I am a big fan of iTunes. So big in fact, that I am often attempting to convert people from Windows Media Player, Winamp, and the rest of the lot which in my opinion does not stack up to the wonderfulness which is iTunes. With that in mind, I considered myself rather comfortable with iTunes, and would have even said I was …*cough* … and ‘experienced’ iTunes user (if there is such a thing). Well, the other day I was sadly proven wrong on almost all accounts.
While browsing the net I came across ijsm.org and a slightly interesting article about rating songs in iTunes. But then, while browsing through the comments, a user posted his iTunes setup and it dawned on me that I really have not been using iTunes to its full potential. So without further ado, here is the setup (credit for the idea goes to Dougal Campbell) which I am currently using now:
I created a playlist called “The Good Mix,” which is limited to 2GB in size, and pulls songs randomly from the following five smart playlists:
Least Often Played
150 songs, sorted by least often played, > 2 stars, not heard in the last 3 days.Least Recently Played
100 songs, sorted by least recently played, > 2 stars.Random
50 songs, selected randomly, > 1 star, not heard in the last 5 days.Favorites
75 songs, selected randomly, > 3 stars, not heard in the last 2 days.Unrated
300 songs, selected randomly, not yet rated.
I then use this playlist to sync with my iPod, and have iTunes pull from this playlist when using Party Shuffle. Doing this ensures that I always have new music on my iPod, and in addition, has greatly increased the quality of songs iTunes selects.
5 Comments
Glad that you have found use from Dougal’s suggestion as I have, even if you damned my “article” with faint praise.
I can’t really claim credit for the idea. I borrowed it from my friend Eric. Though I don’t think he has as many sub-playlists as I use. And I’m pretty sure that he learned about it from someplace else.
But back to the main point, the idea of aggregating sub-playlists is pretty useful. The fact that an iTunes playlist can filter from other playlists is the key. It lets you fine tune things in really interesting ways.
I’ve been tinkering with Dougal’s system; I’m probably going to post my findings. Dougal’s exactly right—you can make smart playlists that end up being better than straight Party Shuffle.
Sweet. I highly recommend you post your findings, as using Dougal’s current method has increased my iTunes listening pleasure ten-fold. Any improvements you can make to the system I would definitely be interested in seeing.
I’ll be doing that … and since I have a breadcrumb trail back to my comments here, I’ll probably even remember to send a trackback here so you know about it.
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