Smart Playlists.com

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

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.:. randomizer

I wanted a quick selection of 50 tracks, culled randomly from my 5000+ collection, but I didn't want the list to ever get stale. That's why I created the randomizer smartplaylist (I added a ".:." prefix, so this list is always #1 on my iPod).

Create a Smart Playlist:

Match all conditions
Last played - is not in the last - 15 days
Play count - is less than - 5
Limit to 50 songs - selected by - least recently added
Match only check songs
Live updating

by pgant on Oct 09 | 4:46 pm

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Files to back up

If you want to archive your MP3s, create a "backup" smart playlist:


“Date Added” - “is after” - "date of last cd”
"bit rate" > 1 (this will exclude streams)

Obviously you'll need to change the "Date added" date each time you perform a backup.

dfbills adds: When the playlist reaches a suitable size for a backup disk, simply choose “Burn Playlist to Disc” from the File menu.

After this is completed, update your “date of last cd” and iTunes will continue to track your newest additions.

by Adam Rice on Oct 09 | 2:29 pm

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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

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Added but not played

If you are always getting new music and sometimes have trouble remembering what you've added recently this is a good one. It works well as iTunes won't mark a song as "played" until you listen to it all the way through.


Play Count -> is -> 0

I also limit it to the last 15 days with


Date Added -> is in the last -> 15 days

by shooks on Oct 09 | 12:28 pm

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comments


	RB3: You all might find this AppleScript of interest in playlist generation: http: ... Nov 18, 04 \| 2:05 pm A/V Geek: I have a similar system: I have several playlists for artists that I have tons of music from. ... Nov 16, 04 \| 1:21 pm nyorker: nice one lol ... and thanks for the KPOD shout-out! punk plus @+ equals KPMS? >:) ... Nov 16 \| 11:41 am nyorker: <<the FM radio band>> Grif has a free iTrip Station Finder utility that lists the best frequencies for anywhere in USA ... Nov 16 \| 11:36 am RB3: Maybe you live someplace where the FM radio band is too crowded, but may I suggest an FM adapter for ... Nov 15 \| 1:20 pm jjunker: I had read on iPodLounge a while back that the grouping field didn't update. It was probably a problem ... Nov 15, 04 \| 12:04 pm thenightfly42: I have a full list of 'tags' that I put in the comment field, which I'll just add here in ... Nov 15 \| 11:17 am

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