Geek & Mild by Sean Sperte

How I Rate My Music

A proper (read as “useful”) method for rating my music – with stars, in iTunes – has eluded me ever since the feature was introduced. Here’s a new method I’m trying; which I couldn’t fit into a 140-character Tweet:

• 5 stars = “I could listen to this song anytime, in any mood”
• 4 stars = “I love it”
• 3 stars = “I like it”
• 2 stars = “It’s okay (but I have to be in the mood)”
• 1 stars = “Not a fan … but I keep it around for some reason”

My goal is to rate every song in my library with this system. Unrated songs will be left unchecked, and won’t play in shuffle mode or get transferred to my iPhone. I’m starting by rating entire albums, or at least those I can, confidentially.

Coupled with data iTunes records automatically (e.g. play count, times skipped, etc.), ratings can prove very helpful in fulfilling preference. For instance, finding songs that I love but haven’t played in a while could be as easy as creating a Smart Playlist that matches checked songs that:

• Have a rating of greater than 3 stars
• Kind doesn’t contain “video”
• Last Played is not in the last 3 months (a “played” song must play through entirely, I believe)
• Last Skipped is not in the last 3 months (for a song to be “skipped” it must have played at least 1 second first)
• Skip Count is less than 3
• Date Added is not in the last 6 months

That Playlist returned just under 400 great songs I’d either forgotten about, or haven’t listened to in months! I’m rediscovering my music.

7-Jun 2008