iTunes Playlist question...

[jxyama]

I recently got an iPod. I love it, but I'd like to learn more about playlists...

How do you guys have the playlist set up? What do you think is the best way to organize playlists?

I used to have a playlist for each musician and the album. (ex. "U2: Unforgettable Fire," "U2: Zooropa," etc.)

Then I realized that this can be accessed under "Artists" option, so these playlists are kinda useless. I then made playlists for soundtracks/compilations because they have different musicians, but then, I realized I can access that under "Albums."

So... I'm just curious how different people set up their playlists...

[MacsRgr8]

I usually make 'em similar (not the same) to the genre.
It depends which mood I'm in which genre I want to hear.
So, I got playlists like: "LOUD", "Depressed", "Popular"...

[Duckie]

I never had too much of a use for playlists. I just set my whole library on random. :)

[P-Worm]

I usually go by genre, but some of them are just mixes I have put together. Songs that I like in conjunction with other ones and the like.

P-Worm

[rainman::|:|]

i think most people use them for genre or event. You might have a "morning drive" or "afternoon jog" playlist, songs that you'd want to hear.

many of my MP3's are very old and don't have full ID tags, and i don't want to spend time choosing a genre for each song... so i don't use playlists much at all... right now i just have one for MP3 and one for AAC, so I can tell what portion of my library needs to be re-ripped into the new format...

pnw

[senseibiz]

I select them mostly by genre, I use the smart playlist to make them. Then I use the playlist feature to make my own mixes...

[Wardofsky]

I have mostly smart playlists:

Last Played is not in the last 1 week.
or
Play count is less than 2, high rating, last played is in the last week.
or
Album added in the last week.

[jxyama]

ahh... some really neat ideas.

thanks guys. i now just have to wait until the day is over to try some of these ideas at home... (kinda slow day at work... :( )

[Foxer]

My first playlist existed beacuse my iTunes library wouldn't fit on my old 10GB iPod. I bought the iPod specifically to replace the mix tapes (and later mix discs) that I had been accumulating since the late 80's. They were all important to me, but the sound was degrading badly from use and age. So I combined them all into one big playlist which was the entire contents of my iPod until I got the 30 GB last month. Later on I broke the one big playlist into MANY smaller ones for each old tape I had.

It took awhile to make the playlist, but it was absolutely worth it.

Still, I only actually listen to the playlists on the iPod. While sitting at the computer, I pretty much use only the random play feature. I also always have an "open" playlist called "next mix" which I add songs to as they strike me.