iTunes Artist Alerts are a Disaster

I’m subscribed to Apple’s iTunes Store’s “My Alerts”. Cool, I’ll get emails letting me know of new releases by my favorite bands. The problem is, it’s never worked right. I have zero Elvis songs in my library and really don’t think I’ve ever bought any Elvis music, yet just now I got this in my “My Alerts for this week” email:

Elvis Presley
Sunrise
Release Date: Mar 15, 1999
Genre: Rock

Elvis Presley
Tiger Man (Live)
Release Date: Sep 14, 1998
Genre: Pop

Elvis Presley
Million Dollar Quartet
Release Date: Mar 13, 1990
Genre: Rock

Elvis Presley
A Touch of Platinum: Elvis Presley, Vol. 2
Release Date: Jul 14, 1998
Genre: Rock

Chris Isaak
We Let Her Down – Single
Release Date: Feb 17, 2009
Genre: Pop

Yet when I go to manage this acid trip of an email service, I see this:

Yea, it’s Elvis-free. So my Elvis Alerts come from who-knows-where. (Graceland? Alien Elvis Planets?)

I think Apple is spread too thin. Jobs is notorious for working Apple software engineers very hard, and keeping their numbers low in order to keep projects from suffering from too much communication, too many meetings. Fine I get it. Just don’t get too carried away, because when the Elvis emails start, things get embarassing quickly.