Playlist Tips


Designing Playlists

A well-crafted playlist is more than a slew of songs slung into one place.

Consider the setting. A good playlist complements an event. For example, say you're creating a playlist for a dinner party, and you expect that guests will be mingling for an hour or so before sitting down to dinner. Start your playlist with about 15 minutes of fairly mellow tunes, then build up to some more energetic ones for the next 30 minutes or so. Then start to wind down again, and lead into a solid block of fairly unobtrusive music that won't overwhelm the dinner conversation.

Similarly, for a workout playlist, you might start and end with slower songs to accommodate warm-up and cool-down times, and put the pulse-pounding tunes in the middle. You get the idea: if your playlist will be accompanying an event, assemble tunes that complement the event's "story arc."

Mix artists. To make a playlist that's more interesting to the ears, mix and match artists.

Consider the transitions. Think about how the songs in your playlist flow from one to the next. You might follow a barn-burner with a slower ballad, for example, or put an instrumental after a vocal. To assess the transitions between songs, start playing one song and then fast-forward by dragging the little playback diamond to near the end on the song (see page 19). Then listen as the songs change. If the transition sounds jarring, consider reorganizing the songs to create a more pleasing segue.

Opening a Playlist in a Separate Window

To open a playlist in its own window, double-click the playlist's name. iTunes opens the playlist in a new window, and switches its main window to the Library view.

You can open as many playlist windows as you like and drag songs between them, as shown here. It's a handy way to work, since it lets you see the contents of your Library and your playlist at the same time.

Previews in Playlists

You can drag a song preview from the music store into a playlist. This can be a handy way to put together a temporary shopping listdrag previews into a playlist, then go back and review them again before deciding what to buy.

You can also publish a wish list of tunes: drag previews into a playlist, then publish the playlist as described on page 48. Who knows? Maybe someone will buy the tunes for you.

To help you tell a preview from a full-length song, iTunes displays a little badge ( ) adjacent to a preview song's name.

Creating a Playlist From a Selection

Here's a shortcut for creating a playlist: in the Library view, select the songs you want to include in a playlist, and then choose New Playlist From Selection from the File menu. iTunes adds the songs to a new playlist, which you can then rename.

Naming Playlists with iPod in Mind

If you plan to transfer your playlists to an iPod, there's a trick you can use to ensure that a given playlist will appear at the top of the iPod's Playlists menu. This cuts down on the time and scrolling required to find a specific playlist.

To have a playlist appear at the top of the iPod's Playlists menu, precede the playlist's name with a hyphen (-) character, as in - Mac's Greatest Hits.

A few other punctuation characters, including period (.), will also send a playlist to the top of the heap.

Adding One Playlist to Another

You can add the entire contents of one playlist to other playlists. In the Source area of the iTunes window, simply drag one playlist to another.

Playlist Shortcuts

Curious about which playlists contain a particular song? Hold down the Control key, click on the song, and a shortcut menu appears. Open the Show in Playlist submenu to see which playlists contain the song. To jump to a specific playlist, choose its name.

You can also add a song to an existing playlist using this shortcut menu: choose the playlist's name from the Add to Playlist submenu.

From CD to Playlist in One Drag

You're about to rip an audio CD and you're planning to add some of its tracks to a playlist. Here's a shortcut: simply drag the tracks from the CD list to the playlist. iTunes will import the tracks and add them to the playlist for you.

Exporting and Importing Playlists

You've crafted the perfect playlist and now want to move it over to a different Mac, or email it to a friend. Here's how: select the playlist, then choose Export Song List from the File menu. In the Save dialog box, choose XML from the Format pop-up menu, then click Save.

Next, move the playlist over to a different computer. On that computer, choose Import from the File menu. Locate the playlist and double-click its name. You're done.

Note that iTunes exports and imports only information about the songs in a playlistit doesn't copy the songs' music files themselves. If any of the songs are missing on the importing computer, iTunes displays a warning and removes those songs from the imported playlist.

To export all of your playlists (an ideal prelude to backing them up), choose Export Library from the File menu.

Export Playlists as Plain Text

By choosing the Plain Text format in the Export Playlist dialog box, you can export a playlist in text formatperhaps to bring it into a database manager or spreadsheet program. (Hey, some iTunes users are very obsessive audio librarians.)

When you export a playlist in this way, iTunes creates a text file containing all the information about each song, from its name to its bit rate. You can open this text file using a word processor, or you can import it into a spreadsheet or database program. The itemsartist, song name, album name, and so onin an exported playlist are separated by tab characters. (In geek speak, this command creates a tab-delimited text file.) Most spreadsheet and database programs can read these tabs and use them to put each piece of information in its own spreadsheet cell or database field.

Some programmers have created free AppleScripts that provide more control over playlist exporting. (To learn about expanding iTunes with AppleScript, see page 48.)

Printing to PDF

Another way to publish a song list is to use the Print command in iTunes. With Mac OS X's ability to "print" to a PDF file, you can create a PDF listing of songs, then email it or post it on a Web site.

In the Print dialog box, click the Song Listing or Album Listing option, pick a theme, then click Print. Click Save As PDF in the next dialog box, and give the PDF a name. Now share the PDF as you see fit. You can even drag the PDF into the iTunes window and store it as part of your iTunes library. (For more details on working with PDFs in iTunes, see page 78).

Tip

Looking for yet another way to get information from iTunes into another program? Print to a PDF, then open the PDF, copy its text, and paste it elsewhere.




The Macintosh iLife '06
The Macintosh iLife 06
ISBN: 0321426541
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 229
Authors: Jim Heid

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