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iTunes 8.1 Available Soon

Florence Ion — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:40:14 -0500

AppleInsider reports that iTunes 8.1 should be available this week. The speedier version of Apple’s popular media software will include an upgraded Genius feature and will support direct CD imports to the iTunes Plus format.

The Genius recommendation engine will be extended to movies and television shows, offering suggestions in the right-hand side of the screen for similar content from the iTunes Store, while the new CD import feature will let users rip music as 256-Kbps iTunes Plus files.

Apple says the new version of iTunes will also respond faster than previous versions. So far, the Apple downloads page still says that 8.1 is coming soon.

Genius Recommendations Get a Thumbs-Up

Carol Pinchefsky — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:43:13 -0500

Click to embiggen

You’ve got to be pretty confident about your product when you give it a name like “Genius.” But after spending the day with Genius, I see that Apple’s confidence in its music recommendation service is completely justified.

Genius helps listeners find music they would like, based on a current music selection, their previous purchases, and the purchases of every iTunes customer who participates. Genius works in two ways: first, it generates playlists from your library. Second, it recommends music that Apple thinks “goes with” your current selection. It’s available for iTunes 8 on your computer, as well as the latest iPod classic, iPod touch, 4th gen iPod nano, and part of the iPhone 2.1 software set to drop on Friday.

As my example, I used Broken by UNKLE (from the soundtrack of X-Files: I Want to Believe). The song, my current favorite, is a combination of rock and trip-hop.

From my own library, Genius pulled songs including Where You End by Moby; Avalon by Juliet; Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. I think these were excellent choices.

In fact, Genius also selected Lonely by Your Side by Azzido da Bass & Johnny Blake, an iTunes freebie that was buried within my 5000+ song library, which I had forgotten I owned.

And astonishingly, Genius pulled up Stoned in Love by Chicane, a song I downloaded from iTunes UK, isn’t available in the US, and which I’m not authorized to play on my iTunes account. The anonymity Apple promised is working. Color me impressed.

Then I refreshed the list. I didn’t like the second choices Genius made, but alas, I couldn’t find a way to retrieve the first playlist. I hope a Genius 2.0 rectifies this problem.

From iTunes, Genius pulled up songs with startling speed, as if it were anticipating my selection. iTunes offered to complete my X-Files soundtrack. It also suggested a popular UNKLE album, plus UNKLE’s top five songs. Genius also recommended one album and fourteen songs from a mixture of artists. As for the songs, I wasn’t inspired to purchase any of them, but I enjoyed the range of new music I was exposed to. However, the album is decidedly not to my taste.

Unfortunately there’s no way to tell Genius if I liked its selection or not, but if it lives up to its name it will fix this problem. Another reason why iTunes is only 95% successful: although iTunes recommends music based on my library, it doesn’t take into account songs I don’t like nearly as much. I’m suddenly motivated to rate my songs.

Maybe 94%. It took a half hour to upload my 5,000+ song library.

But the problems were minor compared to Genius' utter ease of use and the sheer delight I received from exploring new, yet familiar music.

Apple may be late to the recommendation game, but the company has an advantage as world’s most popular online music store: it has a massive amount of data to work from. Genius can’t help but be the #1 music recommendation service. But it just might be the best too.

Genius Makes Smart Playlists Even Smarter

Carol Pinchefsky — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:21:56 -0500

As the movie-based-on-the-book High Fidelity would tell you, there are rules to creating the perfect mix of music. The best bridge between jazz and country-western is Lyle Lovett. Johnny Cash goes surprisingly well with grunge. And you never, ever mix ABBA with the Sex Pistols.

You’ll soon hear if the newly available Genius music recommendation service makes or breaks these rules when you get your first earful after downloading iTunes 8. With a touch of a button on your iPod’s on-screen controls, Genius finds songs that “go great” with your choice of music, based on songs from your library.

During the Let’s Rock event today, Steve Jobs did not explain how the playlists would be collated. (Beats per minute? Year the song was released? Songs sung by musicians who have OD-ed?). But Apple’s PR explained these new playlists based on the music preferences of all of iTunes other users.

Including you.

According to Apple’s PR, “Information about your music library is anonymously sent to the iTunes Store, where it is combined with the anonymously-gathered knowledge from millions of other iTunes users and processed through Apple-developed algorithms.”

Turn Genius on, and it will gather the details of the songs you’ve purchased and upload them to the mother ship. Based on the history of other users, if you purchase Avril Lavigne, Apple can easily recommend Pink. Paranoid people, rest easy: Apple won’t be able to hold your purchase of Fergie’s “London Bridge” against you

These playlists can be created, modified, and saved with ease on both iTunes and your iPod. Genius also recommends songs not currently in your library, so you can buy them (for the usual $.99, natch) and perfect your new playlist.

Music recommendation services are not unique to Apple. Pandora radio has carved a niche for itself with recommendations. And online music store Amie Street blends recommendations with social networking. But these services don’t integrate recommendations with the iPod the way Apple does.

Playlists made just for you in one touch. This simple yet powerful feature is yet another reason why Apple Inc. continues to lead the world of digital music and others only follow.

For more information, see the iPod touch guided tour and Apple's Genius page.