So I guess now is the time to mention I’ve got an iMac and an iPhone now. I’m loving both of them, so glad I got them. Having done so, it meant it was time to return to using iTunes, which I hadn’t been for a couple of years, whilst all my computers were mainly running Ubuntu. I found it rather frustrating to use under Windows, particularly when syncing with an iPod. However on the Mac it works fine, and I’m enjoying it again.
So now I can sync playlists to the iPhone, I’ve been playing about with setting up smart playlists for my tastes. I’m quite happy with this one, to work through all the stuff I haven’t listened to:
I’ve set the time of each track to be in the range of 2-20 minutes, so it misses out some samples and short tracks, and also misses out large mixes. The Rating is not 1 star is for another reason. My wife normally has pretty good music taste, but there are a few artists she enjoys that just aren’t my taste. So I’ve arrived at this solution to miss them out: Give them all 1 star. This will still include anything unrated (most of my collection, because I’ve just moved to the Mac). However it also allows me to give her a playlist of her own, ideally for when I’m out of the house:
This way everyone is happy! So, how do you set up your playlists in iTunes (or indeed in Amarok or other music software)?