If you have friends who have an iPod – or even if you happen to have one of your own – you’ve probably tried the “genius” feature that comes standard with the music software. Now, I am using that term loosely here. It is their name for the feature, so let’s now begrudge them the clever marketing choice. But let’s be honest, it’s software, so it reads information contained in your music collection, and it puts together lists of things that are supposed to sound good together.

I’ve tried it on an iPod that I have for “research,” and I’ve thought ‘Yeah, this is clever, but it isn’t really that big a deal.’ Honestly, is it really much more than a fancy parlor trick?

For starters (and let’s be clear, this is just my personal experience), each time I use it, the resulting list seems to pull from the same limited range of artists, no matter where I begin. And, it doesn’t seem to know how to categorize about half of my music on the device, including tracks from fairly mainstream acts – I’d like to think my music tastes are eclectic, but I’m not weird.

So I was really excited this week to see a new application from Syntonetic (with offices in Denmark and San Francisco, Calif.) called Playlist DJ. The app was featured last week during Nokia World in Stuttgart, and apparently it is a pre-loaded app for the new Nokia X6 device. For those of us who do not have this slick new mobile phone, Playlist DJ is now available for Nokia touch-enabled devices (i.e., Nokia S60 5th Edition devices like the Nokia N97 or Nokia 5800 XpressMusic) in Ovi Store! Hooray!

When you first run the app, it reads the music stored on your Nokia mobile device, and catalogs the information it needs to let the app run properly. This initial set up process takes a few minutes – it will
depend on how much music is stored on your device – but after that
you’re ready to go.

This app has cool written all over it.
The interface is easy to use, and very inviting, making use of four sliders that you push up and down to generate a musical playlist that is tailored to your specific mood at that moment in time. Now, let’s be honest, the app isn’t reading your emotional state through your finger tips. But, with each slider, you control just how much you want of each setting, in this case, the sliders from left to right indicate: Joy, Passion, Anger, and Tempo. So, if you crank the sliders up to the top, you get a list of songs that is really joyful, passionate, angry – and super fast! The Help section within the App – under the Options menu – gives more detail about how it works, but it is more fun to just start fiddling with the levers and see the results for yourself.

And, each time you adjust one of the levers, the results of the list change to reflect the specific choice you have made. It is really tempting to try loads of different combinations just to see what will happen. And then, once you find the right balance to suit your current music-listening mood, you can press the play button and start listening to the collection of music that YOU selected. Aren’t you clever? In fact, I think it’s fair to say Playlist DJ let’s you be the genius. Yes, it’s software like that other music app. But, it’s software that continues to keep you in the driver’s seat. And with Playlist DJ, your results could be different every time you use it – it would certainly be different for each individual that uses it – creating a truly unique, customized experience.

The resulting playlist includes 24 songs, and if you really like the results – and I expect that you will – you can save the list for future playback. The app also has a feature (within the Options menu) to create a playlist of similar songs to the results you just found. (I saved the list displayed above – it’s just right.)

There is also a search option, so if you want to create a playlist based on a particular song or artist, you can do that, too. But I like sliding the levers – the bright colors and easy-to-follow icons in the app are like a magnet for your finger.

Here’s a quick video demo (thanks fonearena.com) showing the app on the new Nokia X6:

If you listen to a lot of music – or if you want to hear your music collection in a new way – you should give Playlist DJ a spin. Bring it to a party, and show your friends that you’re a musical genius.

The new Playlist DJ app is FREE available for $4.99 (USD) in the listing of Music applications in Ovi Store.

More details about the technology behind the app are available from the Syntonetic website.