I’m a musician and a music lover, and thanks to buying Fair Play music over the last few years, I’m locked into iPods and iTunes. Being the kind of person that likes to have all their metadata in order -clear genres, ratings, and playlists -there were a number of features I was looking forward to that I thought would make it easier to manage my growing music library. Things like tagging of music, sub-genres, and truly boolean playlists were at the top of my list. The thing is, I know I’m in the minority–most people’s music libraries are a mess.
I think that’s why Apple spent their time on the “Genius” instead of the features I was looking for. Rather than create lists by tagging artists by country or by a Janice Joplin and Shiina Ringo with a rating greater than 3 stars, Apple is looking into our libraries and making connections based on (I assume) qualities of the song like tempo and similar artists. I’ll bet the majority will be happy, even if freaks like me aren’t.
Why am I talking about iTunes on a blog about law and technology? For one thing, this feature doesn’t work with artists that aren’t on iTunes like your friends’ old high school band or your favorite Sony Jpop artists. More importantly, this move shows Apple’s real vision of iTunes–an online portal to sell, sell, sell. Who cares if the application feels outdated if it’s still bringing in revenue.