It’s no surprise that Steve Jobs is trying to take over the world. Earlier last week, Apple released an updated batch of iPods, and, with the implements, a spankin new version of iTunes with a host of new features—the most interesting being something called the “Genius” playlist constructor. The Genius feature creates a 25 song playlist from your library based on the song you choose. Theoretically, it’s the ultimate mixtape aggregator—capable of creating a cohesive collection of songs sonically and musically similar to the original song in question. I’m sure it’s some crazy long algorithm that computes the choices (or maybe The Count), but in a week where we got some definitive answers to questions that were bugging us (has the Large Hardon Collider destroyed the earth yet?) and some that weren’t (who invented the blackberry?) it’s always nice to have a little fun.

The blog “Shenanigans and Tomfoolery” figures it might be something like this:

I’ve been playing with this feature a lot to try and figure out how it works; I think I’ve figured it out. It queries the music store for a list of songs purchased by people who purchased the original track. Genius then finds ones with similar genre, etc, and uses party shuffles algorithm to randomly pick songs from that list that are also in the user’s library. It is not an algorithm that compares song BPM or waveform. This is why songs that aren’t on the iTunes Music Store can’t be used.

Instead of speculating on something we know nothing about, we decided to see just how well Genius works by testing it with a few of our favorite local bands. The one stipulation with Genius is that the track has to be purchasable in the iTunes store for it to work. Here’s what came up.

1) First attempt: The Shaky Hands - “Summer’s Life”

Well, this aint too bad! Akron/Family, Port O’Brien, Dr. Dog, Califone, and Dungen all work fairly well around “Summer’s Life.” And it sure is nice to see Dolorean, as Al James is one of this city’s most underrated songwriters. This would make for a really solid 10-track mix. Overall, though, the relations get a bit diluted. I love me some Fiery Furnaces and Xiu Xiu, but they really don’t fit at all. And three Shaky Hands songs! Hasn’t the algorithm seen High Fidelity?

Rating (based on the Music Cave’s complicated algorithm “how does this sound after one post-work beer?): 3/5 baby geniuses

Percent local: 16%

Bonus: Major kudos for the Castanets track, and for Genius knowing that Nick Delffs used to play with the band.

Full Playlist:
The Shaky Hands - Summer’s Life
Akron/Family - Running, Returning
Dolorean - Heather Remind Me How This Ends
Swan Lake - Are You Swimming In Her Pools?
Dr. Dog - The Rabbit, The Bat & The Reindeer
Bishop Allen - Rain
Ravens & Chimes - General Lafayette! You Are Not Alone
Xiu Xiu - Hello from Eau Claire
Dirty on Purpose - No Radio
Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee
Annuals - Bleary Eyed
Beach House - Master of None
The Shaky Hands - The Sleepless
Celebration - Pony
Bound Stems - Western Biographic
Oxford Collapse - Featherbeds
Swan Lake - All Fires (another Swan Lake song? Come on!)
Port O’Brien - My Eyes Won’t Shut
Evangelicals - Skeleton Man
The Fiery Furnaces - Ex-Guru
Castanets - Rain Will Come
Destroyer - My Favorite Year
The Shaky Hands - We Will Rise
Califone - Spider’s House
Dungen - Familj

2) Talkdemonic - Mountaintops in Caves

Even though it was released last week, apparently iTunes doesn’t have the new Talkdemonic album Eyes at Half Mast. But it does have Talkdemonic’s older stuff, and did a pretty nice job taking a few disparate strands and making a decent little playlist. I had almost forgotten about Dntel’s last album, which mas mostly a yawn except for “Roll On”—a lively bedrock of electronic clicks and burps underscoring a sweet Jenny Lewis lead vocal. It’s crazy to think she could release something so beautiful and understated after the horrendous disaster that was the last Rilo Kiley record. Menomena’s “Wet and Rusting” is a perfect choice of cut-and-paste pop, and fits really well with Talkdemonic’s aesthetic. The playlist is pretty generic indie, but it works well, throwing a few instrumental cuts like “Seventeen Years” in with a whole slab of local stuff.

Rating: 4/5 baby geniuses

Percent local: 32% (including Spoon. Just having Britt ’round these parts is enough)

Bonus: Talkdemonic’s Kevin O’Connor and Menomena’s Danny Seim both provide drum samples to Boy Eats Drum Machine’s new joint Booomboxxx. Score one for Genius.

Full Playlist:
Talkdemonic - Mountaintops in Caves
Dntel - Roll On
The Helio Sequence - The Captive Mind
Menomena - Wet and Rusting
Say Hi To Your Mom - Sweet Sweet Heartkiller
The Shins - Sea Legs
Death Cab For Cutie - 405 (acoustic)
Rogue Wave - Lake Michigan
Pinback - Good to Sea
Ratatat - Seventeen Years
Arcade Fire - Intervention
My Morning Jacket - Off the Record
Band of Horses - Wicked Gil
Ryan Adams - Two
Talkdemonic - Manhattan ‘81
The Helio Sequence - Hallelujah
Beirut - Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)
Architecture in Helsinki - Maybe You Can Owe Me
Bonnie “Prince” Billy - Love Comes to Me
Phosphorescent - Wolves
Sparklehorse - Don’t Take My Sunshine Away
CYHSY - Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away
Okkervil River - Unless it Kicks
The Shins - Girl Sailor

3) Point Juncture, WA - Cardboard Box

Finally, we reach the point where Genius fails us. What is this bullshit? It’s using the same bands every time! Maybe that’s because the library on this computer isn’t too complete, but still, not every band sounds like the Shins and Band of Horses. What about some of the more anthemic Sonic Youth songs? Or Tortoise? Or, like, all the Portland bands Skyler has produced. This just feels like a VH1 list of the top 25 songs used in car commercials. Round three, and I finally feel smarter than the stupid algorithm.

Rating: 1/5 baby geniuses. They picked “Unless it Kicks” again. Okkervil River have more than one song!

Percent local: 12%, but two of the three are PJWA tunes. Blah.

Bonus: Hey, at least TV on the Radio are still awesome.

Full Playlist:
Point Juncture, WA - Cardboard Box
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
My Morning Jacket - Off the Record
Architecture In Helsinki - Maybe You Can Owe Me
The Arcade Fire - Intervention
Okkervil River - Unless it Kicks The Stage Names Rock 8
Say Hi To Your Mom - Sweet Sweet Hearkiller
Rogue Wave - Lake Michigan
Bloc Party - I Still Remember
Bright Eyes - Four Winds
Wilco - What Light
Point Juncture, WA - Chlorine
Built To Spill - Liar
Band Of Horses - The Great Salt Lake
The Decemberists - O Valencia
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Is This Love?
The Shins - Phantom Limb
Broken Social Scene - Swimmers
My Morning Jacket - Wordless Chorus
TV On The Radio - Province
Death Cab For Cutie - A Movie Script Ending
The National - Mistaken For Strangers
The New Pornographers - Use it
The Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running

Conclusion: After a few more trial runs, it’s pretty obvious how Genius works. Almost every song picked is either a single or one of the band’s more popular songs. Not surprising, really, but too bland for our tastes. And what about something that came out before 2004?

Links:
The Shaky HandSpace
TalkdemonicSpace
PJWASpace

Photo borrowed from the bottom ring of the Internet