For the six people left that don’t use iTunes for their music management, iTunes has a 5 star rating system for all tracks. The problem with this system is that you really have to come up with your own justification for rating the tracks a certain way. Everyone seems to have their own method. This is my methodology:
✭ : I’ve listened to the file, but have a negative (or no) opinion of the track.
✭✭ : I don’t dislike the song, but it’s not good enough to be on my iPod.
✭✭✭ : I like this song. It earns the right to be on my iPod.
✭✭✭✭ : I like this track so much that it will be added to my “Favorites” playlist on my iPod.
✭✭✭✭✭ : This is a track that is elite enough to earn one of the coveted spots on my iPod Shuffle.
The 3 Star rating basically earns a track the right to go on a road trip with me. We really only use my 20Gb iPod on road trips. I use my iPod Shuffle while walking from place to place and it is used to fill the gaps of entertainment in my day.
I didn’t use the rating system for the longest time. Now, I find that marking a track with a star lets me know what I actually hear rather than what I’ve just had on in the background. This helps me decide what I can prune from my library. To everyone, I ask: Do you use the star rating system? If so, what is your methodology?
3 Responses
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I can honestly say that I’ve never used the 5-star rating system. I guess I’m of the opinion that if I don’t like the music, there’s no sense in keeping it around just to have it. My organization system stems a lot from the “Date Added” feature. I listen to a lot of stuff posted at 3hive.com. Many times I download (legally from this site) more than I can listen to in a day, so I end up going back to see the most recent tracks that have been added to my playlist and trying to play catch up.
Plus, you seem to lose/delete your music about once a year, so that keeps it nice and fresh.
I hate you.