Macgasm

I’ve been messing around with iTunes 8.0 and stumbled across something that I can not quite categorize in my head as a “bug” or a “feature.”  To use Genius, we select a track we want to get “similar” songs of, then we click on the Genius button.  Perfect, a playlist is generated.

Now, let’s try this in a different way, say, the way an average user might. Let’s pretend for a moment we’ve spent the last hour rocking out, then a nice melodic and relaxing track comes up on shuffle in your library.  Let’s say, How to Disappear Completely by Radiohead.  User thinks to himself (or herself), “man I love this song,  let’s make a Genius playlist of songs like it.”  So, the user highlights the track he’s currently chilling to (and enjoying), and hits the genius button.  WHAT!?!?!  The current track I was listening to in my library stops playing.  What’s the point of that?

Upon further investigation, if you’re already in a “Genius” playlist, and start a track that was generated by the genius button, and hit the button again it will play the track that you had highlighted from the start again.

So, if you highlight the track without starting it and use the Genius button, iTunes starts the playlist from the start with a randomly selected track.  If you start a song, leave it highlighted, and hit the Genius button, the song starts over again, and generates a new playlist.

Confused?  Yeah, me too.  Which is it, and why are they acting in different ways.  What say you, bug or feature?  Let us know what you think in the comments.  I’m on the fence about this one.