iTunes Genius Mixes Are Interesting

Notes

At Lexer I’m focussing, at least to some extent on machine learning and data-mining, so applications in common software are always interesting to me. A couple of versions ago, Apple added the Genius function to iTunes. I think the general consensus that iTunes’ Genius may be a genius of some kind, but it doesn’t really know all that much about music. In short the feature is hobbled.

I am still however intrigued as to the innards of this feature and since it’s something of a black box, monitoring the output based on changes to my library and play patterns is interesting. I’m not going to spout any insights here because I’m still not sure what it’s all telling me, but here’s a fun little game: look at the mixes created. What do they say about you, is it accurate?

Here are mine:

Adult Alternative Mix: Beck, Sufjan Stevens, Dido (!?)
Indie Rock Mix: Band of Horses, Modest Mouse, The National.
Electronica Mix: Newton Faulkner (!?), DJ Shadow, The Avalanches (Obviously not a genre I have much of)
Brit-pop and rock mix: Coldplay, The Frames, Oasis
Alternative Pop/Rock mix: The White Stripes, Ben Folds Five, Powderfinger
Hip-Hop/Rap mix: I.A.M, Hilltop Hoods, Digable Planets
Americana Mix: Wilco, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, The Beautiful Girls (!?)
Folk Mix: Cat Stevens, Mumford & Sons, The Swell Season
Neo-Soul Mix: Lowrider, Rihanna, India.Arie (I only have one track of the two latter artists…)
Classic Rock Mix: Led Zepplin, Yes, Daddy Cool
Chamber Pop Mix: Fleet Foxes, Architecture in Helsinki, Polyphonic Spree (Chamber pop? It makes me think of a chamber pot)
Post-Modern Rock Mix: Amiina, Sigur Rós, Faunts

All in all, this is a pretty horrific cross section of my music. I feel like this is un-apple-like to have such a hobbled feature. With the wealth of data available to them, I’d sort of expect them to be able to use a combination of clustering listeners, and even develop n-gram style sequences to create mixes but instead with got big, admittedly pretty buttons which churn out music with a ridiculous skip ratio.

And don’t get me started on the straight Genius button. That’s almost worse.