Where is iTunes DJ in iTunes 11?

One more thing - editing songs that are already in the "Up Next" list. This actually works almost exactly the same way as it did in iTunes DJ, so I'm not sure why some people are saying it can't be done.

Here's how you do it.

Just click any song in Up Next, then use the "delete" key on your keyboard. Or you can click the new "x" on the left. In the screenshot below, I've command-clicked two songs, if I hit delete on my keyboard they'll both be removed from Up Next, but if I click the "x" only one song will be removed:

To change the order, just drag a song into the new position.

I set my iTunes DJ to play a smart playlist that inturns loads other smart playlist. I have these playlist work together to create a list that is populated with 10 random tracks that haven't been played in the last 2 months, unplayed new type podcasts, 5 random songs that have been added in the last 6 months and not played in the last two weeks, and 5 unplayed music tracks from a couple of podcast, and 5 random songs from my wife's collection that also have not been played in the last 2 months. So these smart playlist are alive, they are changing as I listen to iTunes DJ. So using iTunes 11, how would Up Next deal with a living playlist? Would I have to constantly manully add the new tracks? or would it function like iTunes DJ and keep replenishing its self with new tracks added to the playlist and I could listen forever without ever clicking on anything but the play and pause buttons on my computer?

This doesn't seem possible with iTunes 11, please show me how to do this if it is possible. If it takes 6 steps and doesn't do all the functionality that iTunes DJ did, then it's a fail for me.

I know it's preaching to the choir but iTunes DJ was awesome and, although I like a great deal about iTunes 11, it missing is a deal breaker. I see where people have what I consider "work arounds" to what iTunes DJ did inherently; is there a workaround to the "like" feature where a group of users can "Like" a song's way to the top of the list? That is what I miss the most; pre iTunes 11, I could just turn on iTunes DJ and my guests (along with my help) would create the playlist. I'm so disappointed.

I've got a very obvious question to those of you who have probably already figured this out. When creating an Up Next playlist, when you're not currently playing a song, how do you get the Up Next playlist to play?

kellyineuclid wrote:

I've got a very obvious question to those of you who have probably already figured this out. When creating an Up Next playlist, when you're not currently playing a song, how do you get the Up Next playlist to play?

😁 By hitting the "play" button, of course! Big triangle, pointing rightwards, in between the skip-back and skip forward buttons.

But if a different song is currently queued up - for instance, if it's half-played and what you really want is to skip the rest of that song and go to the next one in the "up next" list, you can double-click on the top song in the Up Next list, or click the "skip forward" button.

calicoradio.com wrote:

So using iTunes 11, how would Up Next deal with a living playlist? Would I have to constantly manully add the new tracks? or would it function like iTunes DJ and keep replenishing its self with new tracks added to the playlist and I could listen forever without ever clicking on anything but the play and pause buttons on my computer?

Both. If you turn "loop" (or "repeat") on (the icon to the left of the currently playing track), it will infinitely grab the next song from your "live" playlist, as new songs are added they'll be included in the mix.

But with "loop" turned off, only the current tracks on added to "Up Next", and it will stop when those run out.

This is really easy to test - create a simple smart playlist with songs chosen randomly but limit it to only 2 or 3 songs, then try playing that playlist with the "loop" turned off, then try again with "loop" turned on. Kind of looks funny with that few songs though - Up Next will show those same 2 or 3 songs filling all 20 slots (but they won't play that often - the list will update)

Oops - I spoke to soon. No sooner had I posted that then my "test" playlist stopped updating, with the "loop" feature turned on.

But it did work for the first few songs. And now it doesn't seem to work at all.

Joseph,

It was a rhetorical question : )

This is, for me, the single biggest flaw/issue with iTunes 11. It has removed iTunes DJ and not added or supplied a full replacement. For many reason, including the updating from a live smart playlist, Up Next is not a replacement for iTunes DJ. Apple has removed features and capabilities from iTunes. As I've already said, If you don't understand or see this, then there were some features of iTunes you where unaware of and weren't using.

And just having a list that showed played and unplayed songs in iTunes DJ was better UI, now with iTunes 11 I have to click like 5 more times to get things to work. Just seeing what's going to play next takes a click. ***?

