Playlists, do you use them?

[MiccyNarc]

Ok, I've been reading some articles about people whining about shuffle functions on iPods and iTunes, how'll they'll random between 80s pop and modern hits, stuff like that. Well duh, that's the point of shuffle. Then someone will comment after the article that they make playlists, and everyone goes "omg really you can do that?!"

Are people that ****ing retarded? I could never listen to my music on random, it ranges from classical to country to heavy metal, and those three never go well together. I have my playlists and I load them on my shuffle based on what I want to hear. I thought that was what everyone did. Apparently not. Now I randomize the playlist but it's all what I want to hear, I just don't want to hear it in the same damn order every single time.

Hell even my technologically retarded mother uses playlists. Apparently she's more inclined than 90% of the population. An NY times article described people who used playlists as "tech savvy". Tech savvy my ass, I just have more intelligence than a gnat.

Anyway, do you use playlists or no?

 

[Keane]

I don't use them, since I usually listen to full albums.

 

[Letters]

Why yes, yes I do! My current playlists on iTunes are 'bandolin', 'bejesus', 'Epic', 'Harhar', 'Letters Selection', 'Modest Mouse Concert', 'NIN Concert', and 'Rawr'. Pretty much, if ya put it on random you're gonna get some shit here and there, so what I do is just make a playlist of "good shit" right before I'm gonna be rockin' out. Shuffle is fine for background grooving but when rocking out is the point, you have to make sure it's all good. I do most of my straight-though-album-listening in the car.

 

[Que-Ever]

I don't use them, since I usually listen to full albums.

Yeah, that. I still prefer CDs to MP3 players...

 

[knut]

Of course, I don't think I could ever listen to music in a straight, linear fashion. I pretty much like every single track in my iTunes so I don't see the problem with giving it a good jumble every now and again.

But it depends where I am. If I'm here, just browsing, writing or looking up research, I'll monitor my music and pick what I like, but if I'm at my work desk I'll either put it on shuffle or make a playlist best suited for what I'm doing.

 

[Robert-]

I use my playlists.

 

[Qonfused]

Nope. I usually just pick an album and listen through it.

 

[Vegeta897]

I have a monster playlist in winamp with all the music I listen to.

And one for Arrested Development.

 

[Stigmata]

I only ever listen to albums.

 

[VirusType2]

I made playlists like:

metal
classic rock
rap
soundtracks
classical
instrumental
trance

etc.

but I never got far putting all of my music in the different playlists, so I haven't used them. So many songs.


I'm not sure it's a great idea, but I like it this way:

I keep my music in 2 main folders. Analog and Digital. (with artists and albums in sub folders) So I can go into the analog folder and then I would find everything from AC/DC to ZZTop, with their individual albums inside.

Analog would be like rock, classical, etc., and Digital would be any kind of Electronic Music. I think that the two are so completely different and don't mix well on shuffle.

When loading my MP3 player, I go into whichever folder I feel like listening to - analog or digital, and pick a handful of songs from many different albums I feel like hearing. When the MP3 player is full, I stop.


When I'm at home, I use Winamp - it's got the search feature for your music library, so I can easily hand pick songs, albums, or artists. If I want to hear AC/DC, I just type 'ac dc' and it will list all of the songs by album. I can have it play straight through all of the albums in order, random, play one song or whatever.

You can also type in keywords. I can type in whatever kind of mood I'm in.


For example, I'll type in 'Death' in the Winamp media library search bar, and it will turn up shitloads of songs that have 'Death" somewhere in the metadata of the MP3. For example, anything by death cab for cutie, and all death metal, etc.



I type in something more specific and it gives me a little themed playlist of my music.

Like on independence day, I might type in America and put the search results on shuffle. A theme.

I like it.

I like to put a rating on my favorite songs and then I can click on the Ratings bar, and it will list the songs alphabetically by my rating.

 

[Operational]

Nope. When I listen to music I generally know what I want to listen to and just queue them up or go to the artist I want to listen to, sort by rating/track number and play until I want to move on to something else.

