With the update of iTunes 8.0, a new feature was added called Genius. Genius took a note from the popular internet site, Pandora, which creates free set lists of songs that sound similar based on various aspects of the songs. However Genius playlists use the iTunes library to organize songs, rather than bring new ones that might sound similar. Genius corrects this simple drawback by suggesting songs that could be purchased that might be close to the selected song. In iTunes 9.0, iTunes added another version of the Genius feature, Genius mixes, which are like full radio stations dedicated to certain genres in your library that shuffle randomly to whatever songs are at all similar to the genre itself.

As iTunes grows, so does its Genius recommendations to the user. It started as a way to hear your music gathered into lists that sound similar, then to whole sections of your library, and now they look at applications for your iPhone or iPod Touch. With over 2 billion applications downloaded since their start in July 2008, the app store itself brings in around $1 billion annually to the company by third parties which create these apps and sell them, 70% of the profits go to the third party and Apple only takes 30%. Now Apple uses their Genius technology to give suggestions as to what apps you might like.

All of these features make organizing music, discovering new artists and even buying new applications extremely easy, with no research or even any knowledge of the item you are about to purchase necessary. However is this how we want to learn about new bands? Through a for-profit company that is quickly becoming the leading way to buy music? iTunes is jumping way over the CD business; as CD sales drop substantially each year, iTunes gets more and more gains.

Second, is their piecing music so easily taking the fun out of creating interesting mixes? Why should we now create our own personal master piece playlists when we can click a button and have iTunes do it for us?

iTunes is genius. Even if they are making music too easy, their technology is truly fantastic; how it can pull songs that it might not even recognize and place it with similar songs easily, with little to no mismatched songs.