|
Random, Rated, and Even-handed
|
|
|
Problem: with over 250 albums on my first iPod, I'm constantly sifting though my songs for gems I've forgotten or never really listened to. I have a "Rated" play list, which grabs all star-rated tracks, excluding non-popular music genres. I listen to this Rated smart playlist on shuffle, but coming back to this list time and again seems to over-play some songs while ignoring others.
Solution:
Limit your "Rated" playlist to a bit less than the total play-time of the original list, chosen by Least-Frequently-Played.
My original list was about 17 hours long, so I trimmed it down to 15 hours with this setting. Now I'm no longer in danger of getting sick of some of my favorite, but over-played, tracks. Some of those tracks have been played twenty times or more, while the vast majority of rated songs have only gotten played 5 to 10 times.
Now, As I rate new songs, or un-rate songs I really didn't like that much, the playlist remains fresh, with over-played tracks taking a short hiatus while others get the spotlight.
|
by Robert on Oct 09 | 5:27 pm
|
|
Composting for iPod
|
|
|
When I first got my iPod, all was well, but I soon filled up all 10 gigs. I didn't want to manually manage which songs got put on the iPod (what a pain!) and I didn't want to get a bigger one (well, I wanted to, sure, but c'mon), so I came up with a Smart Playlist to put only the best and most current music on my iPod. Here's how.
First create a new smart playlist. I called mine "For iPod" cause I'm not that clever. The idea here is to make a playlist that includes the music you most want on your iPod. Mine says:
My Rating - is greater than - **
Date Added - is in the last - 2 months
Date Modified - is in the last - 2 months
Last Played - is in the last - 2 months
This includes any song I've rated 2 stars or more, and any song I've added or played in the last two months. Depending on my iTunes usage, this winds up being 6 or 7 gigs. Your recipe my vary.
Then connect your iPod. Click the iPod icon at the bottom of iTunes to get the iPod Preferences window. Instead of the default top option, select the second one: "Automatically update selected playlists only."
Then check the "For iPod" Smart Playlist you just made. Feel free to select any other playlists too, if you always want them on your iPod.
Bottom Line: Now my iTunes library can be considerably larger than the size of my iPod, but the latest and greatest will always be with me! Bonus: Since the total amount of stuff on my iPod is less than the total 10 gigs, I can still use it as a hard drive to shuttle other stuff around.
|
by Derek Powazek on Oct 09 | 2:00 pm
|
|
|
|
|