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Smarter iPod shuffling
Like Matt and AJ, I tweaked the way my iPod Shuffle gets loaded, and I’m really happy with the result. While not as thorough as AJ’s technique — which is brilliant and worth a try — my approach makes sure that I always hear music I like, without getting sick of the top-rated stuff.
Here’s what I did:
- Rated
allmost of my music. It took me a while to get over the initial hump (in any repetitive process there is a a gap between just getting started and getting to a point where its effortless and natural), but I’ve now rated most of my favorite music and I continue to tweak ratings as I listen. - Made a smart playlist called “3-5 star songs.” Yeah, this is exactly how it sounds. This list automatically includes any song I rated three, four or five stars in iTunes. (It contains about 1000 songs right now, but only 37 five-stars. I’m picky!)
- Told my iPod to autofill from the smart playlist. That way, I always have about 120 of my favorite songs on the iPod. I refill it every night.
Of course, to make this work over time I have to be diligent about rating and re-rating my music. When I’m at the computer (which is pretty much always), I make a point to rate anything I hear. Thanks to Synergy’s keyboard shortcuts, I can do this on the fly and without much of a distraction.