“The latest update of iTunes (version 8) contains a new feature called Genius, which creates playlists from your library of music, as well as recommending songs for you to download,” Graham Charlton reports for E-consultancy.
“All in all, [Genius is] a good discovery tool, which will work better the more songs you have in your iTunes library,” Charlton reports.
“Genius is one of the most welcome additions to iTunes; it manages to add value to the service by working as a discovery tool, and the easy link with the iTunes Store will no doubt have people spending more than they would have done before,” Charlton reports.
Full review here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Yup, Genius rules. That’s pretty much the way I listen to iTunes now…
I’m loving that genius more and more each day.
Mine hasn’t reach genius level yet…perhaps it’s still learning. More like “occasionally gifted.”
iTunes Genius: My financial suicide. I’ve bought dozens of songs already from it’s recommendations. Awesome tool but bad for the pocketbook.
Mine is more like an autistic savant.
It’s like having a miniature, magic leprechaun that doesn’t eat, sleep, crap or shed and loves my taste in music. It was meant to be.
and remember when everyone was complaining that apple dropped the ball by not including some cool tech?
show’d them
There’s just one more thing I can think of that they need: You should be able to create a list in the store (by selecting a search, essentials mix, or iMix) and then hit a play (or sample) button that plays the 30 second sample of each song in the list. It would be the perfect way to ‘browse’ multiple songs of an album, or multiple songs in an iMix or essentials list, without having to separately select each one.
This would allow the most efficient browsing of music, and would be good for Apple, as well – it would greatly increase impulse buying, and probably album or whole-list purchases as well.
Discovery tool? That happened for me when I was 8.
I wish list would be nice.
I’m using it right now. LOVE IT!
I have already found a lot of songs from the distant past that I am glad to listen to again. Not a perfect tool, but a great addition to iTunes functionality.
I only have this to say about Genius, and the iTunes store: ‘it’s easy, in one place, and I can find new songs I like quickly.” Well, actually my wife said it, but hey if our ‘leaders’ can plagiarize, I can too.
I’ve never seen a company (Apple) work so hard to make money for an industry (record companies) that hates them.
@goddess
You can create your own wishlist in 2 ways.
1) use the Shopping Cart mode. This lets you store songs that you want to buy, but buy them later.
2) drag songs into a “Wishlist” playlist that you create. They’re stored with a Buy button just like in the store.
as much as i love itunes the ui is getting a little bit old and the genius shop recommendation system is akward and boring. (the playlist generation is brilliant though). is is strange to point out but microsoft’s zune software actually has a much better ui in its very maclike recommendation feature called “mixview”. it is grafical, fun and innovative. feels very strange to say that. i feel dirty.
http://gizmodo.com/5048818/microsoft-mixview-is-prettier-more-useful-version-of–itunes-genius
The most important thing that could be added to iTMS is a wish list. I’m using an Amazon wish list for the items that I want to buy from iTMS! I’m trying to use the Alert Me system as well – but it’s just not a wish list. Come on Apple!