Genius Shuffle, Genius playlists, and Genius Mixes

Use Genius Shuffle, Genius playlists, or Genius Mixes

You can use Genius to have iTunes play songs from your library that sound great together. There are three ways you can use Genius:

  • Genius Shuffle: If you can’t decide what to listen to, just click a button. iTunes chooses a song and plays songs that go great with it.

  • Genius playlists: Choose a song, and iTunes creates a playlist of songs that sound great together.

  • Genius Mixes: Choose a genre, and iTunes plays selections of songs that play continually, like commercial-free radio stations.

Genius is a free service. To use Genius, you must turn on Genius, be connected to the Internet, and have an Apple ID.

Turn Genius on or off

  • Turn on Genius: Choose Store > Turn On Genius.

  • Turn off Genius: Choose Store > Turn Off Genius.

    Turning off Genius turns off Genius playlists, Genius Shuffle, and Genius Mixes.

Create a Genius playlist

  • Move the pointer over a song, click White arrow inside a gray circle, and choose Create Genius Playlist.

    • To change the maximum number of songs in a Genius playlist: Click Small arrowhead pointing down next to the song total and choose a number from the pop-up menu.

    • To get new songs based on the same song: Click Refresh Curved arrow.

A Genius playlist has this icon Genius icon next to it.

Use Genius Shuffle

  • Press and hold the Option key, and click The Genius Shuffle button near the top-left of the iTunes window. You can also choose Controls > Genius Shuffle.

To change the selection of songs, repeat the above step.

Play a Genius Mix

  1. Choose Music from the Library pop-up menu, and click Playlists.

  2. Click Genius Mixes.

  3. To start playing a Genius Mix, move the pointer over the mix you want to play and click Genius Mix icon with play button.

    The Genius Mix controls: To view controls, move the pointer over the mix. You can return to the previous song, pause the current song, or skip to the next song.

Keep your Genius information up to date

Your Genius results are automatically updated once a week when iTunes is open. You can update them manually—for example, when you add new music to your library from a CD or a website.

  • Choose Store > Update Genius.

To create Genius playlists, Genius Shuffle, and Genius Mixes, iTunes uses anonymous information about your library and other iTunes libraries. The iTunes Store updates its Genius data constantly, based on new information from the iTunes Store and customers’ libraries.