Couple of weeks back Apple released their iTunes version 8.0 update, and I have had some time playing around with it. There are good news and bad news, well perhaps not bad, but definitely quite intrusive.
What’s good? Genius – automatically generated playlists. I have been a keen last.fm user for a couple of years and now finally iTunes has incorporated a similar feature akin to Amazon’s “You might also like…”. 
You choose a song you fancy and press the Genius symbol in the bottom right corner and boom you got yourself a playlist based upon that song. So far I’m guite pleased with the results. Possibility of saving the playlist adds to the joy of it. The same feature exist in the latest iPhone update as well which gives you the possibility to create Genius playlists on the fly. Sweet.
What’s bad (or at least intrusive)? Apple logs your listening habits in order to create more accurate playlists. I’m naively fine by that as I hardly can think of any reasons why Apple would blackmail me based upon my musical fancies on a late Saturday evening. But hold on! It’s not exactly blackmailing, but more similar to a friend pushing cd’s for sale on a party (which can be annoying). The Genius bar on the right in the iTunes app window forces “Buy” arrows in your face. Buy, buy, buy! This could easily been done less intrusive and annoying. I like the “Reccomendations” feature and get ideas of other similar artists, even though this often can be rather off as music is a matter of taste and not always necassarily genre and tag words.
So, Apple: Fancy the automatic last.fm-style iTunes’ Genius feature, but tone down the preassure of purchase please. P for peace.
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