In my smart playlists, I also exclude for few days or weeks (depending on my rating) songs that I skipped: I think if you skip it, it doesn’t change the [last played] field… not sure of that, though.

Tip for Kevin, Comment #24:
Under Windows, most info (song list, rating, etc) are under
%userprofile%\my documents\my music\iTunes

I personally backup this folder as well as [Application Data\Apple Computer] and [Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer] and put it on my external 80Gb 2.5″ HD where my music collection is. I can install iTunes on any computer and transfer these files, then access/update to my collection anywhere.

Note: Beware of iTunes changing the ID tags directly on your mp3 files (at least for standards tags).

Hope this can help.

Shinji.

If you have iTunes open, yes.

Right-click on a column title in the track-listing window and add a check to the “Grouping” item. That will add the “Grouping” column to your track-listing window.

Now you can single-click *slowly* two times (basically a double-click with an extended pause between clicks) on the left edge of the column on the row with the song you want to update (shoot for between 2 and 10 pixels from the left) and edit the grouping “in place”.

i’ve dug the unrated playlist tip, and that’s easy enuf to do while i’m working on something else. is there a handier way to deal w/groupings?

My girlfriend and I spent a number of years living in our campervan and of course the iPod came in very handy.
As all we had was my dad’s old laptop (It had Windows NT on it when he gave it to us…) with a 9GB harddrive and pentium II, and for some reason you couldn’t open iTunes with a disk in the CD drive, so we ripped cd’s using Media Player and then imported them to iTunes.

Now, to the question…..

All these “Track 1, Unknown artist, Unknown album” that we have – can iTunes find the info for them on the net ?
I haven’t spent THAT much time trying to figure it out, as we typed in the name of the album and artist in Media player and that obviously carried through to iTunes, but it would be nice if it was possible at the click of a button to get that info.

Also, I figured out how to load ALL the music from the iPod to the new PC without downloading any dodgy free software or anything.

Easy – just plug in the iPod – open it through “My computer” as an external device and go in to Data, then Music (I think) and copy and paste everything to a folder or desktop.
Then Add to Library.
Voila.
Took about 20 minutes all up to transfer 3000 MP3’s.

I searched high and low for a way of doing this on the net, and even the selfproclaimed “iPod experts” on websites such as iLounge didn’t seem to know of it.
I was very pleased with myself when I figured it out!

…MP3’s might be convenient, but vinyl is still the purest form of music media…

Make a smart playlist with – Rating: 0 *

Go to your “Partymix” -> select the Unrated smartlist, then you can rate the songs without stops.

I’m from Norway, and my english REALLY sucks. Sorry

All that has to be tagged is the title and artist, but the picking algorithm looks at other tracks, if they are there…

http://www12.asphost4free.com/theflamingavocado/

As far as the question regarding what file to back up so you don’t lose your ratings, I incorporate all of my ratings into the comment field with “four” or “five”, you get the idea. That way the comment attaches directly to the MP3 file itself. This is useful for a couple of reasons. 1. Backup. I use a 250 external hd to backup all of my music. Should the unthinkable happen, I don’t need to worry about another file . . . it’s all right there in the song information. Add folder to library, and I’m right back where I was 2. Network. I have a wireless network at home, all the mp3s are on my Desktop, but I run itunes on my laptop with the itunes library defined as over my network as the desktop harddrive. Change a comment upstairs, it’s changed downstairs and vice versa . . . can rate in two different places, however last played, play count, etc, are still separate b/c those are specific to each computer’s iTunes.

I almost completely ignore the genre field b/c it’s often so difficult to classify a song as one thing. Comments I keep include: jazz, classical, work, funk, reggae, christmas, irish (for st. paddy’s day), baby (light songs for when the baby’s napping); childrens (for when she’s a bit older), electronica, world, hard, four, five, alternative, country, bluegrass, punk, pop, etc . . . you get the idea.

Make sure to keep your comments for each individual song in alphabetical order . . . since you can’t just add a comment (if you’re adding a new comment to a bunch of songs, I usually put them all in a playlist, then sort by comment and modify large groups with the same comments at the same time. It can get a bit cumbersome to add the comment “four” to songs with “hard, rock” and then two minutes later add to songs with “rock, hard”. For uniformity’s sake, I keep them in alphabetical in the field.

I make a playlist where comment contains four, but not five (I always include four in five star songs, so that I can have the equivalent of a four and greater playlist, or a four only) and then rate the songs as 4 stars . . . I use this as my reference then when I’m on the ipod. Same with five star songs.

I use one star to note songs that need to be deleted or repaired (might have extracted improperly). Three stars for songs I don’t want to come up on playlists, but don’t want deleted (banter during a live show, silly little interludes that don’t sound good individually, but are essential to an album).

Two stars I reserve for the current pet project. When my wife was pregnant, it was “songs for the baby” Since my comments had the four or five rating, I knew how the song was rated, and could quickly return it there, after I added the baby comment.

Also, you don’t have to worry about a song leaving a current playlist b/c of changing your rating since your smart playlist is contingent on the comments.

Finally, I always comment my music BEFORE I listen to it . . . as soon as it’s added, actually. If it’s jazz, or classical, I add that comment, and usually “work” too. If it’s something more typically radio friendly, I always add the four star comment, and then adjust accordingly as the songs come up on my four star list (my equivalent of radio play . . . what I listen to 80% of the time I’m not at work) If it’s better than four, it gets bumped up to five, if it’s not, I either keep it at four, or drop it to three or one. Otherwise some music can get lost and never return to the playlist (i have around 160 GB of music, so organization is key).

It just seems that you might be reading some reviews, then you go back to your song lists and start MODDING up or down what your ratings are? Sounds slow to do that.

New Comment # 2 How do you back up all this ratings work from a 35GB collection of music? It took me about 12 DVDs to backup my collection (standard MP3s) and my playlists (exported to M3U playlist format). But what is the most effecient way to backup all this work you have done on ratings??

I have been creating FOLDERs that contain multiple playlists of recent CDs bought/borrowed and converted/ripped. Within one of my folders is a playlist of the whole CD in original play order. This way when I play the FOLDER I am getting the whole CD played in the correct order, then the next CD, and the next.

Is there a way to do this better via smart playlists?