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iPod Song Rating Criteria.

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Original poster
Jun 24, 2004
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Ok i need help writing a decent song rating criteria, so i can allow anyone to rate my songs without arguing what rating a song deserves.

i have written this so far, but i know it needs to be added to.

opinions will be appreciated.

Thanks Bobak

5 Stars (Excellent):
Exceptional in at least two different categories, such as: lyrics, rhythm vocals, instrumental skill.

parodies (or non-sense) songs cannot be awarded 5 stars.
neither can songs that make any reference to modern technology. (with exceptions of course)

4 stars (Good):

Exceptional in at least one category.
must be continuously good throughout the song.

3 Stars (Mediocre):

Any song that is decent, but not exceptional in any category.
One weak point allowed. Such as : Bad timing, poor vocals, etc...

Songs that are just bass cannot be awarded more than 3 stars (with exceptions).

2 Stars (Poor):

Shows Minor Skills in any category. Non-impressive.

1 Star (Awful):

Shows no skill what so ever, or unbearable to listen to.
 
***** = Excellent
**** = Good
*** = Average
** = Bad, would not be missed if deleted
* = Marked for Deletion
 
ideas for rating system ...

five stars: love the song to pieces, would be willing to listen to a repeat playlist of nothing but this song for an arbitrary length of time

four stars: a five song that i've listened to too long or a song that has one bothersome part but the rest is awesome

three stars: a song with a catchy bridge/chorus/lyrics, a repeat listener, but not all that

two stars: hear it once, share with a friend who likes that kind of stuff, then delete

one star: in the trash before the song is over

zero stars: this horrible grouping of bits and bytes that dares to call itself a song will be immediately expelled from my hard drive, secure deleted from the trash, and I will poke my eardrums out if I ever have to listen to it again, or ever hear the name of the group, or their record company, or anyone even remotely related to them, mentioned in public within range of my hearing.

Or alternatively, you can use the "concert" rating system:

five: go to the band's concert - I just have to!
four: buy all the band's CDs
three: buy the single/download to keep, or the CD with the song if really good
two: interesting, maybe a friend will like it, but not a personal keeper
one: listen once
zero: boycott the company who signed the band on

Hope this helps, or at least is worth a laugh.
 
The way I do it is -

***** - reserved for the best of the best. It has to be something special.
**** - Very good song
*** - Average to good song that I dont mind hearing often
** - Song that I dont really want to hear regularly
* - Those filler tracks - like the instrumental kooky intro to an album. You only want to hear these when listening to an album.

Anything that I dont really like gets rated **, if the majority of an album is **, then I delete it and only keep the good songs :)

This is the most effective way I've found. Something wrong with a song? Need deleting? Need to mark it up for something (like adding a comment for your smart playlists)? Then give it no stars and watch it magically appear in your No Star smart playlist. Good stuff
 
pulsewidth947 said:
The way I do it is -

***** - reserved for the best of the best. It has to be something special.
**** - Very good song
*** - Average to good song that I dont mind hearing often
** - Song that I dont really want to hear regularly
* - Those filler tracks - like the instrumental kooky intro to an album. You only want to hear these when listening to an album.
Click to expand...

This is almost exactly how I do it as well, with one exception. One star is reserved for songs that are so awful, I find them painful to listen to.

Oh, and I share an iTunes playlist of my one star songs called "Music for Masochists". :D
 
bobx2001 said:
Ok i need help writing a decent song rating criteria, so i can allow anyone to rate my songs without arguing what rating a song deserves.

i have written this so far, but i know it needs to be added to.

opinions will be appreciated.

Thanks Bobak

5 Stars (Excellent):
Exceptional in at least two different categories, such as: lyrics, rhythm vocals, instrumental skill.

parodies (or non-sense) songs cannot be awarded 5 stars.
neither can songs that make any reference to modern technology. (with exceptions of course)

4 stars (Good):

Exceptional in at least one category.
must be continuously good throughout the song.

3 Stars (Mediocre):

Any song that is decent, but not exceptional in any category.
One weak point allowed. Such as : Bad timing, poor vocals, etc...

