Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, discusses the difference between algorithm and human curation. In order to be scalable, most problems are solved via algorithm. For example, in order to work on a world-wide basis and still be cost efficient, Google Translate must depend on algorithmic translation. Imagine the costs involved in having each request translated by hand.

On the other hand, Apple Music employs human curation in a number of ways. The tracks played on Beats 1 are selected by hand. The very first track played, City, was by a relatively unknown artist. No algorithm would ever have made that choice.

As you make your way through the various areas that make up Apple Music, you can’t help but notice all the handwork. Though the For You section depends on algorithm at some level (an algorithm helps build the picture of your personal musical tastes, for example), the playlists are clearly hand crafted by humans.

With Apple Music’s human curation in mind, Jean-Louis observes:

If it’s a good idea to use human curators to navigate 30 million “songs”, how about applying human curation to help the customer find his or her way through the 1.5M apps in the Apple App Store? Apple bought Beats for $3B and spent a good chunk more to build its Music product. Why not take another look at the App Store jungle and make customers and developers even happier?

Jean-Louis’ Open Letter to Tim Cook from last August does an excellent job making this point.