iTunes 8 Genius Feature

ITunes  8 has a new feature called 'genius'.  If you activate the feature you can select a song from your library and the program will create a playlist from your songs as well as suggest songs you might want to add from the iTunes Store (of course).

Being a geek, I tried it.  I requested a playlist of 100 songs based on Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water.  On a quick glance there are some choices that are spot on and some that are a tad puzzling.  For example, between Elton John's Bennie and the Jets (possibly a questionable choice in and of itself) and Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell is Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera.  

There are a few other choices that are a little bizarre considering the base genre: Barry Manilow's Mandy and Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go jump out as obvious weirdness. Why those particular songs are in my library at all can be a topic for another post.

It would be interesting to know the selection criteria Apple uses to create the lists.  Then I would know if the choices are truly strange or just due to the limitations of my library.  I am going to try a smaller result set and see what happens.  And, yes, I realize this paragraph is incredibly geeky.  

Bottom line, this looks like a fun feature to play with.  So far I am having fun.