I've been thinking about ways to get more control over how often I hear the songs I like. Right now, I've got my ratings set between 2-5 with 1 being my signal that a song can be deleted. I'm thinking about changing my rating to between 2-4, as follows:
1 - Delete
2 - Rare Listen
3 - Occasional Listen
4 - Favorite
5 - Current Hit, Want To Hear It Often
This would allow me to easily change songs on the iPod to be more or less heard, by setting my smart playlists up to make sure I hear a lot of 5.
The theory behind this is while some songs are long term favorites, I do get tired of them and want them to fall back into the mix for awhile. By setting a song to 4, it will get played less often and when I hear a 3 or 4 that catches me, I can easily change it on the iPod to a 5 and start hearing more of it.
Before I go change all my 5's to 4, I thought I'd see if anyone has done anything like this and how it works.
D, your five-star plan is a really original idea and the best one I've heard for a what's hot list-- I might try it too! If you're nervous about losing your old five-star ratings, make a 'backup' with an SPL 'My rating is five stars,' then drag and drop the contents into a non-smart playlist.
I have a SPL that eliminates the need for using a rating (one star) for remove/repair songs ... I'll post it ... I find I wanna keep the one-star for interludes, live music, audiobooks, stuff I'm keeping just for album completism, and other junk I don't want in SPLs but don't wanna delete either.
by nyorker on Dec 03, 04 | 5:40 pm
i have a kind of similiar thing
its basicly the same accept 2 stars are always excluded from my playlists(usually these r short intermission tracks which i keep for the purpose of staying true to the original album, not to actually listen to) and then one star signals either delete or some other sort of attention is needed
this attention is often an improper tag, or too long of an extro (which i cut down using itunes wonderful start time and stop time feature)
by genEric on Dec 03, 04 | 6:27 pm
Too much work, IMO. I have 11000+ songs and I'm halfway down rating them all. I don't wanna fumble for my iPod or click through iTunes all the time to change ratings.
I have found the KPOD solution on this site by far the best way to hear songs you like and have a cooling off period at the same time so you won't get tired of certain songs.
by Jaskarska on Dec 03, 04 | 6:30 pm
Of course, this good idea comes along when I have just been feeling pleased with myself for getting down to under 1000 unrated tracks on iTunes/iPod. :)
I like my system though:
5 - All-time favourites
4 - Really good stuff
3 - Pretty good-- I like to listen to it, but not my favourite
2 - Songs I don't care for much
1 - Songs that aren't really songs (ie little filler tracks) that I don't need to listen to unless I want to listen to the whole album
This makes the KPOD thing a little less useful for me but I am trying to get it to work becaues I LOVE the idea of it.
by synecdoche on Dec 07, 04 | 3:18 pm
I still haven't decided whether to try D's 5-star plan, but my sense is that it'd play a different role for me than KPOD ... let KPOD d.j. massive amounts of music I'm still absorbing (500 or more songs with low play counts), but let the five-star rating be used for a more elite group of hot tracks I truly can't get enough of, including old stuff I'm into again. So I think the two can coexist. Like Jaskar, though, I'm worried it is a lot of hands-on rating tinkering ... my two cents =)
D, your five-star plan is a really original idea and the best one I've heard for a what's hot list-- I might try it too! If you're nervous about losing your old five-star ratings, make a 'backup' with an SPL 'My rating is five stars,' then drag and drop the contents into a non-smart playlist.
I have a SPL that eliminates the need for using a rating (one star) for remove/repair songs ... I'll post it ... I find I wanna keep the one-star for interludes, live music, audiobooks, stuff I'm keeping just for album completism, and other junk I don't want in SPLs but don't wanna delete either.