i've made the switch (not what you think)

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
i recently discovered "smart playlists" in itunes, and i love them... i've now converted all my usual playlists to smart ones, and the system is perfect... i've tweaked a lot of the restrictions and guidlines for building them, so now i just plug in my ipod and my playlists are all set... no updating them or anything--itunes does it all... i suggest you try them out (the system works best if you rate your music, which you can do on the go on the ipod and it syncs with itunes)

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    oh yeah, Smart playlists are great!



    I recently made the switch too. 8)
  • Reply 2 of 13
    too bad you cant tell it to auto-rate your songs based on play count
  • Reply 3 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ThunderPoit

    too bad you cant tell it to auto-rate your songs based on play count



    Damn good idea! Send it to Apple if you've not heard anyone else say it before.



    I *dig* Smart Playlists too. I still have a pretty immature iTunes Library, I have... let's see... 1352 songs I have not played out of... 2287. So I set dynamic Smart'lists to play these, yet keep the 'list size small (25 songs) for my iPod to cache easily. Then I have my Poisoned playlist which, for reasons you might be able to deduce, is a favourite. Then the usual most played, highest rated, for sharing etc.



    I need tabs in iTunes though. I sometimes loose the playlist that my song is playing from.



    Anyone got any clever ways of using Smart'lists?
  • Reply 4 of 13
    i never understood the "my rating" thing, i've always disabled it. i mean what do you do, have a smart playlist for playing all the tunes you think are shit? ("oh, i've got a great collection of 1-star crap you should hear!")

    maybe it would be good if you shared iTunes with someone.....





    the thing i've always used a smart playlist for is playing the tunes that never get played. just tell it to play the tracks that have been played 0-1 times.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    i never understood the "my rating" thing, i've always disabled it. i mean what do you do, have a smart playlist for playing all the tunes you think are shit? ("oh, i've got a great collection of 1-star crap you should hear!")

    maybe it would be good if you shared iTunes with someone.....





    the thing i've always used a smart playlist for is playing the tunes that never get played. just tell it to play the tracks that have been played 0-1 times.




    its not about the low-rated stuff.... there are songs i wanna listen to a lot sometimes, and other times i'm in the mood for something else. i change the ratings based on that, and all my playlists are updated effortlessly.
  • Reply 6 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    its not about the low-rated stuff.... there are songs i wanna listen to a lot sometimes, and other times i'm in the mood for something else. i change the ratings based on that, and all my playlists are updated effortlessly.



    how does that apply to the rating system? i'm just looking for someone to explain to me the usefulness of it. you said it made playlists more functional, which makes me curious, maybe i'm missing something. how do you incorporate ratings in a smart playlist, that's better than genre, times played, artist etc.?



    edit: i just reread your previous post and i think i might grasp it. you don't really use your rating system in terms of what you personally feel about the track, but other means, for example: i'm sick of hearing "hey jude" so i'm gonna knock a star off it which will take it out of the rotation somewhat.

    is that kind of it?
  • Reply 7 of 13
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Two things:



    Could iPods do Smart Playlists?



    Why can't iPods rate songs?



    I listen to my music more on my iPod, and I have lots of stuff I've never listened to on it because I have so many days worth of music and I'm getting more every day. That would be supertastic.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aquatic

    Two things:



    Could iPods do Smart Playlists?



    Why can't iPods rate songs?



    I listen to my music more on my iPod, and I have lots of stuff I've never listened to on it because I have so many days worth of music and I'm getting more every day. That would be supertastic.



    iPods can rate songs. Hold down the select button while a song is playing for couple of seconds. When you release it you'll see the rating dots. The scroll wheel then sets the rating.
  • Reply 9 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    how does that apply to the rating system? i'm just looking for someone to explain to me the usefulness of it. you said it made playlists more functional, which makes me curious, maybe i'm missing something. how do you incorporate ratings in a smart playlist, that's better than genre, times played, artist etc.?



    edit: i just reread your previous post and i think i might grasp it. you don't really use your rating system in terms of what you personally feel about the track, but other means, for example: i'm sick of hearing "hey jude" so i'm gonna knock a star off it which will take it out of the rotation somewhat.

    is that kind of it?




    ya youre on the right track now



    ipod ratings--from the now playing screen, hit the select button twice...
  • Reply 10 of 13
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Does that work on first gen iPods? I can't get it to. That's really cool though. Damn, just one more reason I need a new iPod! Just need that mic...
  • Reply 11 of 13
    Don't know, sorry. Sounds like maybe not. Does touching the select button once bring up the scrub bar with the diamond thingy like in iTunes?
  • Reply 12 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    how does that apply to the rating system? i'm just looking for someone to explain to me the usefulness of it. you said it made playlists more functional, which makes me curious, maybe i'm missing something. how do you incorporate ratings in a smart playlist, that's better than genre, times played, artist etc.?



    edit: i just reread your previous post and i think i might grasp it. you don't really use your rating system in terms of what you personally feel about the track, but other means, for example: i'm sick of hearing "hey jude" so i'm gonna knock a star off it which will take it out of the rotation somewhat.

    is that kind of it?




    No. Not for me. I don't change my ratings like this. I have an absolute star rating that never changes. It defines how much I like a song *overall*. I think it is useful when you just want to play your best songs. When you have a *massive* library, it provides some way to collate your favourite songs from every Genre etc including those that you might otherwise forget you have.



    Plus I have a *terrible* memory. Actually, I don't even *try* to link song names let alone artists to the actual music. But after something is rated - just that one time - it has its place in my library that is based on the most important thing - how much I like it. So It'll always somewhere close at hand, even if I only recognise the song 10 secs in.



    Maybe for most people the lower star ratings might be a bit useless, but I use them to mark songs that I might delete from my library when the going gets tough GB wise ( got 55GB to go mind ). No stars means a song is unsafe. As for one and two stars, I do actually use them to mark out songs that I don't really like. Or at least, that I normally wouldn't listen to. Adds variety when I decide to delve into mostly-crappydom.
  • Reply 13 of 13
    tommy does not have an ipod...yet. *sniff, sniff* that DOB Santa better had bring me one...(or I could just ask my other half, either of which I am sure can't afford it either.) Just one thing that has been on my *wish list* since the beginning.





    ~tommy
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