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Playlists vs. Smart Playlists

Greetings.

I was wondering which is the more effective way to organize one's music collection and save space when syncing to one's iPod Touch: Playlists or Smart Playlists?

I originally created a bunch of regular, individual playlists to organize my music (e.g., Baroque Period, Renaissance Period, Jazz, World, Rock, etc.). However, I've recently discovered the "joy" of creating Smart playlists. I've created a "Classical" Smart List to handle all the various distinct musical periods of regular playlists that I have. I also created a couple of playlists that are designed to play everything but certain genres of the regular playlists. I've noticed though that this is causing space to get gobbled up in my iPod!

To save space, should I go with regular playlists only or Smart Playlists?

I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

Thanks.

Mac Pro (Early 2009) (2.93 GHz Quad Core), Mac OS X (10.6), 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HD, ATI Radeon HD 4870, PCIe USB/FW 400 card, Bluetooth, Airport

Posted on Nov 21, 2010 8:27 PM

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3 replies

Nov 21, 2010 9:49 PM in response to Green Lantern

You are only using less space with regular playlists because they only contain the specific tracks you put in them. Smart playlist will include any tracks that meet the criteria you state for the smart playlist. As you increase the size of your music library the new tracks will be added to your smart playlists if they meet the criteria.

You can limit the size of smart playlists using the "Limit to" option. This could be done with selecting the least recently played, to create a smart playlist that will change as you play the music.

Nov 21, 2010 10:07 PM in response to Green Lantern

To save space, should I go with regular playlists only or Smart Playlists?

I use a few of both.
I use a regular playlist for all specific music I want on the iPod all the time.
Another regular playlist for anything I don't necessarily want all the time.
I use a few smart playlists such as *Recently Added* and *4 & 5 star songs not played in last 3 months*.
Then autofill with random.

Playlists vs. Smart Playlists

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