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Using iTunes 8.0 Genius to Make Music PlaylistsHow to Use Genius: Create Smart Playlists and Find New Music
Apple's iTunes 8.0 features a new playlist tool called Genius that allows users to create playlists based on a single song, save playlists, and link to the iTunes Store.
The Genius feature is based on collaboration between iTunes users – to use the feature, a user must agree to send information about his library and playlists to Apple, and in return the user benefits from the information contributed by thousands of other users. This system means that Genius gets continually “smarter” – in the first few days, some Genius users may have been disappointed, but functionality improves every day. How to Set Up Genius and iTunes 8.0The first step is to download the new Quicktime and iTunes. Mac users can do so through Software Update; Windows users can check for updates within the program or on the Apple website. Downloading will require a restart. Once the user has upgraded, the next step is to click on the “Genius” option in the left-hand menu bar, located below Party Shuffle. The user agrees to let Apple share information about his playlists and music (confidentially – the user’s ID and personal information is not saved), and then Genius begins culling information from the iTunes library. The user can use iTunes while Genius “starts up,” which may take a while for a very large library. How to Create and Save a Genius PlaylistOnce Genius has the information it needs, creating playlists is very easy and instantaneous. The user picks a song in the library, selects it, and then clicks the Genius icon (interlocking ovals) at the bottom right of the window. This will create a playlist, which the user can listen to as-is, or edit slightly by changing the number of songs in the “Limit to” field or excluding individual songs (by un-checking the small grey box to the left of the song title). If the playlist is particularly good, the user can save it with the “Save Playlist” button at the top right of the screen. The playlist will then appear with other playlists, titled by the song used to create it. Users can also create and save playlists on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Genius and the iTunes StoreThe Genius Sidebar will automatically appear at the right-hand side of the window when Genius is turned on. This feature suggests music a user can purchase in the iTunes store based on the current song. A Genius playlist only includes songs already on the user’s hard drive, so the sidebar allows users to expand their playlists through purchasing complementary songs. Users who don’t want to buy more music can hide the sidebar with the small arrow located at the bottom of the window next to the Genius button. One drawback of the Genius feature is that Genius cannot be used, even when creating playlists from the hard drive, with songs that are not in the iTunes store. Apple hopes that this tool will draw more paying customers to its store, so it excludes those songs that will not result in monetary benefit. This can be frustrating, of course, for fans of artists (the Beatles, for example) not in the iTunes store. Aside from this drawback, Genius is a handy feature, and something that can only get better as more users contribute information. At the time of writing, the tool works quite well with popular as well as semi-obscure artists, especially those with a cult following. The more songs on a user’s hard drive, of course, the more likely Genius is to find similar songs.
The copyright of the article Using iTunes 8.0 Genius to Make Music Playlists in Audio Software is owned by Judith Faucette. Permission to republish Using iTunes 8.0 Genius to Make Music Playlists in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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