Last week we looked at simple playlists in iTunes, this week, we are looking at Smart Playlists. The playlists that automatically generate and update themselves. It may sound complex, but they are really easy to create, and really practical.
An example and good possible use of a Smart Playlist is one that has a selection of songs that does not exceed 5GBs in size and includes only your favourite pop songs. Or you could have a Smart Playlist that includes a particular artist or composer. Or (my favourite) you could have a Smart Playlist that only has songs from a particular era or decade i.e. 90’s.
To create your own Smart Playlist
- In iTunes choose File > New Smart Playlist >
- Edit what rules you would like your Smart playlist to have.
- When done, press ‘OK‘
Example of a Smart Playlist for you to try
- Tick the ‘Match all the following rules’ option
- In the first row choose Year > ‘Is in the range’ > ‘1990’ to ‘1999’ (type the year dates into the two boxes provided)
- Press the ‘ + ‘ sign at the end of the row, this will create a second row
- Choose Podcast on the second row lists of options > ‘is false’
- Below your two rows there are three tick boxes, choose only the Live Updating option.
- When done, press ‘OK‘
How the above example Smart Playlist rules should look
So what have you just created based on the example?
Examples of Smart Playlists you could create
You have told iTunes that you want a Playlist generated with tracks only from 1990-1999, you don’t want any Podcasts from those years included in the playlist, and lastly you want the Playlist to update automatically if you add any tracks to your library from that range of years.
Tip
If you want to rename your Smart Playlist, right-click over it’s name on the left-hand menu and choose Rename, then Type a name for the playlist i.e. ‘80s’ or ‘Recent additions’, etc. (the new playlist will appear on the left-hand side menu).
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