How do you rate your iTunes?





First, a few notes about my use of iTunes:

Version? I'm still on 5.0.1. Why? I consider JHymn to be a worthwhile insurance policy against obsolescence. And, while iTunes 6 gives me access to video, my vintage first generation iPod wouldn't know what to do with the latest episode of "Lost".

Library size? I'm just over 100 days of continuous music, with 32,000+ tracks saved to an external drive.

Of these, fully 99% are unrated, meaning I have not assigned the 1-5 stars that iTunes allows (l understand the latest version even allows half-stars). I've clearly got some work to do.

Why rate your tunes? It's fun. I like the little mental workout I get trying to decide where to place something on a scale of personal taste. It's gratifying. I have the opportunity before me of voicing my opinion 32,000 times. Ego trip anyone? It's useful. You can build cool smart playlists based only on your favorites in given genres. You can use ratings as a marker for what you have heard/rated, and what you haven't. Finally, ratings can help you clear out the junk that clutters your disk space.

So as we begin this task, we must first determine what our standards will be. My proposal:

Five Stars: Desert Island Disc. These tracks bear repeated listening--the songs you'll never get tired of. Use sparingly, because these really are the cream of the crop.




Four Stars: Standout Tracks. Your JAMS. The songs you will gladly listen to anytime.




Three Stars: Not bad. These are the non-offensive "take it or leave it" selections. An okay song on a great album, or sometimes the best song on a mediocre release.




Two Stars: Ummm, "somebody else's JAMS". These tracks are ones you'd rather not have to hear again, but somehow worth keeping, maybe just for the sake of album continuity.




One Star: Unlistenable. Inexcuseable. Marked for deletion, only after playing it "just one more time" to torture family and friends.





So, how do my standards stack up to others and the way they rate tracks? I found a forum here with similar (ahem) "thinking."

How do you rate your iTunes?

Posted: Sat - April 22, 2006 at 07:37 PM            

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