One of the new features in the latest version of iTunes is Genius.  The Genius sidebar looks at information about songs that are in your library and recommends other songs from the iTunes music store that you might be interested in buying.  There is also a feature that creates playlists for you based on your music.  To create a Genius playlyst you select a song that is in your library, press the Genius button, and iTunes will cull through your library to put together a set of songs that it thinks will go well together, using your selected song as a starting point.

Needless to say, my first couple of tries met with some really mixed results.  The playlist when I used Smashing Pumpkins Cherub Rock as my starting point was good enough to keep.  However, when James Taylor turned up in a playlist based on Judith from A Perfect Circle, I quickly became skeptical.  A few more tries with the Genius button met with equally random results.

The folks at Wired.com provide some explanation on how Genius works and a few simple ways to get better Genius results.  I haven’t tried these fixes yet so I honestly don’t know how they’ll work out.  One serious problem I’ll have is that I have adjusted the genre for many of the CDs that I’ve ripped to my computer and I’m not sure how much I want to try to go back and change those to match what iTunes has.  I’ve had some serious disagreements with how iTunes places certain artists into genres; James Taylor’s Greatist Hits being labeled “Rock and Roll” is a perfect example.

If anyone has any experience with Genius or how to improve the results, please share.