My Playlists

Corey had asked me for the criteria of my playlists after I explained them to him the other day.  Unfortunately, it looks like iTunes would have trouble exporting and importing them since they are dependent on each other. So, I decided to write them all out.  Had thought about doing that for some time, but always wondered if I could screen grab or something.  Anyhow, here they are.

Note: All of the smaller playlists are titled with z-James in front of them on my list to keep them out of the way on the iPod which doesn't have folders.  My master list as "> " at the front to get it to the top of the list.

Master List

Playlist is z-IncludeChristian
Playlist is z-IncludeChristmas
Playlist is z-IncludeHighestRated
Playlist is z-IncludeInChristAloneAndOthers
Playlist is z-IncludeOldest
Playlist is z-IncludeFromJames25
Playlist is z-IncludePurchased
Playlist is z-IncludeTopThisYear
Playlist is z-IncludeLeast
Playlist is z-IncludeLeastNewAdds
Playlist is z-IncludeFromLori'sList
Playlist is z-IncludeMovieTV
Playlist is z-IncludeSkip1
Playlist is z-IncludeSkip2
Playlist is z-IncludeSkip3
Playlist is z-IncludeSkip4

Match Any

Match Only Checked Items

Live Updating

z-Exclude1

Note: First exclusion list.  Could probably clean up by tagging the childrens' music with a comment and then matching that comment.  (This was a quick fix to make sure I could still hear Jim Brickman who was also included in the kids' list.)  Yours will, of course, vary, though I would hope anyone reading this would still have the first one in theirs.

Artist is Hanson
Artist contains Bee Gees
Artist is Bette Midler
Artist contains Laurie Berkner
Artist contains Veggie Tales
Album contains Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert
Album contains Classical Music for Babies
Album contains Disney's Lullaby
Album contains Lullabies for Babies
Album contains Mother Goose Lullabies
Album contains Jack's Big Music Show
Album contains Classic Disney
Comment contains Instrumental-Lullaby
Comment contains Sound Effects
Comment contains SoundEffects
Comment contains Children's Music
Comment contains [xJames] <-- another way to permanently ban.  All of my new comment tags are in [] to avoid clashes with other comment tags.
Name contains zzz-delete <-- this is my shorthand for deleting music - just a quick rename.  I'll go through later and completely delete.
Playlist is Audiobooks (built-in iTunes smart playlist)
Playlist is z-Exclude2
Playlist is OSBC -- for choir practice, Lori temporarily loads music (this prevents it from appearing in my list since I don't own it)
Rating is * -- allows me to permanently ban something from the iPod by quickly giving it one star
Skip Count greater than 4
Last Skipped in the last 4 months

Match Any

Live Updating

z-Exclude2

Note: This keeps the top 5 most overplayed songs on our playlist off of my iPod.

Playlist is Only Music

Limit to 5 items by most often played
Live Updating

z-IncludeChristian

Note: Bring in 25 Christian songs that haven't been played recently, provided they've only been skipped once at most.

Playlist is Christian Music
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Skip Count is less than 2

Match all
Limit to 25 items by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeChristmas

Note: This helps skew Christmas a little higher than normal during the holiday season.

Playlist is z-Christmas
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Skip Count is less than 2
Last played is not in the last week

Match all
Limited to 30 items least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeFromJames25

Note: Causes items in the James25 list to be added more than they normally would in general selection.  Picks least played, meaning they were the most recently added to the z-James25 playlist.  (So ones I've recently decided I really like a lot.)

Playlist is z-James25
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Last Played is not in the last 7 days
Skip Count is less than 2
Limit to 25 items least often played


Match all
Match only checked items
Live Updating

z-IncludeFromLori'sList

Note: Lori has a standard playlist of her favorites.  It includes stuff I've just purchased and stuff that are on my z-James25 list.  (So that means that some of my favorite stuff I'd never get to listen to under normal circumstances because she would have recently listened to it. )

Playlist is Lori's
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Playlist is not z-IncludeSkip1
Playlist is not z-IncludeSkip2
Playlist is not z-IncludeSkip3
Playlist is not z-IncludeSkip4
Skip Count is less than 2
Last skipped is not in the last 30 days


Match all
Limit to 25 items by least often played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeHighestRated

Note: This lets more popular music back onto the playlist sooner.

Playlist is Only Music
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Last played is not in the last 1 month
Skip Count is less than 2

Match all
Limit to 25 items by highest rating
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeInChristAloneAndOthers

Note: This was originally just to let that one song back onto the list after a few weeks, but I've added a couple of others since then. So now it's just like James25, but a lot more exclusive.

Comment contains [JamesSpecial]
Last played is not in the last 2 weeks

Match all
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeLeast

Note: Gives the least played items in iTunes a slightly better chance of being played, provided they've never been skipped.  Socialism.

Playlist is Only Music
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Skip Count is 0
Last Played is not in the last 14 days.

Match all
Limit to 25 items least often played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeLeastNewAdds

Note: This gives the most recently added items a better shot of being played again soon.  It's a mixture of added/purchased but in general probably helps purchased get played more since there's a second list for purchased also.

