The way that we use iTunes and iPods (or other MP3 players, as I’m told such things exist) has totally changed the way we listen to music. I would consider myself a ‘power user’ where playlists are concerned and try to rate all my songs and am very careful with genres, groupings etc. I really go the extra mile (like Andy B does), for example:
- A playlist of all unrated songs, so I can find ones that I have still to rate
- All songs - that’s to say everything that is not audio book, iTrip transmission signal, podcast or hour-long mix
- Stuff I should play more regularly - high rated songs that have not been played in last couple of months
- Never played - well, like it says on the tin …
I could go on and on (and sometimes I do). Actually, there is something else I’d like to do: be able to create a playlist that is derived from another playlist (e.g. play all 4* songs that are contained in the ‘live music’ playlist) or, for super-power-user stuff, be able to hand-craft the query, SQL style, rather than rely on the interface provided.
Despite all this, I have a problem - I’m missing music.
In the never-ending urge to cram iTunes (and hence my iPod) full of music I find that I put a few albums on at a time, they don’t get added to a playlist and it takes a while for me to get around to rating them - I never rate on early listens, got to get to know the tracks a bit first. So these tracks don’t end up on the rated playlists and because I shuffle my songs for variety, I end up losing these new albums in a black hole. I’ve tried creating manual playlists for recently added stuff, but I prefer the smart playlists option as it keeps things tidier. Ideally, what I need is an option to select the ‘last 80 songs added’ or something like that, not ’songs added in the last month’ because they’ll soon slip off the radar.
So I’ve come up with a revolutionary new way of using my iPod that I’m going to share with you here. And here’s how it’s done:
- Select Music
- Select Albums
- Select first album on list
- Listen through in entirety
- Repeat process, moving on one album at a time
Revolutionary? Well, not at all, but it feels like it. Heck, I still have the songs shuffled, but I’m getting to hear songs and albums that have been hiding in the dark recesses of my iPod for too long. I’m re-familiarising myself with all my music and discovering tracks that I haven’t heard for a long time; I’m also re-evaluating entire albums - do they really need to be on there after all?
What have you done to change the way you listen to your music collection recently?