iPod touch

john5447 wrote:

how do i play all albums of one artist under one genre on iPod touch

That's a more difficult task. The easiest way is to create a Smart Playlist in iTunes and then copy it to the iPod.

First of all, trying this on the iPod:

Let's assume that an artist (doesn't matter which one) has music in more than one genre. To play all that artist's songs but only from one genre, the only practical method is to create a Playlist (that you can save) or build an Up Next list which will be discarded afterwards. I do not think creating an Up Next list is practical (you may see why in a moment), so let's look at creating a Playlist to be saved. In order to achieve this you would need to know all the genres your artist appears in. Then you would need to go to each genre, find the artist and then add each of your chosen songs, one at a time, to the list.

Creating a Smart Playlist in iTunes (your iTunes Library):

If your songs are in your iTunes Library, you can create a Smart Playlist that will automatically add all songs by a specific artist and with a specific genre. If you subsequently add more songs to your Library, by that artist and with that genre, the Playlist will automatically update itself to include the new songs.

To create a Smart Playlist, using the artist The Beach Boys. (I have songs in two genres by this band, but I want a list of songs by them only if they are in the 60's Pop genre.)

• • click on File / New / Smart Playlist. You will see a panel like the one shown below:

• • leave the artist field as it is (Artist)
  • change the drop-down menu that says contains to is (this ensures that only the specific artist is included in the list)
  • in the empty text box, type in the artist name exactly as it appears in your library
  • tap the + button on that line to add an additional line (for another rule)
  • on the new line, change the drop-down menu from Artist to Genre
  • change contains to is
  • in the text box type in the genre that you want. Note that the text must be exactly the same as it appears in the songs
  • you will have a panel that looks like the one shown below:

A very important point: if I put in Beach Boys, the list will be empty. That's because the artist field has The Beach Boys in it. It has to be an exact match.

• Finally, you can rename the Playlist by clicking the OK button in the panel and then overtyping Playlist 3 with your choice of name

The add the Playlist to your iPod.

If the album is a single-artist album, navigate to the Genres menu, then to the album title. Look in the album title list and press the Play button.

If the album is a compilation album (with multiple artists) you can navigate to the album as above, and either skip to the next track when one you don't want to hear comes on, or but this time long-tap the first song's title and select the option to Add to Playlist or Play Next.