The Genius of Apple

I didn't buy one of the new iPods this week - the new Touch is supremely tempting, but doesn't have nearly enough capacity for my needs - but I did install the new iTunes 8.0.

Genius is the big new feature of iTunes 8.0 and it's already having an effect on how I use my 3-year-old 60GB iPod Classic.

Once you've downloaded and installed the new version of iTunes, you activate Genius by uploading data to Apple about your music library (yeah, I had a moment of paranoia about that).

Then, every time you select a song, the Genius panel to the right shows you similar music you can buy from the iTunes Store. I suppose some people will take the bait on that one, but I haven't bought anything from the iTunes Store in months - ever since I took my online music business to Amazon.com.

But the really cool feature for me is the Genius playlists.

Select a song you like, then click on the little Genius spinning electrons logo at the bottom right of the iTunes frame and voila! - you see a 25-song playlist of similar music drawn from your own iTunes library. You can also set it to create playlists of 50, 75 or 100 songs.

Here's an example. I selected Junior Wells' Messin' With the Kid and Genius built a playlist that includes:

• Lie to Me - Jonny Lang
• Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughn
• The Things I Used to Do - Stevie Ray Vaughn
• The Seventh Son - Tab Benoit
• Route 66 - Billy Branch
• Every Day I have the Blues - Professor Longhair
• Highwayman - Tinsley Ellis
• I'm the Zydeco Man - Clifton Chenier
• Going to the River - Robbie Robertson
• Shake for Me - Stevie Ray Vaughn
• Too Sick to Pray - A3
• Let's Make It - John Lee Hooker
• Mean Cheatin' Woman - Dr. John
• She's Looking Good - Canned Heat
• The Stumble - Henry Vestine
• Juke Box Mama - Sonny Landreth
• Mojo Hand - Lightnin' Hopkins
• Born in Chicago - Paul Butterfield
• Messin' With the Kid - Buddy Guy and Junior Wells
• Work Song - Paul Butterfield
• Come on in my Kitchen - Robert Johnson
• Ain't Gone n Give Up on Love - Stevie Ray Vaughn
• Tin Pan Alley - Stevie Ray Vaughn
• You got What I want - Tab Benoit

That playlist was a little heavy on Stevie Ray Vaughn, so I re-selected the Junior Wells song and tried again. Fortunately, my blues collection is deep enough - I have almost 10,000 songs in my library - that Genius came up with a whole new playlist - this time more diverse and balanced.

The new iPods can generate Genius playlists on their own, but those of us with the older models have to do it in iTunes. I don't mind that minor inconvenience. It's a great addition to an already free download.