Genius makes iTunes 8 a worthy upgrade

Although I was expecting more from Apple's latest announcements, I've had a few days to play with the Genius feature introduced in iTunes 8 and I'm quite impressed. Pick any song, and it builds a playlist of other songs that fit well with that one. It's a fun and useful feature for those of us too lazy to build playlists by hand, and bored with the auto-playlists (such as by genre, song length, or date added) and the random shuffle feature.

When I picked this Clash song from London Calling, Genius didn't just limit its suggestion to other punk and post-punk bands, but threw in the Stones and Dylan too.

I was worried that the feature would be too obvious--for example, that it would just recommend songs in the same genre or by related artists. In fact, it's much more interesting than that. I'd guess that it's comparing data from millions of other iTunes users who have signed up for the service (part of the install process sends information about your library to Apple), then matching songs that appear frequently with the selected song. It's probably also using my own playback data, favoring songs I've played back to back and have not skipped.

For example, when I picked a Love and Rockets song, it came up with some predictable picks--two more L&R songs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Catherine Wheel--but also had some outside picks like Ministry, The Pixies, and Sisters of Mercy. All of these songs might be broadly categorized as "music that loud-rock fans in their late 30s liked in their wasted youth," but I wouldn't have put them together.

Other experiments revealed a similar mix of expected responses and surprises: a search on a George Harrison tune from All Things Must Pass not only threw up other classic rockers Neil Young and Steely Dan, but also modern-country chanteuse Neko Case and ethereal country-psych outfit My Morning Jacket. Very nice.

I did have some problems getting the Genius feature to recognize certain artists, like Fantomas and Fela Kuti, and my attempt to update the Genius feature from the Store menu resulted in an error message, as it couldn't find some mysterious folder it was looking for. (On my hard drive? At Apple? Who could tell?)

There's also a Genius Bar that recommends similar songs from the iTunes Store that aren't in your collection already, but I hardly buy any music online, and many of the recommendations are already in my LP collection but not yet digitized. So this feature doesn't do much for me, but could be useful for folks who buy lots of music online.

At any rate, it's a free update to a free piece of software, and I can recommend it without reservation for Windows XP users. Vista users, however, might experience the dreaded Windows blue screen o' death when they upgrade and connect their iPhone--check out iPhone Atlas for some possible fixes.

[jackjackeleven]

Its not a worthy upgrade. I use Vista and that BSD litrally messed up my laptop :'(
Apple's hardware department seems to have no quality control processes in place (Remember iPhone 3G cracks, dusty screens and leaking backlight?) and now the software department is following the same. HOW COULD APPLE CONVIENTLY MISS VISTA 32-BIT OS WHILE TESTING I-TUNES???

[kutterer]

I love the upgrade it picks many songs in my collection I haven't listened to in a long time.

However I have both iTunes songs and CD's that I burn into iTunes. The songs it recommends I buy doesn't seem to recognize the CD songs I burned. I have tons of those so be careful before clicking to but the song they recommend you may have it already.

[tonherbosa]

I would just like to know if I need to pay for the Genius service? Do I need to pay to simply activate it, or only for the purchases for istore? If so, how much is the Genius feature?

[nicmart]

iTunes needed file management enhancements much more than it needed a new pathway to the iTunes Store. It still does a terrible job of managing libraries, and keeps far too many files in one root artist folder. Apple still didn't make it possible for all iPods to downconvert larger files (e.g., Apple Lossless) to 128kbps, as is possible with the Shuttle. iTunes has a pretty face covering a shallow mind, which is enough to wow some reviewers.

[estephan500]

to nicmart -- just because you personally would prioritize itunes did some immaculate job of organizing your mp3 files on your drive for you, doesn't mean that is a priority that would really thrill users other than yourself. for instance, I personally don't obsess over the perfect structure file locations... if I did, I would manage them myself and then choose the option for itunes to not modify them. Although I don't worship the many little arrows in itunes that lead to the itunes store, only one, totally boring side-use of Genius leads to the itunes store. its real use -- which in this case is VERY useful and innovative -- is to make mixes and connections within your own music. it has really opened up my music listening and it doesn't have a damn thing to do with the store. I closed that pane the day I installed it. what I wish is that the columnist (or anyone else) would research and find a few hints from apple about the technology apple uses, just for my interest, not for 'worries about privacy.' -- whether does it by anonymously comparing with others' collections... whether a song is uniquely identified through its metadata or through a digital fingerprint (so if someone simply had music imported as track1, track2, or any bastardized version of the names, then genius wouldn't pick it up...)

[tek-ed]

But how well does it do with less popular bands? I mean, if I picked Shpongle, would it also select Halucinogen or perhaps some Paul Okenfold tracks? Or if I picked some Boards of Canada, would it suggest Shpongle? Or would it choke on it's own short-sightedness and not give me any alternatives? How about Yellow Magic Orchestra? I would select some Joy Electric and perhaps some Komputer or even Kraftwelt...I doubt that iTunes has ever even heard of any of these bands, let alone offer any valid suggestions.
Ed
web/gadget guru

[mexic0]

Every single one of those artists are available on iTunes, and I'm willing to bet they actually have obscure artists that you haven't heard of yet. Check it out!