Simple Instructions on Creating an iTunes Playlist

By Qou Say
Difficulty:
Very Easy
Average rating:

If you have a small audio collection on your iTunes music library, I bet shuffling would be just fine. If you have thousands of songs from different genres, artists and albums, it would probably be better for you to manage your audio collections using a smart playlist or a simple playlist. In that way you will be able to easily select the group of songs that you want to listen to. The steps below are divided into two sets of directions: The fisrt two steps are easy and cover the steps on creating a normal playlist. The second part that starts on Step 3 is for making a smart playlist.

  • You use a simple playlist if you want to personalize and group only those songs that you like with a different artist, genre and other stuff because you can simply drag and drop or add audio files to it manually.
  • You use a smart playlist if you want to include only certain types of music or audio files that match your criteria.
Step 1:

Create your play list. Below are three ways you can choose to create a playlist.

  • Create a playlist by clicking the plus button located in the lower left hand corner of your iTunes window.
  • Choose File > New Playlist.
  • Press keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+N.

A new "untitled playlist" item appears under the source column located on the left hand corner of your iTunes window. Click on it and press F2 to rename it with what you want to call your playlist.

Step 2:

Add songs to your new playlist. Below are two ways you can choose to add songs to your playlist.

  • Right click on the song you wanted to add. Mouse over on "Add to Playlist." On the right side, a list of all your playlists will show-up. Click on the specific playlist you want it to be added to.
  • Select the song you like. Drag and drop the audio file(s) to the playlist you want it to be added to.

You now have added songs to your playlist. To view the songs on the playlist, simply click the playlist at the left pane of the iTunes window. You can now play your songs. By the way, you can arrange the songs on your playlist by dragging it to its position.

Step 3:

Create another type of playlist which is the smart playlist of your iTunes.

  • Choose File > New Smart Playlist.
  • Press keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+Alt+N.

A popup window will appear. You will then specify the criteria for your playlist.

Step 4:

Inable iTunes smart playlist to filter songs based on your preferences or criteria.

Important: Make sure that you selected "Match the following rule," before you make your selections from the pop-up menus.

  • Start by selecting your criteria. For example, you may want to group songs whose album name contains "Michael Jackson."
  • To add additional matching criteria, click the Add (+) button. 
  • (Optional) Select "Limit to" and make your selections if you want your playlist to have a specific duration or size.
  • (Optional) Select "Match only checked songs" if you want to filter only those marked as checked on your iTunes.
  • (Optional) Select "Live updating" if you want your playlist be updated whenever you add or remove songs from your library.

If you are done adding your criteria, then click the button OK to create your playlist and filter songs that match your criteria. Otherwise, click cancel.

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