Dear iTunes, Please bend to my will.

[rsadelle]

So here's what I want: when I have iTunes on shuffle, I want it to display the list of songs in the order they're playing. It will do this for an individual playlist, but not for a folder or for the entire music library. Is this just something it does not do, or am I missing an option somewhere

Comments

[dedalvs]

Why not just use iTunes DJ, or create an "Everything" playlist? (I have that because I have my library auto set to repeat the same song over and over again. My "Everything" playlist is defaulted to shuffle.) Also...folder? How can you have a folder on iTunes...?

As for the title, why not get one of those external programs that announces everything? I use Growl, but I'm sure there's probably something similar for a PC.

[rsadelle]

Hmm. I've never used the DJ. I'm trying it out now. I have to admit it weirdly makes me nervous not to see the whole list of everything, only the last/next 100 songs. (This is completely irrational.) I think I would forget to add new things to an Everything playlist

[dedalvs]

People always look at me weirdly when I talk about folders in iTunes, which means I must use it differently than other people.

OMG!!! I didn't do this because I had no idea this capability existed at all! I just looked now, and it's there! Who knows how long! Wow! This should prove very useful! I have no idea how to address your question, though, since I haven't played with it, but I'm going to give it a try now.

I think I would forget to add new things to an Everything playlist.

No, not an ordinary playlist: make a smart playlist. Just about all the playlists I listen to are smart playlists. The rule for my everything playlist is "Add everything whose year is not 9999". Since I don't have any songs whose year is 9999, it adds every other song whose year isn't that (including those that have blank years). In other words, it automatically adds everything in my library to the playlist; I don't have to add stuff to it when I add new songs.

Hmm. I've never used the DJ. I'm trying it out now. I have to admit it weirdly makes

[rsadelle]

Huh. I wonder if playlist folders are something they introduced in a later version and everyone else was used to just using the + to add playlists, where I came late to iTunes and went to the file menu and found folders as an option.

I've never messed with smart playlists (my attitude towards iTunes has definitely been: just play the music!); I might have to give that a try.

It's possible the DJ is just as random as everything on shuffle, but it felt less random, so I'm back to just putting the music library on shuffle.