The genie in my iPod

Dont bother clicking up there! Just when I thought I had YouTube fooled and tricked them into letting me embed the video. Pfft! A link is at the bottom of this post.

iTunes has this new feature called Genius which creates playlists from your library of music. For someone like me who has some 1400 songs on her iPod, but listens to the same dozen or so over and over again, it’s a nice feature, I think. I’ve tried creating playlists based on my favorites, but that’s not exactly worked, either, because I’m still listening to the same bunch of songs all the time. I need something to outsmart myself, I think.

For example, if I choose this favorite song from Justin Nokuza, the genie in my iPod will make a playlist for me of *similar* songs:

Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat
Till It Happens to You by Corinne Bailey Rae
Say by John Mayer
Realize by Colbie Caillat
Last Request by Paolo Nutini
Hold You in My Arms by Ray LaMontagne
Taylor by Jack Johnson
You and I Both by Jason Mraz
Why Georgia by John Mayer
Everybody Hurts by REM
Your Heart Is an Empty Room by Death Cab for Cutie
Run by Snow Patrol
American Tune by Paul Simon
Just Like Heaven by The Cure
Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard
You Are the Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne
Hook by Blues Traveler
It’s Okay to Think About Ending by Earlimart
Wild World by Cat Stevens
Save the Last Dance for Me by Michael Buble
Golden Train by Justin Nozuka
I Don’t Trust Myself by John Mayer
Adia by Sara McLachlan
Told You So by The Guggenheim Grotto

I’ve no idea what the genie thinks these songs have in common and frankly, I don’t see the similarities, but I’m glad for some forced variety in what I listen to. The Genius feature will also recommend songs for purchase from iTunes, but I’ve not trusted it yet to do that.

Has anyone besides Jayne tried this out yet? Thanks for the heads up, Jayne!

Oh and do have a listen to Justin Nozuka, please. Let me know what you think?

9 thoughts on “The genie in my iPod”

  1. I have to say, I’ve found some new favorite artists by looking at the list they recommend to peruse. I’ve not created new playlists with my own stuff, but hubby likes that feature a lot. It’s just too much fun, isn’t it? :c)

  2. I like and use Genius too and have found some neat musicians but I’ve had to cut myself off from the spending for a bit! I like Justin Nozuka and have spotted him on my Genius list too.

  3. I don’t keep up with new iTunes features, so this one is a cool surprise. We have a lot of music on our iPod that never seem to make it into shuffle. Maybe Genius will help by putting together a playlist we haven’t ourselves considered.

  4. I just got an iPod nano for my bday – yeeha. It replaces my old iPod brick which is now ancient. Thanks for the tip, I’ll have to check it out.

  5. Does Genius pony up the very same play list if you enter the same song again?

    The answer might say something about how it decides songs are “similar”?

    PS … here we are still trying to figure out “shuffle” on an 8-track tape ….

  6. I’m a big fan of satellite radio because it relieves me of burden of purchasing songs, and being locked into always just listening to them. I like the surprise and flexibility of stations of it. But maybe that’s my musical style.

Comments are closed.