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are all smart playlists random?

I know that one criterion available for selecting content is 'random'. However, I want to ensure that my playlists contain nothing but intact albums. Therefore, I select the 'selected by Album' criterion. However, it's not clear whether I'm getting the first X albums based on the amount of content I select or randomly selected albums. Can someone answer this? I know I could research the issue by myself but thought someone might have the answer readily available (yeah, I'm being lazy!).


TIA,

David

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 16Gb RAM, 500 SSD

Posted on Apr 16, 2016 7:06 AM

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10 replies

Apr 30, 2016 4:04 PM in response to drschwartz

If you set Shuffle mode to "Albums" and pick the "selected random" option when limiting the size of the smart playlist, the albums will be randomly included. Note, though, that this does not restrict the playlist selection to complete albums - if you limit the size of the playlist based on time or data volume, you'll almost always get at least one incomplete album as the playlist algorithm tries to get as close to possible to the specified limit by selecting as many songs as possible.

Apr 30, 2016 4:19 PM in response to drschwartz

The shuffle mode settings are overloaded - obviously when shuffle is globally enabled, or if you choose to shuffle-play a selected album or playlist, the selected mode determines how the playback sequence. For smart playlists, however, the same setting affects how the "select by random" option is applied, independent of any usage of the shuffle function itself.

Apr 30, 2016 4:33 PM in response to hhgttg27

... on the basis that an example is always better than an abstract explanation 😉


A very simple smart playlist, that selects from another playlist and limits the selection to a total duration of 2 hours, selected by random:

User uploaded file

With shuffle mode set to Albums, refreshing the playlist selections gives this:

User uploaded file

So, as noted previously, two complete albums ("Station to Station" and "Jordon: The Combacl") plus four songs from a third album bringing the total duration up to 2 hours.


With Shuffle Mode changed to Songs, and no change made to the smart playlist rules, refresh gives a completely different result:

User uploaded file

i.e., in this case it ignores any album grouping and just randomly selects songs from the base playlist up to the specified time limit.

Apr 30, 2016 4:40 PM in response to hhgttg27

Our messages crossed ... the point is that Shuffle mode affects both playback (if the shuffle function is used) and the way that random selections within a smart playlist works - but does so independently. I don't have an iOS device to hand to check this but I believe that the distinction between "smart" and "regular" playlists only applies within iTunes; once synced to an iDevice it just becomes a playlist that you can choose to play in sequence or by shuffling, I know that with my iPod nano 7g I use a smart playlist similar to the one above (albeit with more complex rules) as part of the set I use to control sync operations - and I can play the albums selected in the same way as any other. Using Shuffle mode as part of the smart playlist specification doesn't "force" shuffle playback (thank goodness!).

Apr 30, 2016 4:42 PM in response to drschwartz

"does this help me get a playlist of randomly selected albums onto my iPhone?"


Yes, just use or include that playlist in specifying what's synced to your phone. Caveat: this should work perfectly if you sync using a USB cable; I don't use iCloud so can't comment as to equivalent behavior if your iPhone's configured to work that way.

are all smart playlists random?

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