Smart Playlists Keep the New Content Flowing

I use smart playlists in iTunes for many, many different purposes but one group of playlists that I use on an almost daily basis is my unheard/unwatched playlists. These playlists keep the new content flowing and help me catch up on my “entertainment debt”.

How to set up a smart playlist that only contains content you have not already played:

1. In iTunes click the File menu and then choose “New Smart Playlist”
2. Set Play Count is 0 in addition to whatever other criteria you might want to use for this playlist

Setting Up a Smart Playlist

I’ve got a many different variations of unplayed content lists set up (if you’ve got a ton of playlists, it’s also helpful to use playlist folders which can also be created from the file menu). Some of my most frequently used lists in this style are:

• On what I consider the “admin” level, i.e. playlists I might want to use for seeing what media I have but probably don’t want to actually play as a whole, I have the “Never Played” list. It’s only criteria is that the play count is 0 so I can use this to see how much “entertainment debt” I have on the whole. (Currently 9.5 days. Eek.)
• My most frequently used playlist is “Season Pass Shows to Watch”. It’s criteria is to pick from another smart playlist that contains all of the TV Shows I’ve purchased season passes for via the iTunes store and that the play count is 0. This is the main playlist I use when I want to watch new good new content on my Apple TV.
• Non-Season Pass Shows to Watch which is all of the TV Shows that I didn’t buy season passes for (so basically all of the free episodes I downloaded)
• Martha Stewart to Watch which is all the Martha Stewart podcasts
• Audiobooks to Listen To

Related posts:
Smart Playlists Just Got Easier

Wishlist for Future Apple Events

Fall 2009 TV Lineup

Tagged as: itunes