Playlist is Only Music
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Playlist is not z-IncludePurchased
Skip Count is 0
Last Played is not in the last 14 days


Match all
Limit to 25 items most recently added
Match only checked items
Live Updating

z-IncludeMovieTV

Note: A fun sublist.  These are sound clips - random pieces of dialogue, theme songs, etc. from everything from Futurama to Bear in the Big Blue House to Mystery Men to The Angry Beavers.  This just provides fun little random interludes.

Genre contains "TV and Movie Themes"
Playlist  is not z-Exclude1

Match all
Limit to 10 items by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeOldest

Note: This is the big one, the largest piece of the playlist spaghetti.  This will contribute about half of the songs to the playlist when all is said and done.  This is the music with the least recent "last played" dates.  (Also any that are blank because they've never been played.)

Playlist is Only Music
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Skip Count is 0

Match all
Limit to 150 items by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludePurchased

Note: Keeps the purchased items in slightly higher rotation.

Playlist is Purchased (built-in iTunes playlist)
Playlist is Only Music
Playist is not z-Exclude1
Skip Count is less than 2

Match all
Limit to 25 items by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeSkip1

Note: It gets harder to get on the list once you've been skipped.  The next few playlists let a few songs on the list, but it gets progressively harder to get played as your skip count increases.

Skip Count is 1
Playlist is not z-Exclude
Last Skipped is not in the last 2 months
Last Played is not in the last 6 months

Match all
Limit to 5 items selected by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeSkip2

Skip Count is 2
Playlist is not z-Exclude
Last Skipped is not in the last 2 months
Last Played is not in the last 6 months

Match all
Limit to 4 items selected by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeSkip3

Skip Count is 3
Playlist is not z-Exclude
Last Skipped is not in the last 2 months
Last Played is not in the last 6 months

Match all
Limit to 3 items selected by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeSkip4

Skip Count is 4
Playlist is not z-Exclude
Last Skipped is not in the last 2 months
Last Played is not in the last 6 months

Match all
Limit to 1 items selected by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-IncludeTopThisYear

Note: This pulls in the top 15 (it says 20, but remember that the very top 5 will be excluded) most listened to songs.  This and a few of the other "popular" lists were needed because before they were added, the list was a little dull at times.

Last Played is in the last 6 months
Last Played is not in the last 3 weeks
Playlist is not z-Exclude1
Skip Count is less than 2

Match all
Limit to 20 items by most often played
Match only checked items
Live updating

Christian Music

Note: This pulls all Christian music, unless it's been commented/tagged "[xChristian]" - there's some stuff on WOW and some Veggie Tales stuff I want to exclude because it's too jarring, too inconsistent with the rest of the music.  We only pull the top 800 least recently played (just temporarily keeps the most recently played off the list).

Playlist is z-Christian Music
Last skipped is not in the last 12 months
Skip Count is less than 6
Comment does not contain [xChristian]


Match all
Limit to 800 items by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating

z-Christian Music

Genre contains Religious
Genre contains Christian
Genre contains Gospel
Comment contains Christian


Match any
Match only checked items
Live Updating

Only Music

Playlist is not Audiobooks (built-in iTunes playlist)
Genre is not TV Shows
Podcast is false
Kind is not mov
Genre is not Podcast
Genre is not Spoken Word
Genre is not Audiobooks
Kind is not PDF Document
Playlist is not Movies (built-in iTunes playlist)
Playlist is not TV Shows (built-in iTunes playlist)
Playlist is Music (built-in iTunes playlist)

Match all
Match only checked items
Live Updating

z-Christmas

Note: I usually keep all unchecked except "Jingle Bells" by Barenaked Ladies.  Starting in October(!), I'll start checking a few boxes a day to ease into the holidays and by Thanksgiving I'll have all of them checked.

Comment contains Christmas
Album contains Christmas
Album contains Holiday
Genre contains Holiday

Match any
Live updating

z-James25

Note: This was originally supposed to be my list of my 25 favorite songs, but I had a hard time keeping it to that, so there's a lot more in there.  I suppose I could have used a standard playlist like Lori does.  *shrug*

Match the following rule

Comment contains [James25]

Live updating

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Also one I like, but not part of the list above (not required by any list up there)

Sunday Afternoon

Note: Ok, so this is a complex one.  This one mixes Christian music with my general smart playlist at a much more even mixture rate.  There are certain songs in my playlist that I like that are really probably ones I wouldn't want my church friends to hear playing.  The "[xSunday]" tag makes sure they don't play in this Sunday afternoon list.  Also, they can't have been skipped, and they must have already been played.  Not something just purchased or something from the iTunes free song of the week that I'm not yet sure about the content of.  Goal of this is that we can play it on Sunday afternoon on the home computer with children around.

Playlist is z-Sunday Afternoon
Playlist is not z-Instrumental
Comment does not contain [xJames]Comment does not contain [xChristian]
Comment does not contain [xSunday]
Skip count is less than 1
Play count is greater than 1

Match all
Limit to 300 items selected by least often played
Match only checked items
Live Updating

z-Sunday Afternoon

Playlist is Master List
Playlist is Christian Music

Match any
Limit to 1,000 by least recently played
Match only checked items
Live updating