I mentioned in my last list a couple of ways for the iTunes Genius feature to be improved. That really came home this time around, when I made a list based on “Rubber Biscuit” by the Blues Brothers, as many of the artists it selected have five or six songs to their credit. That may be an indictment of my collection – and I have to admit, doing this made me realize that I hadn’t yet ripped any of my Stevie Ray Vaughan discs – but I think it’s an example of Genius being too literal with classifications, and not really giving enough thought to the actual song and what might really complement it. I know, that’s a much harder question. But hey, you wanna be called Genius, you gotta impress. I like this feature, but I can’t say I’m impressed by it, at least not yet.
For some reason, unlike the previous two when the Playlist listing appeared random, this one appears to be sorted by artist, so doing an as-is accounting isn’t particularly interesting. Just the first ten songs on shuffle this week:
1. “Rubber Biscuit” – The Blues Brothers
2. “Long Long Time” – Guy Forsyth
3. “I Wonder” – Robert Cray
4. “Shot Gun Blues” – The Blues Brothers
5. “You Can If You Think You Can” – Ball, Barton, Strehli
6. “Nothin But A Woman” – Robert Cray
7. “Walking Thru The Park” – Muddy Waters
8. “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” – Muddy Waters
9. “The Power of Love” – Marcia Ball
10. “Po’ Lazarus” – from the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack
Note to self: Finish ripping those CDs already. I need my Stevie Ray.
Did you run into the funky magenta background on your library list when you first installed the new version?
Described here.
No, I didn’t experience that. Maybe I already had that 32-bit thing enabled on my XP PC. Weird. Thanks for pointing it out!