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Come sail with me on the empty sea

Life's Little Annoyances #412 - Having a Lazy iPod

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I like the concept of iTunes' Genius playlists, it's just that my iPod doesn't seem to be that good at creating them. It's like he gives up halfway through. He's all eager, and up for the challenge when I tell him to go and find the similar tracks, and for the first three or four, the little chap gets it spot on. Then it goes downhill, and he decides to take a break, or something.

Yesterday, for example, I set off to work feeling lively and in the mood for something upbeat to accompany my walk to work. I choose "Don't Stop Me Now", by Queen, and set off on my merry little way. I pressed the Genius button, and a playlist was created. I would expect to see on said playlist some more upbeat tracks, maybe some 70s rock, some more Queen. I was secretly hoping for "Mr Blue Sky" by the ELO as it's one of the best tunes ever created.

The first few tracks didn't disappoint, but as the playlist went on, it all went horribly wrong. On came "Warwick Avenue" by Duffy, not exactly upbeat. I could appreciate what iPod was thinking - "I'm going to mix it up a bit, change the mood" - but then he went crazy, as he always does. I swear he has about 20 tracks that he puts into every Genius playlist he creates. No matter what I choose as my starting track, you can pretty much guarantee that these tracks will appear at some point. It's sloppy, and shows a lack of effort and thought.

IPOD: But you like those tracks, don't you? So what's the problem?
ME: Well I would quite like a bit more variety, you know. You've got over a thousand tracks to choose from.
IPOD: Yeah, well, I like these ones, and they're all bunched together - easy to find. And why are you blaming me? It's your music. Not my fault you have a taste for bland and generic tunes.
ME: But I could give you dozens of tracks that would suit that list better.
IPOD: Well then make your own bloody playlist. Listen, pal, I didn't want this job. It's not what I signed up for. Some geezer does a fancy update, and expects me to do extra work, and for what?!?! Nothing. The Union isn't happy about it, and neither am I. If I was you, I'd stop complaining.
ME: Or what, eh? You're my iPod, and you'll do what I tell you to.
IPOD: I'll tell people about the fact that you listen to Chas and Dave.
ME: OK, fair enough. Carry on.

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Comments

seaempty 1. October 2008, 10:28

*wifety* - and you call me crazy for having conversations with the baby and myself all day... x

(couldn't be bothered to log on as me!)

Khadgar 1. October 2008, 14:45

Genius is as you Brits would say... rubbish (for now). For one if the music doesn't exist in their store library it won't know about it. On top of that if the song isn't a widely popular song it doesn't know a lot about it either, generating sloppy playlists as what happened to you. But the difference between that and a song's absence from the music store is that eventually Genius will learn about the song and start to generate better playlists. It seems to generate playlists for songs it doesn't know much about by querying what songs were usually purchased with it or songs that are in a playlist with it on someone's computer. The problem with that is sometimes people create mishmash playlists that contain a little of everything. I know I have one.

Chas4 4. October 2008, 00:33

I am using it, it is slowly getting better. Not perfect yet. Genius's take time to learn. Itunes 8.0.1 is now out, bug fix from what I have read

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