Genius

[acosmichippo]

so... does anyone else besides me find this feature unimpressive?

i mean, i already know which of my other tunes sound like each other.. after all, i do listen to all of my music. Of course, it does recommend new music, but naturally won't let you listen to them... only clips in typical iTunes Store style. shake that moneymaker, apple.

meh, oh well. i'll just stick to pandora.

[Hayesimus]

what feature? what are you talking about? iTunes? or the iTunes store?

[Swagger]

Instead of Genius, it should have been called Pop Up Ad. Everytime I activate it to look for "Like" songs in my playlist. All I get is a bunch of songs for sale in the iTunes music store. I see no point in this feature other than to sell. I know how to go to the iTunes music store on my own if I want to purchase songs...Mark

[acosmichippo]

what feature? what are you talking about? iTunes? or the iTunes store?

The feature is called "genius". It's new in itunes 8. It basically is a means for creating playlists of tracks from your library that go well together (even though it kinda ducks at it), and also recommends music you don't have on you library yet.

[Hayesimus]

ahhh... hmmm. sounds kinda mediocre. not bad, but not great either.

[MileHighRob]

I had it create two playlists for me so far and although I'm not in love with the feature I think it did a decent job. Of course, I know all of my music also but it sure cut down the time it takes to create a decent playlist. I'm certainly not raving about it but, at the same time, neither am I hating on it.

[Panache010]

I do not mind it (for the moment) just gives me something new to look at. It is very unimpressive. I guess its good for ppl who like to explore different genre's of music and genius could introduce you to a few related artist. Its more of a tool for them to gain sales than to be a convince to us.

[monkeysrock0622]

I would like to point out, that Jobs said sometime during his presentation, that the way they do this is by using info from everybody's (who choose to participate) music library, so as more info is taken in, the genius feature will get better.

[styfle]

installed itunes 8
read about genius
hid the bar
dont care

PS pandora owns

[Joseph B]

As stated above, it's no Pandora, but I've been impressed with the half-dozen or so playlists that I've created so far using Genius.

For example, while playing Sparks' "One Step at a Time" I pressed the "Genius" button and got a playlist as follows (all derived from my existing library):

1. One Step at a Time (Sparks)
2. Beautiful Disaster (Clarkson)
3. On the Ride (Ally and AJ)
4. Do I Make you Proud (Hicks)
5. Open Your Heart (Madonna!)
6. Love (Lennon)
7. Come Together (****er)
8. I Believe You (Carpenters)
9. Get Closer (Seals and Crofts)
10. Walking on Sunshine (Aly & AJ)
11. I Want it That Way (Backstreet Boys)
12. That's just the Way it Is (Collins)
13. One Fine Day (Chiffons)
14. Call on Me (Chicago)
15. Just for the Record (Sparks)
16. You're only Human (Joel)
17. If Walls Could Talk (Dion)
18. Say You'll Be Mine (Cross)
19. Have you Ever Seen the Rain? (Tyler)
20. Heaven's What I Feel (Estefan)
21. Like Whoa (Aly & AJ)
22. Takin' it to the Streets (Hicks)
23. You Picked Me (A Fine Frenzy)
24. When You Love a Woman (Journey)

That's quite a mix! And it *does* somehow "go together".

I liked it enough to send the list to my iPhone!

[coasts]

anyone thinking that this is just another way for a "business" to "make money" (shame, shame) should click the tiny button to the right of Genius. this allows you to look at only your library without the hard-pressed sales effort.

so far i'm enjoying this new feature. i have a large music collection and don't always think to listen to something, even if i really like it. i'm also not the type to make playlists, so i find myself constantly thumbing through my list of artists to find something to put on. using Genius, i put together a playlist long enough to get me through the better part of the workday. building off Elliott Smith, i got Velvet Underground, Thao Nguyen, Tom Waits, Petra Haden, Cat Power, Devendra Banhart and many, many others.

anyone going on about Pandora must not be personally attached to their own collection. i use it, sure, but i use the skip button a bit too much.

[acosmichippo]

wow... i'm a huge pandora fan. It plays music i already have as well as stuff i haven't heard before. And instead of hitting the "skip" button, you should hit the "thumbs down" button. That helps the station "learn" what you like and don't like. The more you tune one station, the better it gets.

[coasts]

don't get me wrong...Pandora is, um...genius, if you ask me. i just don't always want to hear new music, especially at work and that's where i use my iPod/iPhone the most. having the ability to make a random playlist of like-sounding music is a great add-on iTunes.

[acosmichippo]

i hear what you're saying... i guess my point is that if i want to hear music that sounds like X, then pandora is by far the best at giving me what i want. It seems to me that Genius just kinda grabs artists that are loosely similar to each other... while not taking into account the specific features of a particular song (at least not to the extent that pandora does).

I mean, kudos for implementing it, and i suppose it will only get better... but for me it's just kinda "bleh" right now.

Imagine if these rumors of iTunes subscriptions ever come true... or maybe iTunes Radio... THAT is where Genius really has some potential, imo.

[jptolife]

I absolutely love Genius. I have a ton of songs from years ago and all I did was click one of the newer ones and it made a playlist that I didn't have to skip any song. Love it.

[styfle]

after i saw that genius is going to be in the 2.1 update it might actually be useful
if im driving and i want a random playlist with the same type of music i can just hit the button

now all we need is 2.1 (still waiting and its now 12:45)

[Lincoln]

I love Pandora as well - use it every day - but I'm liking Genius a lot. It does an excellent job of ordering music together and is a great way of rediscovering music that got lost in my library. Plus the sidebar is great; I've found a bunch of new music that I love.