what genius is good for
So I like the Genius feature in iTunes and on my iPhone. I like the UI, I like how it removes all thinking from making a list of things to listen to when “Shuffle” just isn’t enough, and in a meta way I particularly love how they created a little feature ladder from “Playlist” to “Smart Playlist” to “Genius Playlist.” (Of course, a glass-half-full type could interpret that to mean that any playlist that I create myself is a “Dumb Playlist,” but I digress…)
Anyway, based on my recent Genius experiences, here are two things that Genius is explicitly good for:
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Only every once in a while throwing in a Vampire Weekend song. Genius knows that there’s no way I could listen to the entire Vampire Weekend album in one stretch (lest I suffer an acute attack of the twees). But a single track shuffled Genius’d in once every 100 tracks can be sort of enjoyable in a “wow what a cute song!” kind of way.
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More than every once in a while tossing in Broken Social Scene’s “7/4 (Shoreline)”. Somehow that track is ending up on almost every playlist Genius creates. Thanks, Genius!
Oh, and I was happy to see that the Remote app was updated for Genius support. Now I can be a Genius from my kitchen…if not in my kitchen.