I saw this component in the latest version of iTunes after I installed it but hadn’t bothered with it until this evening. Clearly something designed to drive sales, it makes recommendations, based on the track you’re playing, for what Apple regards as similar tracks that are not in your library. It hasn’t made any sales yet but I have to admit to being intrigued. Playing ‘And She Was’ by Talking Heads, amongst a fair bit of dross it suggested ‘Psycho Killer’; no great leap there but also ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ by The Clash, not top of my list of Clash songs but getting there but most interesting to me was the last on the list, ‘Come Dancing’ by The Kinks, no sale but definitely getting warmer. Went stone cold on the next track I played though; ‘Landed’ by Ben Folds. Other than more by Ben Folds it offered me nothing I had heard of. Against ‘Road to Hell’ by Chris Rea it offered me plenty I’d heard of but nothing I was remotely interested in.
They claim that the recommendations should get better with time but you have to give it access to your library data which tells it the star ratings you have given the tracks and the number of times a track has been played, so it should have a pretty good base of information to extrapolate from the get go. Gone through a few more tracks and still no sale but keeping me interested.