iphone Genius playlist

When I asked my husband today about a particular mix of music I was hearing on the stereo he told me is was a Genius playlist. I've no idea who how long this has been out there, but it's new to me. Having just discovered it today, I've not yet learned much about it but I'm lovin' it... so far. I may be one of the few who really only uses her iphone, primarily, as just a phone. I use it as an alarm clock and the kids sometimes watch youtube videos on it on occasion, but that's about it.

Now when I listen to a song in our itunes library, I can click the "genius" icon and have a 50-song playlist generated from artists/songs already in our library. I'm guessing the list is based on what others purchasing my selected song/artist also purchased, or something similar. I'm assuming there will be quite a few tunes that are not available for this application.

A few examples:

When I selected the Eisley song "Golly Sandra", my playlist included songs by Stars, Sufjian Stevens, Regina Spektor, Bright Eyes, Camera Obscura, Iron & Wine, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Shins, Death Cab and The Postal Service. My playlist covered several songs from each band to come up with 50. While I might enjoy hearing work by 49 artists in addition to my initial selection, I am quite content with what it does offer.

Selected song: Mighty Joe Moon by Grant Lee Buffalo
playlist included: Buffalo Tom, Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks, Smashing Pumkins, Whiskeytown, Son Volt, Bob Mould, R.E.M.,Old 97's, Mazzy Star, Guided by Voices, P.J. Harvey, Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh and Liz Phair.

Selected song: Don't Toss Us Away by Maria McKee
playlist included: Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, The Go-Go's Cowboy Junkies, Nanci Griffith, Patty Griffin, Caitlin Cary, Rickie Lee Jones, Neko Case and Gram Parsons and The Pretenders

Although the name gives me a small cringe, I could lose a lot of time playing around with this!


Albert Einstein, public domain