iTunes is the popular software for managing, downloading, and buying music, podcasts, movies, and applications. The following iTunes Tips provide helpful hints on how to organize and manage your music and other media files.
Make a Playlist
Here's a fundamental but important concept in iTunes: the playlist. In its most basic form, a playlist is simply a collection of songs. That collection might be ordered by genre, tempo, mood, or other factors. To create a playlist, go to File...New Playlist on the menu. Give your playlist a descriptive name, like "Classic Rock" or "Pop Hits".
Next, you'll need to add music to your playlist. Locate the "Music" item near the top, left of the screen and click on it. This will bring up all the music in your library. Then, just simply select one or more music tracks, and drag-and-drop those tracks onto your new playlist. You should see a little + sign appear over your playlist before your drop the music files on top. Congrats, you now have your first music playlist!
Start Rating Songs
Rating songs customizes your iTunes experience. In order to keep track of the songs you haven't rated yet, create a new smart playlist called "unrated". A smart playlist is created by going to File...New Smart Playlist from the menu.
Setup your new smart playlist with the following rules:
Rating is (No Stars) Limit to 25 items Selected by: Most Often Played (or Random)
Once you rate a song, it'll be removed from the Unrated playlist.
Playlist based on Favorite Songs
iTunes enables a playlist based on your favorite songs. This is great when you want to listen to your best music in a big library. To get a favorites playlist going, you'll need to have rated at least a few songs.
A custom favorites playlist is created with a smart playlist. Create a new one by going to File...New Smart Playlist from the menu. Here's a sample rule on how to create a favorites smart playlist:
Rating is greater than (3 stars)
This will match all songs that you have rated at 4 or 5 stars.
Organize by Tempo
Tempo is the speed or pacing of music. It's smart to organize songs by tempo, depending on your activity or mood. For example, you could organize songs as "Relaxing" when you need to take a break, or "High Energy" when you're ready to exercise. Simply create a new playlist and drag-and-drop appropriate music tracks on to it. You can also right-click on individual songs and select Add to Playlist...PLAYLIST NAME.
