iPod iPod's shuffle songs

[0098386]

How the monkey does this work! It's sorta creepy. My mini has about 1200 songs on it, I put it on shuffle songs, get bored of some tracks and then I get pretty much the opposite. I was listening to some Nine Inch Nails (Closer to god, the only song I like by them ) but I got bored half way through the track wanting something softer; a random track from one of my Celtic chillout albums came on! ok ok so it could just be fluke, but it seems to me that if I skip a song then the next track, or the one after, is totally different. But if I sit and listen to a whole track then another one, from the same genre or artist comes on.

How do iPods shuffle songs? It sounds pretty smart (skip=different genre, end of song=same genre?). Anyone know? Any strange stories about your iPods and doing the shuffle?

 

[kgarner]

All official accounts indicate that it does NOT do any of that stuff. According to Apple it is entirely random. I would think that a shuffle feature like that would be great though. It would allow the iPod to zero in on the mood your in and play stuff to fit it. Maybe someday it will be that smart.

 

[chopsuey158]

I was just looking at itunes preferences before i saw this, kinda weird. There is a 'smart shuffle' feature under the preferences : playback menu. You can have it play songs from one certain genre, artist or playlist while in the shuffle feature. You can also have it increase the chances of hearing songs from the same artist, genre, or album in a row. I think this is only for itunes though, not the ipod.

 

[matticus008]

I was just looking at itunes preferences before i saw this, kinda weird. There is a 'smart shuffle' feature under the preferences : playback menu. You can have it play songs from one certain genre, artist or playlist while in the shuffle feature. You can also have it increase the chances of hearing songs from the same artist, genre, or album in a row. I think this is only for itunes though, not the ipod.

Yeah, Smart Shuffle has been around for a little while, but the "de-randomizing random" setting was just introduced in iTunes 5.0 a few weeks ago. Basically, it uses a random algorithm and then compares it to the current track to make sure it's not the same artist/album. It's there to deflect complaints that iTunes "favors" certain bands...when the reality is that people just usually favor the artists themselves and it's mostly psychological. If you have 90 songs of artist x, you're going to hear them more often than a group with only three songs in your library.

The Smart Shuffle is good though, because you can set conditions for your music and then have it sort the matching songs at random. Rather than taking the time to go through genres, I use the star system. I've divided my collection into four or five categories and mark matching songs with stars. It's fast, easy, and one click. So then I can have Smart Shuffle do my "five star" songs when I want my favorites to play, or "three star" songs when I want something moody, or "two star" tracks for upbeat, party music, and so on.

 

[EGT]

It's quite freaky when you go to "Shuffle songs" and it's playing a song from a particular album and then the next song is the next song on that same album ... one of the shuffling 5023 songs!

God I need to go out this weekend.