iTunes Playlist Question (hard drive, Windows XP, software, click)

[sean sean sean sean]

I listen to music on my computer all the time. I don't have a huge apartment and the crummy Dell speakers are fine as long as they're not cranked up. All of my 500+ CDs also got stolen out of my car several years ago right after I had finished ripping all of them onto my hard drive so THANK GOD for that. Lots of memories in this silly computer box...

I've used iTunes since I got my first iPod back in 2005 (btw: I've also had 3 iPods stolen since then and now have 0 ). I stopped upgrading iTunes versions at 7.5 and wish I had earlier. This is one of the most annoyingly bloated pieces of software I run but I love the interface and ease of cataloging my huge library of .mp3s.....so unless someone knows of a better alternative, it's staying (for now).

Anyway, when I listen to music in iTunes, 99% of the time it's like this:

Party Shuffle On
"Play higher rated songs more often"
Playlist of my 2,500 or so favorite songs

This generally yields good results, but sometimes there are just absolutely horrible transitions. No one should ever have to hear Jay-Z's "Where I'm From" back-to-back with Buffalo Springfield's "On the Way Home" or anything similar to that.

Does anyone know of some plugin that would allow me to specify certain songs that should NEVER be played in sequence? On Mac OS, I feel like there is definitely a way to do this with AppleScript....but I'm using iTunes under Windows XP.

If this is too vague, let me know and I'll try to explain better....thanks!

[Naptowner]

I don't know of a plugin that does exactly that, but you might think about downloading a newer version of iTunes, which now has a "genius" button you can click to generate a playlist based on a particular song. There usually aren't any terrible transitions, but it does tend to limit you to a particular genre. This helps avoid the rough transitions, but might cut down on variety a little.

[RayinAK]

You can also create several Playlists instead of a very large one. For example, I create Playlists for burning (making) music CD's, usually from 16-19 songs, and leave those alone. To listen to music for a couple of hours or more at a time, I create Playlists of around 60 songs.

I create a new Playlist, and name the folder. Then I drag only the songs I want, and in the order I want, from the Music folder to my new Playlist. Every song is separated from the next by one second, and I set iTunes to sample the song that is next (before it plays) to keep the volume the same throughout the Playlist.

[Sayantsi]

The easiest thing is to use the Genius in the latest versions of iTunes. Pick a song and iTunes will create a playlist based on that type of music.