Listening: Smart Playlists

when i'm not listening to albums, i'm generally listening to one smart playlist on my itunes, i call it "Radio"

"Radio" is essentially a smart playlist aggregator with about 50 constantly rotating songs that has 10 different smart playlists feeding into it (see infra) ... while it may seem that it's a little heavy on "critic-based" lists, you'd be amazed at how much fantastic music gets funneled into this little thing, and i have a huge chunk of music that didn't get on these lists from my compilation and "no list" playlists

because all the feeder smart playlists are set up to only include songs that i haven't listened to in a certain amount of time (anywhere from 1 week to multiple months), once a song gets played it's kicked off the smart playlist and another gets immediately grabbed ... this way things are constantly refreshed with tunes that i haven't heard in a while

as an example, here are the next 10 songs that this "radio" playlist has queued up:

superchunk - "throwing things"
margot & the nuclear so and so's - "quiet as a mouse"
sam & dave - "when something is wrong with my baby"
the rolling stones - "it's not easy"
portishead - "pedestal"
phoenix - "long distance call"
soundgarden - "4th of july"
smashing pumpkins - "today"
serge gainsbourg - "melody"
joe morris - "lowe groovin'"

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the smart playlists feeding into "Radio"

1) 5 star songs (last listened): a list of songs i've rated 5 stars sorted by the least recently played, right now i have 150 songs in this list, with the most recently listened-to at 7/12/07

2) 5 star songs (least listened): a list of songs i've rated 5 stars that i've listened to less than 5 times total, and haven't listened to in the last 1 week

3) 500 Best Albums of All Time (Rolling Stone): this is a smart playlist that grabs songs that i have not listened to in the last 4 weeks that are rated either 0 (not rated yet), 4, or 5 stars on a playlist i set up with every album i have on rolling stone's 500 best albums of all time list ... this gives the playlist some classic rock flavor

4) Best Albums of the 1970s: this smart playlist grabs songs that i haven't listened to in the last 4 weeks that are rated either 0, 4, or 5 stars from a playlist that has Pitchfork's 100 best albums of the 1970s

5) Best Albums of the 1980s: this smart playlist is the same as the last, while grabbing from a playlist that has Pitchfork's 100 best albums of the 1980s

6) Best Albums of the 1990s: same as the last, but for Pitchfork's 100 best albums of the 1990s

7) Best Albums of the 2000s: same as the last, but i've made individual playlists with my favorite 50 albums from every year of the aughts, and this playlist grabs from those lists

8) Best Compilations: same as the last, but this grabs from a playlist i set up with my favorite compilations (atlantic rhythm & blues; complete stax-volt singles; no thanks! the 70s punk rebellion; left of the dial: dispatches from the '80s underground; nuggets 1, 2, and children of nuggets; etc)

9) Best Songs of All Time (Rolling Stone): same as the last, but this grabs from a playlist that has Rolling Stone's best 500 songs of all time

10) 4 Star No List: this playlist grabs from all the music i've rated 4 stars that wouldn't have been included on the rest of these lists for whatever reason