How to Confuse the iTunes Genius

[nodramachicks]

Announced today, iTunes 8 is officially available for download, and it does indeed add some nice new features to Apple's music software. The most interesting of them all is Genius, a playlist- and recommendation-generating sidebar/button combo that uses the combined power of the iTunes user base to make cohesive, nicely flowing mixes.



In order to work correctly, Genius requires two things of iTunes users after download: you must have an iTunes store account (a lengthy disclaimer on the sign-in page assures you that all your account information is stored anonymously), and you must wait for iTunes to scan your entire music library and catalog your iTunes collection.

The latter process took a while; Genius took about 20 minutes to fully scan my 2,857 song (12.4GB) library, or just over a minute and a half per gig of music. Still, I'm assuming this is a one-time-only wait, and that subsequent additions to my iTunes library will take much less time to scan and catalog. In other words, I hope Genius doesn't scan my entire library every time I add new songs.

The reason behind this lengthy song indexing and data-export to Apple? In his iPod and iTunes announcement today, Steve Jobs said it was to match up your tastes to other iTunes users. Genius analyzes what those users had also bought, what they're also listening to, and displays your Genius playlists and recommendations accordingly.

The first few passes through Genius worked great, and it's a straightforward, intuitive process. To use Genius, you select a track in your library and click the "Genius" button at the bottom right corner of the iTunes interface (which looks suspiciously like the Springfield Isotopes logo). Once you're viewing a playlist, buttons on the top right of the iTunes interface let you refresh that playlist with a new batch of songs, save that playlist for good, or adjust the number of songs in your list.

In my first test, playing a song by The Roots brought up a 25-song playlist immediately after clicking the button. This playlist was spot-on, consisting of similar hip-hop acts (Ghostface, Madvillain, The Pharcyde, and Public Enemy, for example). The Genius Sidebar also updated properly, giving me one-click access to purchase albums and songs by The Roots, as well as recommendations and buy links for similar-sounding acts (Rahzel, Talib Kweli, Ghostface, and Mos Def, for example).

The Pixies built a playlist featuring Pavement, The Breeders, Modern Lovers, Neil Young, and Neutral Milk Hotel--another success. Playing Wilco also brought up some nice results: a playlist filled with Arcade Fire, Spoon, Grandaddy, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Elliott Smith songs. But mixed in with those results were a few head-scratchers: the Ramones, Ween, and Nirvana.

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[Chefanim]

I just did the upgrade yesterday and havent had much time to play with the Genius yet. Im awaiting the iPhone 2.1 Software update to see what improvements, If any, are made.

For all iPhone users:

Upgrading iTunes will NOT undo your jailbreak/unlock
BUT Upgrading your Firmware to 2.1 when it is released on Friday will. Wait for the Dev Team to crack it before upgrading.