I posted this on the iPod Lounge Forums:
To build my smartplaylists, I use ratings and comments.
My ratings:
5=love the song
4=good song
3=ok song (don’t hate it)
2=hate the song and don’t want to hear it again
1=flag this song for editing
Things I put in the comments field:
Sleepy
Soft
Smooth
Japanese (I use this because I have tons of J-music, and a Jpop genre is not flexible enough)
Fun
Comments are fun to build playlists with, since they can be anything. The only problem is that it takes more effort to actually tag the song with the comment. That is where my [I]Songs 2 Fix[/I] playlist comes in handy (see below)
Also, I uncheck all my Classical, Jazz, and Children’s Music. The smart playlists below all have the “use checked songs only”, so that they don’t include these genres.
[I][B]Some of my smartplaylists:[/B][/I]
[B]Songs 2 Fix[/B]: When I am away from the computer, and I am listening to a song that I want to edit the fields for later, I tag it with 1-star. Later on, in iTunes, I look at this playlist, then edit the songs there. In this scheme, 1-star doesn’t refer to like/dislike of the song. It’s just a flag.
-My Rating is 1-star
[B]Sleepytime Songs[/B]: Songs to fall asleep to
-Comment includes Sleepy
[B]Unrated 500MB[/B]: This playlist is used for sorting my collection when I am away from the comptuer
-My Rating is (no stars)
[B]Top Jpop[/B]
-My Rating is in the range of 4stars and 5stars and
-Comment includes Japanese and
-Genre is Pop
[B]J-Rock[/B]
-Comment includes Japanese and
-Genre is Rock/Pop
[B]x3[/B] - my 3 star songs. I use this playlist to build 3+Blend (see below). I use the letter x to start so it sorts at the bottom.
-My rating is 3 stars
-Limit to 100 songs (random)
[B]x4[/B] - my 4 star songs. I use this playlist to build 3+Blend and 4+ Blend (see below)
-My rating is 4 stars
-Limit to 100 songs (random)
[B]x5[/B] -my 5 star songs. I use this playlist to build 3+Blend and 4+ Blend (see below)
-My rating is 5 stars
-Limit to 100 songs (random)
[B]3+ Blend[/B]: By using the above playlists, I ensure that this blend is 1/3 of 3star, 4star, and 5star.
-Playlist is x3 or
-Playlist is x4 or
-Playlist is x5
[B]4+ Blend[/B]: similar to 3+ Blend (you figure it out!)
I use shuffle songs usually. And to make sure I don’t keep hearing the same initial song each time I choose a playlist, I sort the playlists by “last played” with the arrow up.