How to Generate the Ultimate Genius Playlist in iTunes
Let me declare that I have been a huge fan of iTunes’ Genius playlist from almost day one. For those of you who are not aware, the Genius playlist will generate a list of songs from your library based on your one selection from your library. It gathers your songs’ meta data, uploads it to Apple’s servers, and then returns an analysis of your library that identifies music that sounds good together. Along the way, it suggests other tracks, albums, and iTunes collections for songs. Or something like that. It’s truly wonderful.
If I was to generate a playlist from Photograph by Def Leppard (who will be touring again this summer), iTunes would probably create me a list of songs with other fantastic 80’s metal artists like Guns ‘N’ Roses, Stryper, Poison and Bon Jovi. Or, if I was in a really good mood, like I am today, I might generate a list from Against All Odds by Phil Collins. This would return artists like Genesis, Peter Gabriel, and hopefully if I am really lucky, Africa by Toto.
My biggest complaint however, is the fact that you can not generate a list based on two or more songs. What if I am feeling really frisky and want to listen to multiple genres from 1980’s? What if, dare I say it, I want to hear some Michael Jackson Thriller and Seventeen by Winger in the same list? Chances are pretty good that Genius isn’t that genius.
Fortunately for the world, my quasi-brilliant co-worker Jeff (JeffMiskis.com) has devised a way to make this formerly-impossible request become a reality in just a few simple steps:
- Go to the file menu and choose New Playlist. Name it something really clever like Utlimate Genius Playlist 1.
- Select the first artist from your library that you wish to generate a playlist for. Not that this is relevant at all, but for my example I am going to select Area Codes by Ludacris. If I am lucky, hopefully Genius will have selected some other hard-hitting gangsta tracks like The Thong Song and Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta F’ Wit.
- From the Genius playlist created, drag all the songs into your newly-created Ultimate Genius Plalist 1.
- Repeat steps 1-3. This time choose an artist from a different genre. Maybe something by Jimmy Eat World. I know on almost a daily basis I want to listen to a shuffle of emo-punk and rap tunes at the same time.
- Put Ultimate Genius Playlist 1 on shuffle and Voila! The Ultimate Genius playlist.
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