Songs that are just bass cannot be awarded more than 3 stars (with exceptions).

2 Stars (Poor):

Shows Minor Skills in any category. Non-impressive.

1 Star (Awful):

Shows no skill what so ever, or unbearable to listen to.
Click to expand...


This is pretty much how I rate my music.
 
My system is not at all scientific like some of yours!

5 stars: A classic. I can listen to it again and again, and it's awesome every time I hear it.

4 stars: One of my favorite songs at one time, but it's fallen out of favor a little. Still great, but it doesn't give me goosebumps to hear it. :)

3 stars: A pretty good song. If I haven't heard it in a while I'll probably listen to it and say, "hmm, nice. I'd forgotten about that one."

2 stars: Probably a filler track from an album that I have all of. I don't mind listening to it, but only once in a while. It's fine in the background, but if I'm really listening, I'll probably change it.

1 star: A song I rarely listen to. It was probably a 2 or 3 when I got it and now I don't like it much anymore. BUT, unlike some of you, I will listen to it if itunes happens to shuffle it on. It doesn't make sense to me to have 1 star be for "marked for deletion" - I just delete it if I dislike it that much. If your one star songs are basically things you hate, then you've reduced this to a 4 star system. I like everything in my library at least enough to hear it once in a while - why else would I keep it?
 
After G said:
ideas for rating system ...

five stars: love the song to pieces, would be willing to listen to a repeat playlist of nothing but this song for an arbitrary length of time

four stars: a five song that i've listened to too long or a song that has one bothersome part but the rest is awesome

three stars: a song with a catchy bridge/chorus/lyrics, a repeat listener, but not all that

two stars: hear it once, share with a friend who likes that kind of stuff, then delete

one star: in the trash before the song is over

zero stars: this horrible grouping of bits and bytes that dares to call itself a song will be immediately expelled from my hard drive, secure deleted from the trash, and I will poke my eardrums out if I ever have to listen to it again, or ever hear the name of the group, or their record company, or anyone even remotely related to them, mentioned in public within range of my hearing.

Or alternatively, you can use the "concert" rating system:

five: go to the band's concert - I just have to!
four: buy all the band's CDs
three: buy the single/download to keep, or the CD with the song if really good
two: interesting, maybe a friend will like it, but not a personal keeper
one: listen once
zero: boycott the company who signed the band on

Hope this helps, or at least is worth a laugh.
Click to expand...


hahahaha that is great :D

i like your criteria for zero stars, but i have always considered zero stars as "songs that a friend has recommended and that i have never bothered listening to " or "songs that i have not bothered to rate"

by the way, does anyone think that song length should have any bearing on what rating it can be awarded?
 
QCassidy352 said:
It doesn't make sense to me to have 1 star be for "marked for deletion" - I just delete it if I dislike it that much. If your one star songs are basically things you hate, then you've reduced this to a 4 star system. I like everything in my library at least enough to hear it once in a while - why else would I keep it?
Click to expand...

Oh but there is logic in our way of thinking ;) My library is just years of music imported in and only about half of it is rated (yes, 5-2 stars)
A lot of it is live bootlegs and some of it is just ... errr ... crap. These songs get the 1 star rating and i usually just let it pile up to 20 or 30 songs and then i go through them and see what i really want to delete, or move to 2 stars if its just "poor - OK".
Once i have all the stuff i really don't want, i'll change how i rate the songs.
 
I have a library of about 12,000 tracks and growing. These are all named properly. I'm not about to go back and start decorating them with pretty stars.
 
About a month ago i started using the rating system for real. I tend to listen to lots of different styles so i rate the song in-genre. I use smart playlists to give me the songs (read genres) i want in party shuffle.
  • 5 stars: excellent, very few songs get this rating though. Only the best of the best.
  • 4 stars: very good, not good enough for 5 stars, but definitely worth listening to a few times.
  • 3 stars: good
  • 2 stars: ok
  • 1 star: listenable, the majority of my library, as this is the default rating i gave all the songs. Some are, some need the rating to be changed.
  • 0 stars - check: Songs i hear in party shuffle i really don't want to hear, due to bad rating, or wrong genre. I work my way through this list now and then.
  • 0 stars - certified: Definitely not worth listening to (but i can't get it over my heart to delete any...). These have -certified 0- in the comment field.
To help me work my way through rating all the songs i use a quicksilver - GrowlTunes combo. Two freeware apps that let me get and put the rating for the current playing song. Pretty nifty. Maybe in a few years all my songs will be somewhat correctly rated :).
 
