Use of Smart Playlists
I'm kind of interested to see how other iTunes users (lucky us) are putting smart playlists to use.
I've got a 15G and since my actual music collection far exceeds 15G, I thought I'd try to use the iPod to actively play through my music.
So far, I use the following (originally inspired by www.macosxhints.com and customized for my own liking):
Hot Rotation
- rating of 4 or more stars
- played within the last 3 days
On the Charts
- rating of 3 or more stars
- not played within the last week
- played within the last 2 months
- no limit, selected by least recently played
Cooling Off
- ratings of 1 star or more
- not played within the last 3 months
- no limit, selected by least recently played
then, to keep new music floating through my iPod, I add in a last one
New Stuff
- no rating
- selected by least recently played
- limited to 100 songs or so
This effectively keeps the playlists fresh over a period of time without having to do anything more than listen and rate.
[1111 byte] By [
legacyb4] at [2007-11-9 13:10:47]
# 1 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
The only SP I enjoy at all is "100 Songs":
- Last played not in the last week
- Limit to 100 songs selected at random
- live updating
I get a very nice mix of music all day long. If only "Selector" (an app broadcasters use to program their music) was as easy to manage.
# 2 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
This may be a dumb question, but why limit the number of songs? Is it only because you don't have enough room on your iPod for your music library, or is there another reason I can't think of right now?
# 3 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
Oh, it's no magic number or anything. In my case, 100 constantly refreshed songs in a single handy playlist offers enough depth for a day.
# 4 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
OK. Well, with my library I am very careful about keeping my Genre categories consistent. So, I have an "All Rock" playlist that combines where genre = rock or hard rock or ska or punk or (about 9 other options). I also have a "never played", a "stale" (not played in the last month), and an "everything" (BPM<999). I don't limit the size of these playlists.
I've also put the word "PMRC" in the comments for any songs with explicit content; using this, I have a "Clean Ska" playlist that has genre=ska and comments do not include PMRC. I wish that I could do a smart playlist that could handle nested AND and OR, or at least a smart playlist that could use the results of another smart playlist, so I could have a "Clean All Rock" playlist.
(Bonus points for identifying the initialism "PMRC".)
# 5 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
PMRC: Parents Music Resource Center, founded by Tipper Gore and several other Washington wives in the mid-eighties to develop a rating system for recorded music. People like Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) testified against their idea in Senate hearings. I will never forget Al Gore saying he was a fan of Frank Zappa's music.
# 6 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
Correct, although I think they were the *only* three to testify.
Also, I think I may have figured out your "limit to 100" thing; I have these playlists on shuffle, and sorted by play order, but they don't "reshuffle" when I sync. I assume that yours does? If I set the limit to number to a number greater than my total song count, do you think it would still update on sync?
# 7 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
Frank Zappa. What a man. Don't eat the yellow snow. :)
# 8 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
Here are some of my current SPL's
Like a virgin
- playcount 0 (for those I completely forget)
Meet & Greet
- limited to 100 songs most recently added
You & More
- song name contains "you" (interesting eclectic mix)
Forgotten love
- 4 or 5 stars
- playcount less than 2
Lovefetish
- song name contains "love"
I keep on adding playlists when I get inspired especially by such threads...
# 9 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I have a bunch of radio station and TV/radio commercial jingles on my iPod along with all the songs, so my favorite smart playlist is all tracks with 4 stars or above plus all jingles (I created a "jingle" genre to make this kind of thing feasible). Now, if only I could get shuffle mode to be a little less random...I really like it when I hear song-jingle-song, but the occasional song-jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-song is actually a little annoying.
I also have smart playlists for various time periods: pre-1960, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Actually, I may create another smart playlist for my birthday next month that's just songs from the year I was born.
# 10 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
Gina,
Love the playlist titles!
thenightfly42,
The only reason I put a limit on is to keep lists (especially the New Stuff) within a number of songs I can crunch through in a day and have updated when I sync to iTunes.
Cheers.
Originally posted by ginalee
Here are some of my current SPL's
Like a virgin
- playcount 0 (for those I completely forget)
Meet & Greet
- limited to 100 songs most recently added
You & More
- song name contains "you" (interesting eclectic mix)
Forgotten love
- 4 or 5 stars
- playcount less than 2
Lovefetish
- song name contains "love"
I keep on adding playlists when I get inspired especially by such threads...
# 11 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
These are great playlists. Most of my smart playlists are pretty simple (like a studying playlist that limits to just jazz and classical), but here are a couple that I really like:
Current Favorites
-rating of 4 or 5 stars
-last played in the last three days.
Variety
-last played in the last 7 days but not in the last 1 day
-rating between 3 and 5 stars
-play count less than 35
Current Top 40
-rating of 4 or 5 stars
-last played in the last 10 days
-limited to 40, sorted by play count
stillm at 2007-11-15 16:57:59 >
# 12 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I have a list for songs that I've added recently that I haven't listened to and need to be rated:
Last played not in last 12 months
My rating is 0 stars
Limit to 40 songs (iPod) selected by most recently added
I listen to this at the gym and it lets me work through my songs to rate them all.
# 13 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I make a 150-track playlist by hand from three 50-track smart playlists:
* Five-star tracks not listened to in last 14 days (picked from a pool of about 1400 five-star tracks)
* Three-star tracks not listened to in last 28 days (about 5000 three-star tracks). I currently have no four-star tracks. I used to rate "new" stuff four stars until I started using the year info for each track to single those out.
