I Love Stars

Hi,

It's precisely because I don't need songs I don't like on my iPod that I rate songs. Actually, that's just one reason. But if I rate all my songs - which I have for over 93% of my 4400+ library - I can create dynamic "smart" playlists that take ratings into account, among other information. Similarly I can tell my iPod (which doesn't have nearly enough space to fit my entire library - I rip to lossless) to only take songs over a certain rating.

I keep songs I don't like on my computer because I own them! I bought the CD, but I run all my music off of hard drives streaming digitally to external D/A convertors, and sometimes I do in fact wish to hear an entire album as the artist intended. Other stuff I keep around because even though it's not my favorite, it's got some funny or cool specific section I want on file, or it's a track by a friend or group I have some personal connection to, or any number of other reasons. I uncheck stuff I don't want to listen to randomly, but I still want to know roughly how much I do or do not like it.

It's a matter of philosophy regarding a music collection - more information is inherently better, as it enables greater flexibility and control down the road.

This app is great IMHO. I wish CoverSutra would offer more display options - if it just included stars somewhere around the desktop album display, I wouldn't need this app. But as a small free fix to that lamentably absent feature, it's working great for me.

Oh, and one other reason - as much as I *think* I know my music collection, and what I do and do not like, I am often amazed by the results of the following: I'll skip to the next track, it will sound like something I am not interested in yet I rated it 4 stars. So I deliberately exercise patience, and lo and behold 2 minutes in the song changes drastically to another section or movement and suddenly I recognize it and remember why I rated it so highly.

This actually does happen with surprising frequency and is just one more reason why ratings help organize my music.

Yes? Actually, i realized I use my digital music library just like I use my CD collection. That is, I usually rarely use playlists but rather play a whole album. I feel so old fashioned, now ! :-)

I use ratings all the time. I only have a 4gb iPhone, so I have a Smart playlist that grabs only songs with a rating of 4 or 5. That playlist is the only one that is synced with the iPhone. That way I can (easily) control what goes on my iPhone, so I only have music I really like due ot the limited space.