Over the weekend I finally got around to watching Steve Jobs' keynote address at the big Apple event earlier this month (where they rolled out the new iPods and the new iTunes). One of the features of iTunes 8 that he demonstrated was the new "Genius" playlist feature. I have to admit, that two Genius playlists later, I'm hooked.

When you activate the Genius feature in iTunes 8, iTunes sends information about your music library and listening habits (anonymously) to Apple, where this information is used, along with similar information from thousands of other users, to generate a playlist of 25, 50, 75 or even 100 songs from your music library--songs that somehow go together well, just for you.

Using it is simple--you select any song from your music library, then click the Genius icon at the lower right corner of the window. In some cases, iTunes won't be able to create a playlist from certain songs, but most of the time, you get a new playlist almost immediately. You can give this playlist a name and save it with your other playlists, or trash it and try again.

I've made only two Genius playlists in the past few days, and they've been so captivating, that I've scarcely listened to anything else. The first one was based on Pierce Pettis' "Alabama 1959," and the 25-song list featured additional cuts by Pettis, along with cuts from Nick Drake, Patty Griffin, David Wilcox, the Waybacks, Stan Rogers and several others. More than once, the first time I listened through the list (without really looking to see what was on it), I thought, "That was a great song--now it would be cool to hear ---," and sure enough, "---" was part of the list later on.

I can't begin to imagine the kinds of algorithms Apple's iTunes folks have concocted to make Genius work the way it does, but so far, I'm impressed. Apple encourages Genius users to update their information (re-send it to iTunes) from time to time, because the Genius system is learning and getting "smarter" all the time, as more and more people make their information available, and as our music libraries and listening patterns change.

The other playlist I set up was based on David Crowder's "Come and Listen," and it's got a great line-up of tunes from many of the worship artists I've got in my library, including some stuff that I frankly don't listen to that often, but in the context of this list, it seems appropriate and goes together well. It occurs to me that Genius might be a great way to pick your walk-in music playlists for various events--pick a song that is representative of the feel that you're going for, and let Genius fill out a playlist based on that song. Could be cool.

I'm sort of waiting for the "Weird Genius Lists" blog posts, where people find really odd results while playing with Genius, but for now, I'm sold. Nicely done, Apple.

Just wanted to let you know about some free music you might want to have--Phil Wickham has released an album titled "Singalong" that you can get by simply agreeing to receive his newsletter via e-mail. Go to his site to sign up and download the album, and you'll be sent an e-mail confirming your agreement to receive his newsletter.

The newest Passion CD, "God of this City" is out now--it's the eleventh release from the Passion team, and it's a good one. It's a mixture of material, some of which has already been released (Let God Arise, O For a Thousand Tongues, The Glory of it All, for example) and new material (You are God, God of this City, and several others). The material comes mostly from the Passion '07 event, and overall, it's an excellent release, with plenty of material for worship leaders to use.

"God of this City" is a great song that has become an anthem for the Passion World Tour, but there is a lot of really nice stuff here. One of my favorites is Charlie Hall's "You are God"--Christy Nockels' "Hosanna" is very nice, as well. Chris Tomlin's "Sing, Sing, Sing" is going to be sung in a lot of churches, too. "Beautiful Jesus," a new tune from Kristian Stanfill, has one of the most beautiful lines I've heard in recent years: "Your love, O God/displayed for us/as crimson covered over sinless hands".

I've just begun listening to this new release--I'll try to have a more thorough review later on. But after two or three listens, I can offer my wholehearted recommendation that you go get this album. You can get it on iTunes for a mere $9.99.