Organizing Apple Music/iTunes music

[Chuchichan]

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to keep my music as organized as possible. I'm creating playlists now for my devices (i.e. iPhone, iPod, etc.).

I've imported all of my music into Apple Music and ideally I'd like to add multiple "artists" to a playlist, but I don't see a way to select multiple artists.

Since that didn't work, I went back to the Song level and get to where all of my songs are displayed. I can select multiple songs at once and right click and add them to a playlist, however, I don't see how I can see if I've already added a song to a playlist. I checked the columns and don't think there's one that would tell me what playlists a song is already in just by looking at it.

Does anyone know answer to this?...

1. How do I select multiple artists in Apple Music
2. How can I tell by looking at a song in the Apple Music app if it's already been added to a playlist (playlists)?


Thanks in advance for any assistance with this...

 

[d1sahib]

You can add multiple artists using smart Playlists. The attached example shows a simple 'Dire Straits' playlist which includes songs by the artists 'Dire Straits' and 'Mark Knopfler.' It is possible to create very targeted smart playlists based on ratings, year, artists, genre, Comments etc.

To figure out the playlist(s) a song is included in, right-click the song and then select 'Show in Playlist.'

 

[Chuchichan]

Thanks very much for your reply. I really want it as simple as possible. I basically want to choose most artists except for a few initially for my ipod and just have a few artists on my phone. Do you know why it's not possible to select multiple artists when trying to add them to a regular playlist?

Also, I was hoping to visually see from my list of songs or artists, which have been added to a playlist. Seems like a column would make sense for that? But, you are saying that the quickest way to tell if something has been added to a playlist already would be to right-click it and go into the properties?

My plan moving forward is to convert CDs and add that music to my music folder and add it to various playlists. I'm just trying to keep everything as organized and simple as possible while keeping everything in one place.

Thanks again...

 

[The_Auryn]

I just upgraded from Mojave to Monterey. I have 400 playlists in Music. When I click on each, the default is "View" (as in the menu button on the top of the screen "as Playlist." When you press it. I prefer to have it "View as Songs." At the point, every time I click on a playlist, I have to then click "View as Songs." Is there any way to change it automatically and make it default throughout all of my hundreds of playlists? Also, once I get it to "View as Songs" I have to manually go in and reset it "Show View Options." Anyway this can be done all at once? For example you're able to do it with a finder window. You simply open the window, select "Show View Options" and at the bottom (one've made your changes) there's a button "use as default." thanks in advance.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I just upgraded from Mojave to Monterey. I have 400 playlists in Music. When I click on each, the default is "View" (as in the menu button on the top of the screen "as Playlist." When you press it. I prefer to have it "View as Songs." At the point, every time I click on a playlist, I have to then click "View as Songs." Is there any way to change it automatically and make it default throughout all of my hundreds of playlists? Also, once I get it to "View as Songs" I have to manually go in and reset it "Show View Options." Anyway this can be done all at once? For example you're able to do it with a finder window. You simply open the window, select "Show View Options" and at the bottom (one've made your changes) there's a button "use as default." thanks in advance.

I wish. All I've found is that if I go to my main Music library, select "View as songs" and then arrange the columns the way I want, then every new playlist created will reflect those same "view as songs" preferences. Unfortunately, any older playlists are all in that ridiculous playlist view that is now the default, and I have to change them one at a time.

Apple really screwed up playlists when they went from iTunes to Music.

 

[arw]

I just upgraded from Mojave to Monterey. I have 400 playlists in Music. When I click on each, the default is "View" (as in the menu button on the top of the screen "as Playlist." When you press it. I prefer to have it "View as Songs." At the point, every time I click on a playlist, I have to then click "View as Songs." Is there any way to change it automatically and make it default throughout all of my hundreds of playlists? Also, once I get it to "View as Songs" I have to manually go in and reset it "Show View Options." Anyway this can be done all at once? For example you're able to do it with a finder window. You simply open the window, select "Show View Options" and at the bottom (one've made your changes) there's a button "use as default." thanks in advance.

I'm still using iTunes (Retroactive) but it should be very similar for Music. The following script goes through all of your playlists and changes the view for each:

tell application "iTunes"
    activate
    set frontmost to true
    repeat with aPlaylist in (get user playlists)
    set n to name of aPlaylist
        try
            set view of front browser window to playlist n
            set frontmost to true
                tell application "System Events" to tell application process "iTunes"
                    -- customize according to your language/preferred view
                    click menu item "Alben" of menu 1 of menu item "Anzeigen als" of menu "Darstellung" of menu bar 1
                end tell
            end if
        end try
    end repeat
    -- go to current playing song
    try
        set dbid to (get database ID of current track)
        set musicLib to some playlist whose special kind is Music
        set theTrack to some track of musicLib whose database ID is dbid
        reveal theTrack
    end try
end tell

Ok, sorry, I can't seem to get the "View" > "as Songs" clicked in Monterey/Music...

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Thanks very much for your reply. I really want it as simple as possible. I basically want to choose most artists except for a few initially for my ipod and just have a few artists on my phone. Do you know why it's not possible to select multiple artists when trying to add them to a regular playlist?

Also, I was hoping to visually see from my list of songs or artists, which have been added to a playlist. Seems like a column would make sense for that? But, you are saying that the quickest way to tell if something has been added to a playlist already would be to right-click it and go into the properties?

My plan moving forward is to convert CDs and add that music to my music folder and add it to various playlists. I'm just trying to keep everything as organized and simple as possible while keeping everything in one place.

Thanks again...

Probably just personal preference, but I tend to find the easiest way to create and load playlists is on the (lists of) songs page... even if Im wanting to move lists of artists into playlists..

On that page, click the artists tab to sort your songs by artists. This will bring all songs by individual artists together in the list. Drag and drop any of your artists into any of your playlists. Music (app) won't copy the same song into a playlist twice, so if you've already dropped it once in there and are trying to do so again, it will prompt you to make a decision and "skip" is your friend.

If you are in a hurry and want to drop in multiple artist's songs at the same time, same as above except you'll multi-select songs:

• select the first song of a desired artist you want in a playlist
• hold down shift key and select last song of a desired artist you want in a playlist
• hold down command key to select first song of next artist you want in a playlist
• hold down shift key to select last song by that artists you want in a playlist

...and so on. When you have all of the artists you want in a playlist, drag and drop those selected bundles of artists into the playlist.

If you want different playlists for different devices, just create them, load them with whatever songs you want and then sync only the desired playlists to the desired device.

If you want a bigger mix of artists in one playlist for one devices and only a subset of those artists in another playlist, open the bigger (list) playlist, select the artists you want for the shorter playlist, drag and drop them in the shorter playlist. OR duplicate the bigger playlist into a second playlist and then go into the second playlist and delete the songs from that playlist that you don't want in that playlist.

Learning to use smart playlists as referenced in post #2 is a great option too. With one "rule", you can move all songs by a single artist into a playlist. Add another line "rule" for another artist, etc. In the future, if you rip additional CDs that have songs by those same artists, the smart playlist will automatically add those songs to the playlists in which you want songs by those artists. You don't have to select, drag & drop: it's automatic with smart playlists.