Like Magic

Apple has this new iTunes feature - Genius - which will create playlists for you based on groups of similar artists in your current library. Great idea, and looks like pretty good execution so far, especially if your library comprises a wide range of artists and genres (check, well, relative to some I guess) and you have yet to listen to a good chunk of it (check check, I download faster than I can listen). The only downsides: (a) you have to provide Apple a lot of personal info and grant them access to your download library, and (b) it only works with music that iTunes carries, which rules out The Beatles, some Radiohead, and a good deal of the stuff I get from eMusic. Shrug.

Not sure how the logic behind Genius works exactly - whether Apple stores databases of similar artists or whether the relationships are defined by the music libraries of those who enable the feature, etc. Probably a combination of the two, plus some super top secret black magic reverse-engineered from crashed alien spacecraft that I just wouldn't understand. Alls I know is that if I build a Genius playlist based on, oh, The Talking Heads' "Don't Worry About The Government", I get a list that includes R.E.M., The Doors, Pavement, My Bloody Valentine and Beck (etc.). Or via Calla's "The Swarm", I get Mogwai, Apostle of Hustle, Film School and Tristeza (etc.).

Neato (buy Apple).