“I’ve finally downloaded the iTunes 8 update, and played around a bit with the Genius song recommendation feature. After a test drive, I’ve decided it’s the best thing Apple has added to its music management suite in quite a while,” Jon Fortt reports for Fortune.
“Genius solves my ‘iTunes laziness’ problem. I’ve got 4,000 items in my library, I listen to genres as diverse as gospel, alternative and hip-hop, to and I’m too lazy to make good playlists out of it all. I used to count on the Party Shuffle feature to save me, but got tired of how it would end up throwing in random Christmas carols at the wrong times of year,” Fortt explains.
“A couple of reasons Genius is a good move for Apple, business-wise: One, it encourages people with decent-sized iTunes libraries to listen more… Two, it increases the ‘stickiness’ of iTunes,” Fortt writes.
“Apple is making great use of the computing power in its data centers to unobtrusively provide a feature that any music lover will understand,” Fortt writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: iTunes “Genius” feature gets “smarter” the more people use it, so expect the random weird song choice(s) you might see now to evaporate over time.
It’s not perfect but I like it.
Who cares that it provides another way for Apple to sell more music. It’s just one more reason that will feed Monkey Boy’s penchant to throw a couple of chairs!
G4Dualie,
It’s not perfect, yet, but the more data we all throw at it, the better it gets. It’ll be damn close to perfect sooner than most people seem to think. It’s already noticeably better today than it was at launch.
With over 30,000 songs in my iTunes library and 16,280 of them purchases from the iTunes store, it will take a LONG LONG time for the Genius to make proposed playlists for me.
(I have had iTunes on my systems since the first day it was around – and that is when we would rip sort and burn not buy from some digital CD store in the clouds!
I am reserving judgement on the genius of “Genius”… maybe good but I may have to let it do its work over several days. And I am a privacy freak, too… so, I am a bit cautious with all of this information sharing.
Cheers…
I think it’s kind of funny to hear reviewers discussing how “perfect” or “imperfect” an automated recommendation system might be. What is the measure of perfection? Should the songs in a Genius playlist “relate” to one another, and if so, what is the measure of that relatedness? Is the purpose to create a listenable, entertaining sequence of music or is it to introduce the listener to new music, and do those two goals dove-tail? Sometimes I want to listen to music I already know, but haven’t listened to in a while — and so I hope a feature like Genius or Pandora will present music I’m already familiar with. Other times, I’m very open to hearing something new, and so I want to be presented with related music that I don’t know.
So I guess my point is really this — I don’t think Genius should be evaluated by creating a playlist based on a song and asking “how did it do?”. Rather, it is a tool that has different uses in different contexts for different listeners — and so the real measure will be in how people actually use the tool to discover new music, to mine massive existing libraries for forgotten music, or just to quickly create a compelling playlist to listen to (or other uses I’m not thinking of).
MizuInOz “And I am a privacy freak, too”
If you have iTunes songs on your computer, Apple already has name and credit card info from you. How could you then be paranoid that they get your precious song information?
*scratches head*
…hey wait, you say you have “16,280 of them purchases from the iTunes store” How on earth could you *still* be worried they have your precious song information? They already have 1/2 of your songs in their database!! Not to mention 16k of your dollars!
Are you for real?
I hope those people at the Apple Store Genius Bar are getting paid overtime for putting all those songs together.
I heard it was only 99 and 44/100ths pure genius……
Genius has me listening to songs in my library I forgot I’d ever even put in there. I love it.
Better, but the iTunes interface is so un-mac like.
Speaking as someone with 20 years Mac experience.
The interface has always looked like change for the sake of change, rather than for the better.
But thats me. Would just prefer all files, music whatever to appear on one folder like downloads, for example, and drag direct to iPod.
But that’s too simple.
Genius has me listening to songs in my library I forgot I’d ever even put in there. —Dan Pallotta
Which is exactly what the “genius” feature is all about. It’s like the shuffle feature on steroids.
It is pure genius yes, but really, who wants all the equipment and storage necessary to store thousands of songs, cluttering up their lives homes and travel kits?
This is why you *will* stop trying to horde bits as well as atoms and simply come to rely upon the cloud.
We’re here to make your life simpler. It’s what we do. No worrying about DRM because we manage the rights invisibly for you. No matter if you just want to put together a playlist of your down tempo chillaxed to the max sweet beats after doing your banking on your Android phone, or if you want to whip that Android out and put on a public performance with some Tosca, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Sneaker Pimps, St. Germain, do a little mixing with Google Mixer and blow Paul Oakenfold’s doors off, the cloud will be there to assist.
The Goog
There can be only one.
@twilightmoon… with a name like that YOU ask me if I am real.
My purchases are not for database comparison – my concern – not paranoia – is about that information being intercepted as one data file.If it is encrypted – which it easily can be – then there is nothing to worry about.
Just because I have copious amounts of music and can easily afford to purchase music from iTunes as I wish, does not make me any more or less real – it just means that I have a goodly amount of disposable income. Nes pas?
Also, the more specific data is transferred, the more likely it can be purloined. Obviously, that can be a concern nowadays.
And yes, APPL does have purchasing information of mine – and all that is disclosed from client side to server-side transactions is that the data is correct and current. the details are stored on your personal computer. It is not stored on Apple’s servers.
Cheers.
@MizuInOz
I have over 35000 songs. I’m not sure how long the initial pass took for iTunes to go through my library but I started it, went upstairs, made a sandwich, returned a couple phone calls, came back downstairs and it was done.
Now when I click on a song, and click the genius button it generates a playlist, I N S T A N T A N E O U S L Y.
And it does an amazing job.
Like you, probably half my music came from god know where and it handles that as well.
The playlists are sweet and I had exactly the same experience as the writer above, I started finding music I’d forgotten I’d acquired.
It occurs to me that the genius playlist feature works so well that it might curb my appetite for music indefinitely as I just keep generating playlists and being satisfied with the results. Apple could see a drop in music purchases because of this.
LOL
Thanks theloniusMac..
Nice feedback…
Cheers… I will venture into the unknown – to me and return and report!
Play your fiddles while Rome burns.
Have you considered the possibility that as Itunes gets smarter it may take control over the military and destroy the world.
Great! But now Apple, pls make it available in all European countries.
The real Skynet is launched
“Genius sidebar could not find matches for your specific selection…”
The genius in my iTunes is a goddam idiot.
What it selects from the iTunes Store is a joke and usually, the same things regardless of musical style.
I want to kill my genius.
Maybe to be fair, I have purchased NOTHING from the iTS and have nothing from there except for a few podcasts. I rip music from my own CD collection and usually need to re-enter inaccurate track info downloaded from CDDB (or is it CCDB?).
So, maybe I’ve got a retarded genius in my iTunes.
If so, it should just put it out of it’s misery.
Javier…
If it’s that smart, it will dismantle all armies, abolish all countries and borders and SAVE the World!
I have lots of obscure music. Genius only works on one third of my total playlist. Nothing in the “Blues” genre. In other genres it’s hit and miss – even with songs by one artist! And that’s with songs iTunes sells. Frustrating.
Here’s hoping that improves.
Worked for me too. I had to update genius first but after that it works. Not sure when I’ll get to use it since my iPod is 4 years old 🙁
@freefromdesign and @Mr. Reeee
Actually, if Its Genius was Skynet, it would not dismantle armies, abolish all countries and borders. Instead, it would create a buddy list of similar countries, Kim Jong Il would be on the same play list and Colonel Kadafi for example.
Mr. Reeeeeee. What borders? Surely not the one between the USA and Mayheeko. Is there one?