Apple released a new feature in iTunes 8 called “Genius” – it builds playlists based on what it knows about people who like the same type of music as you do. It also includes a sidebar that recommends songs from the iTunes store.
The feature has a lot of potential, but doesn’t go far enough to be useful. At least not to me. If music is in my playlist, it is, by definition, something I would like – I don’t need a social filtering system to tell me that.
I really like the idea of Genius exposing me to music that I don’t already own in the iTunes Store, but not by sitting around clicking through 30 second clips in the sidebar. It needs to be a Pandora-like passive experience, where I have Genius radio stations that let me buy the current track in a single click. And with the tight integration between the stations and the store, they’ll likely avoid the life-threatening troubles currently facing Pandora.