Complex auto playlist

I just thought I'd share how my playlist is put together because it features three aspects that are frequently requested as features in the product: being able to bias play towards tracks that you prefer, making sure that you don't hear things twice in one day, and truly randomising the play order.

To understand my list you need to know that I give every music track a star rating from 1 (really dislike) to 5 (really like); I rarely play one- and two- star tracks, so they are excluded from my list.

I created an Auto Playlist. I added three selections:
1. At Least 5 stars
2. At least 4 stars
3. At least 3 stars

So, each five-star track is included in the list tree times, the four-star tracks are there twice and the three-star tracks are entered just once. This biases the play in favour of the five-star tracks, but everything I like is in there, and gets played eventually. This satisfies the first two frequently requested features.

Sometimes this list plays recently played tracks very soon again. To stop this happening I add the selection criteria "Date last played is before ..." to each of the above selections. The five-star (#1) uses "before yesterday" whilst the other two use "before 7 days". It is impossible to play my favoured tracks in a week, so there will always be something in there. This satisfies the second frequently requested feature.

I add "Randomise play order" to each of the three selections to ensure that I don't get the same sequences twice, and I also use the shuffle facility when playing the list to improve the randomisation.

I call this list "Weighted", because it is weighted in favour of the things I like best: Great music, and variety.

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk
.

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