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Genius was introduced in Apple iTunes 8. It is a feature that enables users to created playlists of music that ‘go together well’.

Since its introduction iTunes Genius has had an unfair amount of criticism. While it is not perfect, Genius is a useful tool which will improved upon given time.

While Genius relies on mass user input to work perhaps Apple should consider joining forces with some software and web-based services that already exist to greatly improve the feature.

Firstly, when I first read about Genius (before the official launch) I thought it would actually analyse the music itself rather than just data about user music collections and playing habits.

Analyse the music?

It would be great to classify music based upon the way it actually sounds. There is one application that does this to a certain extent — Tangerine for the Mac. Tangerine analyses music to workout to factors that might be of importance when creating a playlist — beats per minute (BPM) and beat intensity.

“Tangerine! lets you easily create playlists of upbeat music, or playlists for relaxing. It works by analyzing the BPM and the beat intensity of your music. Spend your time listening to music, not making playlists.”

Adding this simple functionality into iTunes would be the first step to improving the selection of tunes that ‘go together well’ by using Genius.

Cross reference more user data?

The iTunes music store does not contain all the songs available in the world, far from it! Genius is limited to suggesting music that Apple sell via the iTunes Store. As a result there are thousands of tracks that will never be found in a Genius created playlist.

New bands form constantly, they produce a constant stream of new music. Apple needs to keep ahead of its competitors and make sure that music that is not available in the iTunes Store is considered when generating playlists and making suggestions via the Genius sidebar.

Apple need partnerships with other online services that offer greater range of music data. If Genius could share data with websites such as iLike.com and Last.fm this would greatly improve the diversity of music that was included in playlist creation.

Both iLike.com and Last.fm are socail networking websites where people are able to share musical tastes. Both already intergrate with iTunes to a certain extent and such intergration could be extended to improve Genius.

Apple iTunes musical social network?

The chances of Apple getting involved with just one aforementioned social networks is highly unlikely. Apple are more likely to create their own social network rather than utilize utilise existing services to improve upon Genius’ functionality.

Genius could be so much better than it is today. Social networking and music analysis could be the key to making playlists perfect – just don’t hold your breath.

No matter what Apple are planning for Genius, if it involves restricting data to that held for the music in the iTunes Store then Genius will forever be limited.

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