Paranoia Will Destroia!

lol

You know, there is some interesting verbiage in the Apple Music terms of use that talks about data sharing.

Last time, I just went into Lowes for a quick return and there was Gaga. That was a bit different than the previous genres, but still on my playlists.

I haven’t noticed the coincidence in other stores yet.

I am in the tech field. We tend to think ahead of our time, and well, this seems like an obvious progression to get people to spend more time in the store. Funny how it doesn’t get more press. Marketing techniques like music in stores used to get more press.

Now that I think about it, I have been told that Lowes has emphasized visual merchandising in their stores to appeal to certain audiences. I haven’t done my own research on it yet, but it would be interesting to know more. This person made it sound like they were doing some new and innovative marketing in this area.

An aside, Apple seems to add tunes and artists to my downloads without my allowing it. I haven’t taken the time to figure that one out either. It could be related to collaborations with other artists that I’ve downloaded, or maybe AI induced. I turned off data access to automatic downloads and I don’t have wifi. Another mystery.

Then to be an effective technique, all of the customers in the store at the same time with custom Apple Music playlists would be "time-shared" by the system? Or would the biggest Lowes spender among those customers get all the playtime?

So, when I asked about it, a Lowes associate said they play the same music all the time. I have trouble believing that.

I also noticed it recently in Home Depot and maybe Walmart. Although now Walmart seems to have it’s own radio station or something with talking (which is really distracting when you are tring to choose a product on the shelf).

It could be that there are not very many Apple Music subscribers in my area. And I tend to go shopping when there are few people in the store.

I’m feeling a little guilty if the Lowes playlist gets stuck on my music preferences though.

I suspect there are companies out there aggregating data and using it to choose music for store play.