iTunes playlists

This page explains some of my smart playlists in iTunes. iTunes is a music organizer and jukebox for Mac OS X and Windows.
First, let's define a smart playlist. Normal playlists are groups of songs that you put into a "playlist" and when you listen to the playlist, you hear all of the songs within it. Smart playlists are the same except they are created automatically and dynamically. With a normal playlist you have to add the songs manually. Smart playlists are populated from your library via song matches to rules that you define.

Rating

iTunes allows you to rate your songs on a 5 star system. I rate my favorites with 5 stars, songs that are great but can get old with 4 stars, good with 3 stars, "ok" with 2, and notable with 1 star. All other songs are worth keeping around, but not good enough to be listened to regularly.

Play count

iTunes keeps track of how many times you play a particular song. Every time the song is listened to completely the play count goes up.

Last played

iTunes also records the last time and date that you played each song. This type of data is very useful for creating smart playlists.
Because of the rating and play count system, we can generate a smart playlist like this:

Top 25 -
Last played is in the last 1 weeks
My rating is greater than 4 stars
Limit to 25 songs selected by Most often played

This produces a smart playlist that contains 25 songs; all of which are rated 4 stars or greater and have been played in the last week.

The layer system

Using smart playlists, I have created a "layer system". It has three layers and the music that I most like to listen to floats around in these three layers based on various attributes. Observe:

Layer 1 - My rating is 5 stars
Last played is in the last 3 days

Layer 2 - My rating is 5 stars
Last playedis not in the last 3 days
Last playedis in the last 2 weeks

Layer 3 - My rating is 5 stars
Last played is not in the last 2 weeks
Last played is in the last 1 month


What does all of that do? Let's say that I've listened to all of my 5 star songs (all of my favorites) and I've listened to them all in the last few hours. That would mean all of my favorites are in Layer 1. I go and listen to Layer 1 on shuffle and I have 127 of my most favorite songs. I listen and listen and everything is going nicely until I come to a song that I used to like a whole lot (because it was catchy for a while) but really doesn't deserve a 5 star rating. I simply skip to the next track. By skipping, I have not increased the Play count or updated the Last played attributes for the song. If I continue to skip it the next time it shows up in my playlist, after 3 days the song will "fall out" of Layer 1 and into Layer 2.
Layer 2 is just as exciting. Once or twice a week I listen to Layer 2 and go through the same process. If a song is still not "5 star worthy" I skip it again. If I come to a song in Layer 2 that I didn't really like before but I realized is one of my favorites, I simply allow it to finish and it moves back to Layer 1. The songs that I skip however sit in Layer 2 for 2 weeks and then move to Layer 3.
Layer 3 is the forgotten playlist. I check it maybe two or three times a month. If I decide that a song has made it into Layer 3 but I still like it, I allow it to finish and it moves back to Layer 1. If I still don't like the song, I think about changing it from a 5 star rating to a 4 star rating. Once it is a 4 star, it falls out of this system completly. This system works great for me and helps me cycle through music and get through my fads but keep my true favorites separated.

The playlists

45 minutes - This creates a playlist that is close to 45 minutes long filled with great music. Great for a drive to work.
Last played is not in the last 1 weeks
My rating is in the range of 4 to 5 stars
Limit to 45 minutes selected by Random

1960's - This grabs all music from the 60's
Year is in the range 1960 to 1969

1970's - This grabs all music from the 70's
Year is in the range 1970 to 1979

1980's - This grabs all music from the 80's
Year is in the range 1980 to 1989

1990's - This grabs all music from the 90's
Year is in the range 1990 to 1999

2000's - This grabs all music from the 00's
Year is in the range 2000 to 2009

Most played - Sort by play count and show which songs are played the most
Play count is greater than 10

Neglected - Shows songs that haven't been played. Nice for rating.
Play count is 0

New music - All of my newly imported music appears here
Date added is in the last 1 months

Popular - Lists popular music from my library
My rating is in greater than 3 stars
Play count is greater than 1
Last played is in the last 2 days

Random - Collects 100 random songs
Last played is not in the last 1 weeks
Limit to 100 songs selected by Random

Recently played - Shows the last 100 songs played within the last two weeks.
Last played is in the last 2 weeks
Limit to 100 songs selected by Random

Summary

iTunes can be a very powerful music management system with just a bit of setup. Sure, it can be painful to rate a library of thousands of songs. But the payoff is worth it. You are free to enjoy your music in a way you couldn't before.
Last edited Tuesday, 03/23/04 at 1452:43