Playlists - what are they good for?

[castalla]

I don't use playlists. Out of curiosity, I looked into the Playlist menu item. It's full of albums I've played. So what's the deal? What use are they?

[pski]

I don't use playlists. Out of curiosity, I looked into the Playlist menu item. It's full of albums I've played. So what's the deal? What use are they?

Normally, people make playlists. In your case, you probably have a lot of .m3u files in your music collection that scanning picked up and thought were important to you. You might want to search/destroy those files unless you use them with another playback application.

Older versions of LMS only scanned the "Playlists" folder (Settings/basic page) but it seems the newer versions are more ambitious.

In short, playlists would usually be a group of tracks you wanted to be able to play (more than just now.)

Additionally, they are very comforting to iTunes users since playlists in iTunes are the only way to decide in advance what you want to hear next.

P

[castalla]

Thanks for the m3u tip!

[aubuti]

Some programs generate .m3u playlists when ripping/encoding a disc. These "playlists" are simply the album tracks, in track order. As pski noted, the LMS scanner would pick those up. You certainly don't need those for LMS, and if you don't need them for anything else then you may as well delete them.

It wouldn't discriminate between albums you've played and albums you haven't -- are you sure that the albums found are _only_ albums you've played? That would be curious.

More generally, as pski noted playlists are tracks that people want to play together. Think of burning a mix CD, or if you're old enough (or have seen "High Fidelity") making a mix cassette tape. I rarely make playlists manually these days, but often I'll make a MusicIP mix based on one or more "seed" tracks, then customize the playlist by deleting some duds and re-ordering some tracks, and then saving the playlist, often to be played back at a later time, especially as background music when entertaining.

[castalla]

Thanks - I've deleted them. They were probably from downloaded albums.

By the way - the title I used was an allusion to: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=war%20what%20is%20it%20good%20for&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDEQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbX7 V6FAoTLc&ei=1UM0T4zxI4m28QOQu8TPAg&usg=AFQjCNFbVK2ZPaY2qA7MaFes52tk9x3LdQ

[aubuti]

By the way - the title I used was an allusion to: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=war%20what%20is%20it%20good%20for&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDEQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbX7 V6FAoTLc&ei=1UM0T4zxI4m28QOQu8TPAg&usg=AFQjCNFbVK2ZPaY2qA7MaFes52tk9x3LdQ
...but did you know that that was also Tolstoy's working title for "War and Peace"? His publisher made him change it.

[castalla]

Is that a fact or a wiki??!!!

[aubuti]

Is that a fact or a wiki??!!!
Neither. It's a Seinfeld joke.

[MeSue]

...but did you know that that was also Tolstoy's working title for "War and Peace"? His publisher made him change it.

Giggle.

[Mnyb]

I use mip or random via dynamic playlist or random dynamic pl in combination with a playlist.

Some stuff defy genre generalisation of all kind .

So I have a couple of large playlists made up .

One of them was for example for a party I lined up several hundreds of tracks that where likely to entertain, but then again I made dynamic playlist pick from that selection in random.

But I'm an album man , don't really get that mode of a constant background soundtrack usually a playlist these young ones use :) usually the latest stuff.

I find that artists that can't come up with complete album that's is possible to enjoy as a whole is a complete waste of my time .

But they are to long these days 74 minute pop/rock recordings 40 minutes it's enough then top off with some live stuff or alternate versions ?

[MeSue]

I do...

...playlists based on BPM so I can do slow songs (for getting sleepy) or fast songs (for cleaning or driving or exercising).

...playlists of motivating wake up songs for those rare times I use an alarm.

...playlist for parties. I don't have that many parties but I do have a pool party playlist of summer tunes I am always adding to.

...my latest playlist project is harmonica songs. I just add to it as they come up in my day-to-day listening. Then I have something to inspire me to practice.

...playlists of bedroom songs. Ya don't want something spoiling the mood, or having to stop to thumb down a song. ;-)

...playlists based on decades.

...playlists of instrumentals for when I can't be distracted by lyrics.

...okay, I will confess to having a playlist for the dog! I don't use it anymore, but when he was a puppy I would put it on when we had to leave him alone.

[th00ht]

I don't use playlists. Out of curiosity, I looked into the Playlist menu item. It's full of albums I've played. So what's the deal? What use are they?

Normally, one doesn't use playlists as one plays whole albums. With that in mind, and all the tagging, naming, artwork downloading, etc, etc, playlists seem a waste of time.

I do have, however, a couple of playlists. One is called BWV 1005 - Allegro asai, and has Gidon Kremer's, Haifez's, Shlomo Mintz, and Hillary Hahn's version. Another is called Even Less and has 4 Porcupine Tree's renditions (I have four) of this marvelous song in it. Oh and one with all Shostakovich string quartets played by the Borodin.

For these kind of compilations play lists are swell.

[emalvick]

Normally, one doesn't use playlists as one plays whole albums. With that in mind, and all the tagging, naming, artwork downloading, etc, etc, playlists seem a waste of time.


But... you gave a few examples of where playlists can be perfect.

I tend to fall into the not use playlists, but I tend to set one up for parties as it works better for me than having random Album tracks come up that don't work on their own.

I also tend to find Playlists work well as a quick way of queuing up multiple albums that work in sequence or compliment each other.

My most used playlist is actually alternate sequences of U2's Joshua Tree, which during production was expected to be a double Album with a well know track sequencing that I've arranged.