Tuesday, September 23, 2008

iTunes Genius proves we're all unique in the same way

The new iTunes 8 brings a new feature for your musical pleasure: Genius. This feature works by picking one song and then suggesting up to 100 songs that you would like based upon that one song. For example: I picked "Aeroplane" by the Chili Peppers and it suggested:
All Mixed Up - 311
Pepper - Butthole Surfers
Been Caught Stealing - Jane's Addiction
And so on. It's a great feature because it creates a playlist of songs that otherwise I might not have chosen. How does it know what I like? No doubt it was inspired by Pandora, but does Apple use the same algorithmic approach? After some pretty significant research, the answer is no. The genius behind iTunes Genius come from the behavior of the iTunes community. 

Using my example from the Chili Pepper's "Aeroplane", Genius works like this:
  1. Who else on iTunes has downloaded "Aeroplane"?
  2. What other iTunes songs others did the "Aeroplane" community play within the same genre and release date?
  3. How many times has the community played "Aeroplane" compared to other songs in their library?
  4. What iTunes songs did the community purchase?
  5. What iTunes songs did they skip over?
  6. What iTunes songs did they rate?
There is a high priority placed on the release date. "Going to California" from Led Zeppelin brings up significantly more 70's songs than "I Want to Be the Boy...", a similar blues tune from The White Stripes.

Notice I also say iTunes songs. Genius doesn't work for The Beatles or anything off the bonus disc of Radiohead's In Rainbows. The song must be available for purchase in iTunes for Genius to recommend it. It can't recommend a song it doesn't know the community listens to.

The interesting thing about Genius is that it proves that for the most part, people tend to like the same things musically. If you like, "Aeroplane", chances are you also like "Remedy" by The Black Crowes. Apple proves this concept of community by suggesting to us songs that our friends and their friends are playing that perhaps have slipped our mind. It's a social media application in the largest context. Instead of our friends burning mix CDs for us to listen to, their mix CD choices are sent to Apple along with everyone else to create the world's largest mix CD for all of us to enjoy. And if you don't have the songs everyone is playing, the convenient Genius Sidebar tells you what songs your friends are listening to that you don't own.

While there's no doubt Apple is getting a boost from this feature (I'm sure incremental song purchases through Genius are skyrocketing), I'm thankful that Apple produced the technology to bring us all a little closer. Like Facebook or Twitter, the power of social media is not in the technology itself, but in how it allows us to be closer to those we know and love. Social Media works like cell phones. People don't marvel in cellular technology as much as that they can chat with grandma in New Jersey while stuck in traffic in Dallas. The genius behind iTunes Genius is that through aggregating our song preferences, we are pleasantly surprised each time a forgotten song flows perfectly into our (and our millions of iTunes friends) earphones.

Cross posted from The Marblehead Blog

1 comment:

TwiceCharmed said...

I like to pick my own, and I do see what the community also "purchases" but if you say it's worth a shot... I'll try it out. I am VERY picky with my music....