TheGuy and I finally upgraded our primary iTunes box so that we can do Genius playlists now. And what a treat that is! We have more than 14,000 songs (legal!) in our library, but somehow end up constantly rotating through the same 10-15 albums or so. The Genius playlist is a great way to find old music we forgot we owned in the dusty, cobwebby recesses of our hard drive. I remember a decade ago (or more) when there were prototype applications out there of these types of albums and one could spend hours and hours inputting your likes and preferences and then seeing what was recommended. Pandora (which I’ve never found the time to play with) and now this playlist technology are much nicer.
On a related note, while we almost always have music playing in the house, I rarely have time to consciously listen. As a result, I have only the vaguest impressions of the new Ray Lamontagne and Randall Bramblett albums (good, and pretty good but too much electric guitar, respectively).
Also related: technology like this only makes me buy more music (notwithstanding that I don’t listen to as much as I’d like). I’m hardly the first to note that the record companies really really screwed up in not understanding this dynamic.
