Smart Playlists and Adding Songs to Library

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Level 1

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Smart Playlists and Adding Songs to Library

I have two questions, First, I created a Smart Playlist that added songs to it if I Loved a song. I Loved lots of songs over the course of a month or so and then looked at my Playlist and saw that only 18 songs were in it. After doing some digging, I realized that it only added songs to it if those songs were in my library. And after doing some hunting online, I found this article which seems to back that up.

I spoke to someone at Apple Support who was helpful and supportive, didn't know much about Smart Playlists, so I thought I'd ask the community. Is there a way to add songs to a Smart Playlist, without adding those songs to my library?

And second, when I add a song to my library, does it take up physical space or is it just a marker? I don't mind adding songs as long as they don't take up space.

Thanks.

Chip

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.0

Posted on Nov 19, 2022 10:20 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

275,038 points

Nov 19, 2022 12:17 PM in response to RCMjr

RCMjr wrote:

Is there a way to add songs to a Smart Playlist, without adding those songs to my library?

No, smart playlists only draw from songs in your library.

And second, when I add a song to my library, does it take up physical space or is it just a marker? I don't mind adding songs as long as they don't take up space.

Adding a song to your cloud music library adds a link to item in the Apple Music catalog. You can optionally decide to download such songs to your computer or device so they can play when you are offline, but otherwise they don't take up any space.

tt2

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