I’ve always thought that Smart Playlists are what make iTunes the best way to manage your music and now other types of media as well. In iTunes 9, Smart Playlists got even smarter.
When I told you how I use Smart Playlists to keep the new content flowing, I demonstrated that I sometimes nest playlists. Sometimes one Smart Playlist needs to reference another Smart Playlist so that the media it picks can match any of one set of criteria and all of another set of criteria.
iTunes 9 rolls out a new feature that makes nesting Smart Playlist criteria so much easier.
You can now click the “…” button to create a group of criteria. You can instruct the playlist to match either any or all of the items in that group and you can instruct the playlist to match any or all of the groups and criteria outside of the groups.
iTunes 9 also finally adds the ability to Duplicate an existing playlist. Just right click (or Ctrl+click) on your playlist of choice and choose the Duplicate option.
For example, I make Smart Playlists to group the songs in my library by release year. Now rather than having to start from scratch, when 2010 rolls around, I’ll be able to right click (or Ctrl+click) on my “Releases 2009″ Smart Playlist, change 2009 to 2010, and be done.
These feature enhancements don’t add any truly new functionality to iTunes but they do make things quicker and easier.
Related posts:
Smart Playlists Keep the New Content Flowing
Mac Address Book Tricks
Organize your Digital Life
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Oh wow…. I didn’t know that with the new release this was available. Must play around with it. I have like 20 playlists right now.