Occasionally I'll use MediaMonkey's auto-generated "Favourites - Not Heard Recently" playlist.

 

[Rizzo]

I got my gengre list, and then my party mixes. They are pretty much the same. I think the main problem for people is that they just don't bother to make the lists. Not that they are unable to. I mean, i got some 6000+ different tracks, and i mean, to make a decent playlist does take some time and effort.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Yep. I use these handy pre-arranged playlists called "albums".

 

[StardogChampion]

Nope. When I listen to music I generally know what I want to listen to and just queue them up or go to the artist I want to listen to, sort by rating/track number and play until I want to move on to something else.

Playlist...

Yep. I use these handy pre-arranged playlists called "albums".

Exactly, albums are a playlist pretty much.

I use a playlist. There's no way I could listen to music on random. How lame.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Playlist...

I think he meant queueing on the fly, like alt-clicking tracks on Winamp, which I often do when I have it on shuffle and think of another song I want to hear next.

 

[Zephos]

I have a few study playlists.

 

[knut]

Playlist...


Exactly, albums are a playlist pretty much.

I use a playlist. There's no way I could listen to music on random. How lame.

How is it ''lame''?

I can't listen to albums through-and-through simply because I haven't the patience to listen to one band for 30 minutes. I mean, I love Hot Water Music, but I'd rather listen to one song then have something else pop up inbetween.

I do sometimes listen to albums all the way through but for the most part I'm usually always in iTunes picking stuff out by hand. Right now I've got one of my work playlists on the go - some Gnarls Barkley, Latterman, HWM, LCD Soundsystem and 65daysofstatic.

Awesomeawesomeawesomeawesome.

 

[Lucid]

I usually make my playlists just consist of all the music by a single particular band.

Either that or I just use shuffle and sift through it until it's to my liking.

 

[Solaris]

I've been listening to my music on shuffle for a while now, gets very annoying, most of my music is shit lol.

I hink i will use playlists

 

[knut]

Hell no. Full albums, always. I don't even understand how anyone can do anything else. I have trouble not scoffing at people who claim not to have "patience" to listen to one band continuously. It makes me have trouble understanding if they can even truly appreciate them in the first place.

Err, no. I just love Modest Mouse as much as I do Hot Water Music, so I like to listen to them as soon as I can, together, with songs from a random selection of albums so I get the whole range of the spectrum. I can listen to albums through and through but I just prefer to get all of my music playing fairly.

Also, I don't like to leave music. If I listen to albums, I neglect other albums. Maybe not you and others, but I hate listening to something over and over - I end up over-playing it.

Plus, thanks to shuffle, I always end up listening to something new, something I may of forgotten about or neglected in the past.

I honestly don't see anything wrong with music on random. I had no idea it was such an alien way of listening to music.

 

[Cavalry]

Hell no. Full albums, always. I don't even understand how anyone can do anything else. I have trouble not scoffing at people who claim not to have "patience" to listen to one band continuously. It makes me have trouble understanding if they can even truly appreciate them in the first place.

Thats half true, I like to make my own playlist for 1 artist/band and listen continuously. Although, the shuffle feature is usually not enabled.
I make my own playlist for a reason, not so whatever song the program chooses can go on

 

[Letters]

I honestly don't see anything wrong with music on random. I had no idea it was such an alien way of listening to music.

It's not! ****, there's even an iPod dedicated to it... you're just on a forum full of aliens!

 

[PvtRyan]

Not really. I either shuffle or put on an artist or an album of an artist that I want to hear.

 

[Wanted Bob]

Yeah, either that or I find songs sequentially that I want to listen to, because I would have like 50 on-the-go playlists by the end of one sitting.

 

[Operational]

I think he meant queueing on the fly, like alt-clicking tracks on Winamp, which I often do when I have it on shuffle and think of another song I want to hear next.

Yeah pretty much.

 

[The Monkey]

I usally listen to one artist at a time.

 

[Nitre]

I've always wanted to make some playlists, but i've never been that bored.