I find the rating system to always be very important as I try and keep a very tight library. I try and rate songs as such:

5 stars: The song is catchy, well produced and excels beyond it's genre. Two examples would be "Sweet Dreams" or "Tom Traubert's Blues" because while being genre pieces they excel as songs beyond their genre and defy classification.
4 stars: A catchy song that is well produced but remains great only within it's genre. Two examples would be "Let Forever Be" and "Welcome to the Jungle".
3 stars: A song that has solid rythym, melody or lyrics but remains unoriginal or unexceptional within it's album and genre. Two examples would be "The Scientist" and "Miss Jackson".
2 stars: A song with a certain good or catchy part, for instance a really good chorus or climax, that is nonetheless flat in the rest of the song or poorly produced. Two examples would be "Everybody Hurts" and "Cherub Rock".
1 star: No catchy parts, originality or good lyrics. These songs are immediately deleted.

I think the best thing overall about the rating systems is that you can create smart playlists that are fairly awesome if you set them to criteria like "the song must have a rating 4 or over and be less than 3 minutes" and then you get a series of catchy pop songs...
 
5 stars - If I were stranded on a desert island I wouldn't mind listening to these songs over and over agian for the rest of eternity.

4 stars - Great song, enjoy listening to it. Makes for a great mix for the car.

3 stars - Raging neutrality. I doubt I'd take the effort to change the song once it started playing, but it is equally unlikely that I would actively seek out to play this one.

2 stars - Probably there because it was recommended to me and I don't have the heart to get rid of it. I'd change the song if it came on, unless the person was there.

1 star - In the event I run out of hard drive space, these are the first to go.

"0 stars" - I don't few the lack of stars as a rating of 0, I view it as meaning unrated. Songs which I have not yet determined a rating for get this.

mad jew said:
I have a library of about 12,000 tracks and growing. These are all named properly. I'm not about to go back and start decorating them with pretty stars.
Click to expand...


:D
 
supergod said:
I find the rating system to always be very important as I try and keep a very tight library. I try and rate songs as such:

5 stars: The song is catchy, well produced and excels beyond it's genre. Two examples would be "Sweet Dreams" or "Tom Traubert's Blues" because while being genre pieces they excel as songs beyond their genre and defy classification.
4 stars: A catchy song that is well produced but remains great only within it's genre. Two examples would be "Let Forever Be" and "Welcome to the Jungle".
3 stars: A song that has solid rythym, melody or lyrics but remains unoriginal or unexceptional within it's album and genre. Two examples would be "The Scientist" and "Miss Jackson".
2 stars: A song with a certain good or catchy part, for instance a really good chorus or climax, that is nonetheless flat in the rest of the song or poorly produced. Two examples would be "Everybody Hurts" and "Cherub Rock".
1 star: No catchy parts, originality or good lyrics. These songs are immediately deleted.

I think the best thing overall about the rating systems is that you can create smart playlists that are fairly awesome if you set them to criteria like "the song must have a rating 4 or over and be less than 3 minutes" and then you get a series of catchy pop songs...
Click to expand...

thank you.
 
mad jew said it perfectly. I have too many tracks to go back and decide upon ratings for. It was a huge decision of mine to spend several days acquiring correct album artwork last year and I'm constantly finding CDDB track-naming errors. For instance, a song came up on the 3G yesterday saying "What Does Your Sould Look Like?" instead of "What Does Your Soul Look Like?" That kind of discrepancy angers me more than not having ratings.

My playlists are all tailored by size anyways (i.e. 4 hours of Electronic; 5 latest albums; 400MB of music for the shuffle of Alternative; etc.).
 
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