Real Genius

Just today, Apple introduced the iTunes 8 with this new 'Genius' feature. As usual, it was introduced as the new revelation, look one click and you have a playlist of the songs you like. How does this work? Oh, it just sends everything you play to Apple, completely anonymously of course, and then using the Apple algorithms (great name) they add other songs that match to the playlist from both your local library and, more imporantly, iTunes store, thus allowing discovery of new content.

How original, though wait, it kinda remind me of something. Mmm, ah, Pandora? Pandora, is a really genius service that matches songs by their musical characteristics, really good stuff. And what do you think happens to this great service as we speak? It is being muscled out of business by the music industry, first the international market and now the US.

In the world of "On demand" everything, discovery of new content is extremely important and can be achieved through social networking but also, through automatic recommendation engines. Now, I should not remind anyone, how well this works in advertising, see Google Ads. This is also working great in Internet radio, like Last FM, with features like 'Similar Artists', allowing you to discover new songs you might actually like. I think it is important, to maintain a clear distinction between the 'sponsored' recommendations and the regular ones, improve the quality of the engines, add more criteria and content variety. The more democratic and social those engines are the better it is for all of us.

Pandora is a really excellent service in this regard, I have discovered and purchased a lot of music while using it. It is a real pity to see it disappear, and the hear about the "great news" from the powerful and well connected Apple. Now I certainly don't say that iTunes should not introduce this feature, it's high time and this is the way of the future. But the current practice of the music industry, is extremely greedy, inconsiderate and rude.

Bring back Pandora.