I definitely like doing the "just hit play" thing on my iPod and iMac though. Sometimes I rediscover some great stuff I forgot I had, or didn't think I was in the right mood for.
I'm not into playlists to the point of "Music for eating Lasagna", and "Pissed Off at My Boss Mix", etc., but I have one playlist that's very useful to me called "The Big Shuffle".
I have a lot of complete albums in my iTunes/iPod library, and a mix of genres. If I try to use shuffle play on the whole library, I'm not pleased with the results. So "The Big Shuffle" is a subset of my library that consists of songs that work well as stand-alone songs, that can hold up well being out-of-context from their original albums. This playlist works out great for shuffle play.
One smart playlist I use is called "Sharable" and excludes all protected music files. That's what I share through iTunes sharing so that no one listening to my music remotely ever sees an authorization dialog.
I have a few others too, like "New Purchases" and "Short List" for listening, and archival playlists like "Purchased Music 03" for purchased music I've archived to CDs for back-up.
actually, i take that back somewhat... i did have one playlist i was especially fond of, at my last job. it was packed with some of the loudest, angriest beat-thumpers i could find, so when idiot managers would decide that MY DESK was the best place to have the discussion about last night's survivor or the bachelor while i had a deadline in TEN MINUTES SHUT UP!!!, i could throw my headphones on, crank 'em up to eleven and get focused again.
I use all three. Shuffle play on my full library would be bad, because there's a few audio books. Nothing quite like rocking out to some Metallica, then getting some guy reading from T.S. Elliot's poetry.
Plus, I have soundtracks from a TV series called X.
That's it. X.
So, if I type "x" in the search box, I also get the X-Files soundtrack, "Extreme Ways" by Moby, the Matrix soundtracks, etc. A playlist is required there.
One of my favorite bands is Prodigy. However, their tracks often end up on movie soundtracks, so if I just searched for Prodigy in my library, I'd have several duplicate tracks. "Smart Playlist" to the rescue, just make a playlist for "artist is Prodigy" and "album is not (whatever)." If I ever pick up another album by them (provided they make one... *grumble*), it'll automatically show up in this playlist.
I've never used shuffle even once. It just wouldn't work for me. I suppose I could use it within certain playlists for which the order doesn't matter, but even then I guess I just don't mind listening to the tracks in their playlist order.
Comments
I have a lot of complete albums in my iTunes/iPod library, and a mix of genres. If I try to use shuffle play on the whole library, I'm not pleased with the results. So "The Big Shuffle" is a subset of my library that consists of songs that work well as stand-alone songs, that can hold up well being out-of-context from their original albums. This playlist works out great for shuffle play.
One smart playlist I use is called "Sharable" and excludes all protected music files. That's what I share through iTunes sharing so that no one listening to my music remotely ever sees an authorization dialog.
I have a few others too, like "New Purchases" and "Short List" for listening, and archival playlists like "Purchased Music 03" for purchased music I've archived to CDs for back-up.
Plus, I have soundtracks from a TV series called X.
That's it. X.
So, if I type "x" in the search box, I also get the X-Files soundtrack, "Extreme Ways" by Moby, the Matrix soundtracks, etc. A playlist is required there.
One of my favorite bands is Prodigy. However, their tracks often end up on movie soundtracks, so if I just searched for Prodigy in my library, I'd have several duplicate tracks. "Smart Playlist" to the rescue, just make a playlist for "artist is Prodigy" and "album is not (whatever)." If I ever pick up another album by them (provided they make one... *grumble*), it'll automatically show up in this playlist.
So, they all have their uses.