So along with the hot iPods, iTunes released the new Genius feature for iTunes 8.0 that does two things. First, the new version allows you to make on-the-fly playlists based on one song that you choose. The choice is heavily dependent on the genre, artist and I even think it has something to do with the cadence of the song. iTunes chooses similar beat counts for that playlist.
The second part of Genius is the iTunes recommendations sidebar, which is their monetization model. When you’re playing songs, iTunes can recommend songs from their library which you can click to purchase. It isn’t available in the Philippines, sadly (see first image).
The Genius concept is not new. Online services such as Last.FM and Pandora have implemented this related playlist scheme for quite some time. Of course, sometimes you get really off recommendations.
I tried a few playlist creations based on KENNY LOGGINS, JAMIROQUAI and RICK ASTLEY and got pretty good results (hmm there are one or two out of place songs, but hey, sometimes Geniuses make mistakes too!). The first song in the 25 song countdown is where all the songs are based from.
Share your Genius Playlist Mix? 🙂
P.S. And yes, I listen to BARRY MANILOW, OK? Mandy, FTW.
5 replies on “What a GENIUS this iTunes 8!”
Genius requires creating an iTunes account, which you can’t have unless you put in your credit card information.
If you only want to work with songs already in your library, can’t you get the same functionality (i.e. get playlist suggestions) without registering? Yes, I know Apple wants to make money from this, but I still don’t see the need to restrict Genius to registered users, especially if registration REQUIRES sharing your credit card information.
Question: How can one create an iTunes account if he or she lives in the Philippines? As much as I want to have an iTunes account, Apple won’t let me have one.
You can now create an iTunes account with the PH as home country. All you need to do is select PH as your country and enter … dan dan dan …. your credit card information! OR the workaround would be to buy an iTunes card and try to enter info using that.
Really? Awesome. I didn’t know that. Last time I checked (around last month or so), I still couldn’t create an iTunes account. This is great!
There’s a way to create an iTunes account without using a credit card or without buying an iTunes card.
Here’s how:
http://tinyurl.com/createitunesaccount