A Cookbook of Smart Playlists


Some smart playlist ideas are obvious: a playlist containing songs from your favorite artist, a playlist of dance tunes, and so on.

But smart playlists aren't just a quick way to create playlists; they're also a great way to rediscover your music and explore your library in ways you might not think of otherwise. In short, don't restrict yourself to the obvious.

As you can see, the Smart Playlist dialog box lets you search on more than 20 criteria. Here are some smart playlist ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Smart Playlist Suggestions

For a Compilation of

Specify These Criteria

Short dance tunes

Genre is Dance and Time is less than 5:00 minutes

The same song performed by various artists

Song Name is equal to name

Songs added to your library recently

Date Added is in the last 1 week (adjust date value as desired)

Songs from a particular artist and era

Artist is name and Year is in the range years here.

Songs you haven't listened to recently

Last Played is not in the last x days (adjust date value as desired)

Songs by any of a few favorite artists

Artist is name or Artist is name (add a rule for each artist and choose Any from the Match pop-up menu)

Audio files that are not in MP3 format

Kind is not MPEG audio file

Songs you've added but never listened to

Play Count is 0 (zero)

Songs you've created in GarageBand and exported to iTunes

Kind contains AIFF audio file

Audiobooks downloaded from Audible.com

Kind contains audible

PDF documents in your music library

Kind contains PDF

Songs that ask a question

Song Name contains ?

Songs from your high-school days (assuming that you've reached them)

Year is in the range 1975 to 1978 (for example)

Songs you've purchased from the iTunes Music Store

Kind contains protected AAC

Videos you've purchased

Kind contains protected MPEG-4 video

Podcasts

Podcast is true


More Smart Playlist Tips

A Smart Playlist for Small iPods

Do you have an iPod with a relatively limited capacityan iPod shuffle or mini, for example? Instead of letting iTunes decide what to copy to the iPod as described on page 101, you might want to set up a smart playlist that selects only songs you like and omits ones in space-consuming audio formats.

The smart playlist below, based on one originally developed by Playlist magazine's Chris Breen, does exactly that.

You might want to fine-tune the Limit to value to accommodate your specific iPod. The 3500MB value (roughly 3.5GB) is ideal for a 4GB iPod mini.

After creating this playlist, set up your iPod preferences to update only that playlist (see page 98).

Including or Excluding Existing Playlists

You can have iTunes include or exclude specific playlists when putting together a smart playlist. Choose the Playlist item from the leftmost pop-up menu, choose "is" or "is not" from the middle pop-up menu, then choose a playlist name from the rightmost pop-up menu.

This gives you more control over which songs iTunes selects. For example, to put together a playlist of all the jazz you've bought from the iTunes Music Store, create two criteria: Genre is jazz, and Playlist is Purchased Music.

Or, assemble a playlist of the highest rated songs in a favorite playlist: My Rating is greater than three stars, and Playlist is My Favorites (for example).

You can also use this feature to create more sophisticated search rules. For example, say you want to assemble a smart playlist of your R&B and jazz tunes from the 1960s. First, create a smart playlist that locates all your R&B and jazz. Create two criteria: Genre is R&B and Genre is Jazz, then choose Any from the Match pop-up menu. Name this playlist something like "R&B and Jazz."

Next, create another smart playlist with the following two criteria: Playlist is R&B and Jazz and Year is in the range 1960 to 1969.

Don't Forget Comments

As described on page 28, you can assign comments and other tidbits of information to your songs. These tidbits pair up beautifully with smart playlists. For example, if you're a jazz buff, you might use the Comments field to store the sidemen who appear on a given songRon Carter on bass, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. You could then create a smart playlist containing songs in which Freddie Hubbard appears: Comment contains Freddie Hubbard.

Something Completely Different

Want to explore your music library in a completely different way? Try making a smart playlist built around the Track Number field. For example, to create a smart playlist containing the first song in all of your albums, specify Track Number is 1. If one of your favorite artists always starts his or her albums with a particularly cool track, add the artist's name: Artist is George Duke and Track Number is 1.

Want More?

Looking for even more smart playlists? Believe it or not, there's a Web site devoted to them: www.smartplaylists.com. Check it out for smart playlist ideas and iTunes tips of all kinds.



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

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