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itunes library - sort by popularity

H

hawaiipoolman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 5, 2007
167
21
is there an app that will rate the songs in my library based on the popularity field from the itunes store?
 
AFAIK, you can't do that. The Popularity field doesn't exist in the tags for the song. It only exists in the iTunes store. You can sort the iTunes store by popularity, but not your own library.
 
Well, that sucks !
There should be an app that allows you to check online for the songs popularity, and save that to the song so that you could sort your songs by popularity...

I'll explain why.
I have a library of 160 000 songs... All the greatest hits from 1890 to 2007.

I have made smart playlists containing songs from the 50s, 60s, and so on. But i would like to be able to sort these songs by online popularity, as i am not interesteed in browsing 12 000 songs to see which ones i remember from the 50s...

That this has not yet been invented is incredibly unbeleivable, especially with all the large-library users.
 
Why would it matter to you what others consider popular? I would think a more valid method would be to sort by the ones YOU like, as opposed to what strangers like.
 
GGJstudios said:
Why would it matter to you what others consider popular? I would think a more valid method would be to sort by the ones YOU like, as opposed to what strangers like.
Click to expand...

I agree, but as i stated earlier, this is impractical for me. Browsing through ten thousand songs, playing a five second excerpt of each one just to see if i know it, and if i like it, would take roughly 15 hours nonstop... Now, add a sort filed that sorts the songs in my smart playlist by online popularity, and now i'm heading somewhere.

Besides, all this is because i was asked to give some 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s music for a retro party... But I somehow think that if i just show up at the party with 175GB of music, some good and some we don't even know, the point will have been missed...

Now, if i took, say, the top 100 songs in my "50s" smart playlist, i would have a good selection of music that was popular back in the fifties.
 
sircharlo said:
I agree, but as i stated earlier, this is impractical for me. Browsing through ten thousand songs, playing a five second excerpt of each one just to see if i know it, and if i like it, would take roughly 15 hours nonstop... Now, add a sort filed that sorts the songs in my smart playlist by online popularity, and now i'm heading somewhere.
Click to expand...
I guess you could take that approach, except for this: What is popular (iTunes Store), what is popular (to you) and what was popular (in the 50s) are probably 3 different things.

I can appreciate trying to make it more manageable, since I have a good sized library. I find that it helps to have a few playlists created, such as "hot 50s" or "favorite oldies" or something like that. Then, when you do have time to listen to your music, just drag any that you like into the appropriate playlists. Yes, it takes some time, but if you listen to your music, rather than just store and catalog it, you'll have your favorites.

I just don't trust the ranking that iTunes shoppers (mostly younger) would give to any music. My tastes are usually different from today's mainstream.

sircharlo said:
Now, if i took, say, the top 100 songs in my "50s" smart playlist, i would have a good selection of music that was popular back in the fifties.
Click to expand...
If you want to know what was popular in the 50s, 60s, etc. just ask! I was there!
 
GGJstudios said:
I guess you could take that approach, except for this: What is popular (iTunes Store), what is popular (to you) and what was popular (in the 50s) are probably 3 different things.

...

I just don't trust the ranking that iTunes shoppers (mostly younger) would give to any music. My tastes are usually different from today's mainstream.
Click to expand...

Once again, I agree. However, this manually adding your favorites to a playlist is a long term process, and my party is in a couple of days. Couple that with the fact that i don't have that much spare time, and you've got a music-less party !

However, i think i know what I'm going to do. I'll google "Top 50s songs" and i'm sure someone has put up a list. I'll just manually add those songs to my Retro Party playlist, and hope i have time to complete it before the appointed time.
 
sircharlo said:
I'll google "Top 50s songs" and i'm sure someone has put up a list. I'll just manually add those songs to my Retro Party playlist, and hope i have time to complete it before the appointed time.
Click to expand...
You could start here and look at No. 1 hit singles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_in_music
Then just click "1951" in the upper right where it says "List of years in music" to go to the next year. That should give you a good start.

Le Big Mac said:
Those I'd like to hear. Finally something that sounds no worse in MP3 format.
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890_in_music
 
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