So can we stop with the arguing, or trying with the work arounds, and start focusing on getting apple to reintroduce iTunes DJ or at least give Up Next all the features and capabilities of iTunes DJ?

I can no longer use iTunes the way I've been using it for many years. I gave an example two post ago, this is no longer possible in iTunes. At best, Up Next has a similar functionality as Party Shuffle did 5 years ago. Party Shuffle was replaced by iTunes DJ, which that time was an improvement.

I miss iTunes DJ. Up next - not even close. Anyone know of a music player that works with iTunes files and has this capability?

I will add my voice to this. I like the idea of adding the functionality of iTunes DJ to everything, but you can't slice out the existing functionality.

I have itunes on DJ 99% of the time. Is it too much to ask for a full screen that shows me the last X played songs AND the next X songs at the same time?

Since years I was using iTunes DJ almost daily and almost exclusively compared to other playlists. And I have a lot of smart playlists that build up on each other. In iTunes DJ I had (among others) the columns Year, Genre, BPM, Rating displayed, and I could manually sort the songs based on these. As a hobby DJ I have populated BPM on all songs and by choosing the songs accordingly, crossfading works quite nicely.

In Up Next manually sorting on song attributes is not possible at all! It only shows Name and Artist. So sort, I have to switch back and fro between my main playlist and Up Next.

Furthermore, I can remove a song from the current Up Next list. But that's not the same as removing it from iTunes DJ. If I remove a song from Up Next, it stays in the current playlist and continues to occupy space there. Can't remove it from the smart playlist. Unchecking the song would help, but is persistent, what I do not want. With iTunes DJ and hundrets of songs in random order, a once removed song would show up eventually. Exactly what I want.

Um, I know how to play songs in any regular playlist. But the only way I can get the Up Next playlist to play is if I'm already playing a song. Is this normal, or, more likely, am I missing something? I can't get my Up Next list to play any other way.

@ Joseph Delaney..

Many thanks for all the info..

I'm totally impressed that you have "Rocket's Tail," in your colletcion! 🙂

I'm still receiving emails regarding this discussion and it's plain to see that there's still a considerable amount of dis-satisfaction with "11." which makes me all the more glad that I ditched it and went back to "10,7"

I use D.J. on an almost daily basis and having got it back, I'm chuffed to bits that I managed to find a way back..

And, as the re-installment of 10.7 seems to have put the whole thing back to before there were any subsequent updates of 10.7 I've had to re-jig my D.J. options.

For me, D.J. was always used to throw up random suggestions for playlists that I'd create myself and then I'd occasionally hit the "genius," option in order to throw up more suggestions.

But, I did notice that D.J. often seemed to be throwing up the same tracks pretty often and as I have a pretty vast collection, I felt I was often not getting enough in the way of variety.

Having re-set things I've found that there's a totally "random," option on D.J. and am enjoying usuing it even more.

I think, regarding "11." that this level of dis-satisfaction needs to be dealt with by Apple, as in spite of all the helpful attempts by users, so far, to "get round the issue," I've not seen anything that would persuade me to go back there.

😟

This is the final straw with apple and iTunes. I have been using iTunes for years for DJing live rock sets and loved the iTunes DJ feature, it was perfect for DJing live music sets even in big clubs. However I was shocked to learn when I updated to iTunes 11 that this feature was no longer present and while there are 'work-arounds' this is not good enough for me. I've been growing unhappy with the lack of compatibility with other software (especially when it comes to internet DJ sets) so I am now in the process of converting my entire 120gb of music from iTunes format to standard mp3's so I can use a dedicated DJ program. Apple you have lost a formerly loyal customer because of you're control freaks and don't listen to customers. Keep your iTunes, keep your designer hardware and keep out of the music business because you're killing it. Goodbye. Good riddence.

Here's the functionality I miss -- I have a smart playlist called "Unrated" which contains all my files with no star rating. I used to use iTunes DJ to play through these while I'm at work and I'd rate the new songs as they played. In iTunes 11, however, giving the song a rating removes it from the smart playlist and makes the song stop playing immediately.