I currently have about 8,000 songs in my iTunes library, which is over 26 days of music. It is easy to fall into listening the same music over and over. I have two different playlists that I have created to keep my music fresh.
The first is my “Never Played” playlist. It is all the songs in my iTunes library that I have not ever listened to. It is really easy to set up this list.
- Click File > New > Smart Playlist
- Change Artist to Plays (is 0 will automatically populate)
- Click + to add another condition
- Select Media Kind is Music
You can also limit the number of songs in the playlist, which I would recommend if you sync this list to your phone or another device.
My second must have playlist is the “Least Recently Played” playlist. It is the songs in my iTunes library that I have not listened to in the longest time. To set up this list:
- Click File > New > Smart Playlist
- Change Artist to Media Kind (is Music will automatically populate)
- Click Limit to & set the number of items you would like in the playlist
- After selected by choose least recently played
What is great about this playlist is that once you play a song it will be removed from the list. The list will always contain the songs that you haven’t heard in the longest time. (You will need to sync your device to your computer for the list to update.)
There are also many variations of these lists that can be created. One of my favorites is my least recently played live Grateful Dead playlist, I have created with the songs the Grateful Dead give away on their web site each November. It looks like this:
Feel free to add your favorite playlist in the comments section.