Fine tuning my iTunes library

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Level 1

6 points

Fine tuning my iTunes library

I've been experimenting with various music "radio" services like pandora and slacker. With Slacker, I'm able to add a bunch of artists that I'd like to hear in my mix, and then fine tune the mix based on several parameters:

The two parameters I would be most interested in are Popularity and Favorites. While I know that I can rate individual songs in my library, that would take forever to do. Is there some outside source that will screen an itunes library and code this information accordingly? So then perhaps the stars correspond with the popularity indicators as shown above. And how might Favorites be coded? Any ideas?

Thanks!

Posted on Nov 9, 2012 7:15 AM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

63,608 points

Nov 9, 2012 4:41 PM in response to bird66

If you just want to hear the most "popular" artists, you can turn on the FM radio. The whole point of Pandora and Slacker (and iTunes) is to tune it to what you want to hear.

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Answer 2

bird66 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2012 8:05 AM in response to ed2345

You've completely missed my point. I have a huge itunes library and want the ability to shuffle my music with a degree of control. For example, it would be nice to have the ability to listen to only deeper cuts, as you can see is one of the choices on Slacker's "Popularity" setting. Are you unable to see the graphic I posted? It shows the Slacker interface with all the choices available to fine tune.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Nov 10, 2012 8:56 AM in response to bird66

iTunes doesn't integrate with any third party rating services.

tt2

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Answer 4

ed2345

Level 9

63,608 points

Nov 10, 2012 9:04 AM in response to bird66

Bird,

That is a cool capability that you depict in Slacker, but iTunes does not even have the data to make it work. For example, there is nothing in your iTunes library database that would indicate which cuts are "deep."

The closest thing iTunes has to that is a setting in iTunes DJ to "Play higher rated songs more often." As you correctly point out, that depends on having the Rating tags populated, which many people do not.

You can make Smart Playlists based on a variety of criteria, including criteria you enter yourself into spare fields such as Comments or Grouping. This gives a fair amount of flexibility, although quite different from your Slacker example.

If you want to make suggestions to Apple, you can use the iTunes Feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Ed

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Answer 5

bird66 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 12, 2012 2:48 PM in response to ed2345

Thanks, Ed. I appreciate it.

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