* Tracks three stars or higher from 2002 or 2003, not played in last 3 days (not sure how many, probably about 500-1000)
Once I build the big list (I'm sure I could write an AppleScript to do this if I took the time), I can shuffle it, or sort it by artist to delete tracks by overrepresented artists. I end up with enough tracks to get me through an 8-hour work day.
Actually, I got the idea of using the last played info from this thread--much better variety, and more reliable than using play counts. Smart playlists have changed my life.
iMarcW at 2007-11-15 16:59:56 >
# 14 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
mine are mainly genre based, plus hot fave (4 or 5 *), random album, random 50, "recent additions" .. when i am net sharing i do have a "tune of the day" and a "try this" which i like to inflict on anybody odd enough to tune in..
deeg at 2007-11-15 17:01:02 >
# 15 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I have a playlist of 25 5 stars songs, never played in the last 2 weeks, with live update.
But the last time I sync to iTunes, it didn't update the list. Don't know why...
# 16 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I'd like to personally invite you all to come visit and contribute to SmartPlaylists.com
Press Release:
New York, New York--October 09, 2003- Today marks the launch of Smart Playlists.com, a website which focuses on creating, sharing, and chatting about Apple's iTunes Smart Playlists.
Smart Playlists.com is specifically designed for iTunes and iPod users, so they can tap into the many ingenious ways in which Smart Playlists can be used to keep your music fresh.
Learn to personalize your listening experience by creating sophisticated Smart Playlists based on powerful features like My Rating, Last Played, Keywords, and Total Play Count.
Smart Playlists.com was designed for users of Apple's iTunes 3.0 and up. For more information visit the website at http://smartplaylists.com
# 17 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I have a smart playlist that selects songs that have no ratings. I have it limited to 30 songs, sorted by most most recently added. I listen to it at the gym, and I work through the list, rating all my unrated songs. As soon as songs are rated, they fall off the list.
It's a great way to work back through your library to make sure that songs have ratings.
# 18 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
Originally posted by ginalee
Here are some of my current SPL's
Like a virgin
- playcount 0 (for those I completely forget)
Meet & Greet
- limited to 100 songs most recently added
You & More
- song name contains "you" (interesting eclectic mix)
Forgotten love
- 4 or 5 stars
- playcount less than 2
Lovefetish
- song name contains "love"
I keep on adding playlists when I get inspired especially by such threads...
Have you got any others, Gina? Your titles are cool. :D
# 19 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
[i]Originally posted by legacyb4
I've got a 15G and since my actual music collection far exceeds 15G, I thought I'd try to use the iPod to actively play through my music.
Smart Playlists are great - but does the Ipod sync the "Last Played On" or "Number of Times Played" information from the iPod back to iTunes. I listen to music on my iPod 10 times more than on my Mac. So I would like this info to go from the iPod to the Mac, then have the Mac iTunes dynamically update the play list then send the new playlist back to the ipod. This would be great for an "Un-SUng Hero's Playlist".
I have a Generation 1 iPod 10 G - I guess the real question does apple want me to buy a Gen 3 in order to get these features.
Ravat at 2007-11-15 17:06:08 >
# 20 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
It's taken me a long time to get my head around the use of Smart Playlists, and I almost had it... in fact I posted a SP to smartplaylists.com
But I don't think the one I posted achieves what I want!
I want a 40 min mix for my commute to work, ie. on my iPod.
I just want singles from albums I have in iTunes, so I made the respective songs contain "Single" in their comment field, and so made the SP require this, and also be random, live updating, and not be played within the last day.
This would mean, I hoped, everytime I plugged in my (old style) iPod, a new, fresh mix would be updated in the playlist, because as i'd listened to the playlist already earlier in the day, the playcount would presumably be increased.
Does a play of a track on the iPod count in the Playcount etc? If so, when is it noted/ updated in iTunes? because right now, everything I played today on my iPod is still at a 0 playcount in iTunes
# 21 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I'm pretty sure that updating the playcount in iTunes when you've played the song on the iPod was a 3G enhancement...
Sorry :(
Aym
aym at 2007-11-15 17:08:06 >
# 22 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
I haven't looked at smart play lists yet, are they easy to make?
boyced at 2007-11-15 17:09:04 >
# 23 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
This was a intressting thread to read. Thanks all for input
EsspeN at 2007-11-15 17:10:05 >
# 24 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
Here are two of my recently made smart playlists:
5 Sterne Deluxe: songs with only 5 star ratings, not played in the last month
Popsicle: genre "pop"
Not until the release of iTunes for windows have I realized the limitations of the smart playlist options. ;-)
There are smart playlists I would LOVE to create but can't for the moment (some now exist as normal playlists). One example is here:
One hit wonder: all titles where I have only ONE song from a particular artist (very interesing and eclectic mix btw but I've had to do this manually)
And of course why not create a smart playlist based on songs that are NOT already in playlists.
Maybe someday...
Alicia
# 25 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
no, play counts are updated from iPod back to iTunes with the 2g iPod.. at least mine does :x not sure about date played.. going to have to try that..
# 26 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
if u have a smart playlist and you update your ipod, is it going to update on the ipod?
# 27 Re: Use of Smart Playlists
E.g. the playcount, last played are updated so that if you have a SPL with "tunes not played in the last week" and you play this SPL, the tunes will be dropped off the list and others added to fulfil the criteria.
