[Air-l] iTunes 7.0

[Bob Rehak]

On Sun, September 17, 2006 17:00, Stephanie Jo Kent wrote:

> Ok.  Here's the deal.  I'm really dumb about a lot of this stuff.  I
> just updated iTunes to 7.0.  Did a Party Shuffle.  I'm wondering about
> the "randomness factor".  Specifically, the chances that a sequence of
> several songs would fall into sync?
>
> I'm interested in qualitative answers as well as any quantitative
> results.  For instance, is there some snoop software that reads my
> measurable statistics in relation to online music?
>
> steph
> http://www.reflexivity.us


Steph, I've been curious about the metaphysics of shuffle as well --
wondering if there are flavors and varieties of randomness to the iPod, or
just an all-or-nothing order-vs.-chaos. As has been pointed out, iTunes
has an adjustable feature (under Preferences>Playback) in the form of a
slider that "allows you to control how likely you are to hear multiple
songs in a row by the same artist or from the same album." But on a more
conceptual and psychologically interesting level, I encourage you to check
out a piece that ran in the New York Times in 2004 titled "Tunes, a Hard
Drive And (Just Maybe) a Brain." Find it at http://tinyurl.com/fxodj (you
may need to register to view).

Best,

-- 
Bob Rehak
Visiting Assistant Professor
Film and Media Studies
Swarthmore College