Smart Playlists.com

To Be Rated- again

Being a perfectionist, I like to rate all my songs. I usually do this diligently while using my iPod, but sometimes I forget or can't reach it (eg. while standing on the bus). I've come up with this Smart Playlist to tell me what songs still need to be rated:


Play count -> is greater than -> 1 AND
My Rating -> is -> [empty]

One simply rates all the songs in iTunes (or even on the iPod if you've got the patience to skip through all the songs) until the playlist is empty.

A while ago, due to a hard drive failure, I lost all my ratings and play counts. I started manually managing my iPod and racked up a few play counts. When I got the computer up and running again, it meant that most of my songs now had a play count greater than 1 but were not rated, meaning that the above playlist listed way too many to face in one hit. To combat this, I've added the following criteria:


Date Last Played -> is in the last -> 1 -> month.

This gives me a month's worth. The songs played earlier than a month eventually show up as I relisten to them.

by japester on Dec 09 | 9:26 am

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To Be Deleted

I have a number of compilation CDs which contain songs I know I don't like. As there are so many CDs, I didn't want to selectively import songs, so I just imported them all. When I come across a disliked song while listening to a CD, I rate it as one star. On synchronising with iTunes, these show up in my Smart Playlist:


My Rating is 1

I then look at the playlist and it tells me what songs to delete. Unfortunately, you can't delete them directly in the playlist, so you have to note the song name, then search for it in the library and delete it from there.

Dave adds: If you hold down option and press delete you can delete the file from all playlists and remove from your hard drive.

by japester on Dec 09 | 9:12 am

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Exclude 'bind' tracks in random playlists

When you make a playlist that will randomize tracks from different cd's, you may want to exclude some tracks that act as an binding between 2 tracks on a cd. This works fine if you listen to the complete cd in the right sequence, but if you make a random playlist you might want to exclude those.

I do this by setting the following tag in the comments and exclude on that: [NFRP] Not For Random Playlist (yeah I know, what's in a name).

Examples of such a short binding tracks are:

Welcome - Americana - The Offspring
Rooftop Animals - The May Street Project - Shea Seger
Interlude - Absolution - Muse
0.34 - White On Blonde - Texas

by Merg on Dec 05 | 1:52 pm

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Getting more specific results

I use words in the Comments field as a way to create very specific playlists. For instance, to create a constantly updating list of songs by my favorite French female pop singers I do this...

Create a Smart Playlist:


Match all the following conditions:
Comment contains Female
Comment contains French
Genre is Pop
Last Played is not in the last 1 days
Limit to 25 songs selected by random
Live updating

Since many artists/songs are cross-genre, this method can be quite useful. Adding multiple genres per artist/song to the Comments field greatly increases control.

by Hitchcock Blonde on Dec 02 | 12:10 am

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Smarter Genre Playlists

OK, this is my strategy for creating Genre-based playlists.

What I do is enter multiple Genres in the Genre field, seperated by commas. For instance, Blondie's "Heart Of Glass (Live)" from the "Blondie Live" album has the following Genre:

New Wave, Live, Disco

So let's say I want to hear only Disco songs. I create a new Smart Playlist:

Genre - contains - Disco
Live updating

and label it "Genre: Disco"

And I can get my groove on to my heart's content.

Why not just label it "Disco" and use the built-in Genre picker list? Because songs, like people, cannot be easily summed up in a one word description. However, several words usually works (for songs anyway). This makes Genres much more accurate and useful. Songs can now cross over different Genres and appear in multiple Genre playlists.

You can also create more complex and interesting playlists this way. Say I only want to listen to live New Wave stuff today. I just use the "Genre: Live, New Wave" Smart Playlist:

Match - all
Genre - contains - Live
Genre - contains - New Wave
Live updating

Not only do I get Blondie's Heart Of Glass (Live)", I also get:

"New Religion (Live)" - Duran Duran
"Doctor Doctor (Live)" - Thompson Twins
"Loveland (Live)" - B-52's

You get the idea. There's no end to the interesting Smart Playlists you can create!

I am hoping that in the future Apple will change the built-in genre browser to identify the genre strings separated by commas as multiple genres, and not just one string run together. That way the Smart Playlists won't be needed. Instead you could just highlight "Live" and "New Wave" and get the same playlist. Until then, Multiple Genres and Smart Playlists are the perfect combination.

by Louis A Bustamante on Nov 30 | 12:24 am

[10] comments (2025 views) | [0] Trackbacks

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	Mike M: I have a bunch of playlists that I pick from- new stuff, old stuff, stuff not heard recently, and favorites. ... Mar 25 \| 3:31 pm Hans: Is there any way to change the default star rating on CD imports songs from 0 star to 3 stars, my ... Mar 23 \| 7:02 pm Alvito: Thanks! Glad u have found it useful! ... Mar 21 \| 9:37 pm Bentomlin: Simple... you just have to browse all the rock music you have and select them all, then just change the ... Mar 20, 05 \| 7:24 am dmk5n: I used to burn CD's for my car as well until the player broke. I pulled out the stereo and ... Mar 19 \| 10:52 am vertigo25: I like this a lot. I had never thought to match a smart playlist to anothe smart playlist. Very clever ... Mar 18 \| 12:41 pm Olf: ...OR you could make a Smartlist that looks like this: Playlist - Is - 30 songs for the gym Limit to - ... Mar 16, 05 \| 10:56 am

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