First, I want to acknowledge that star ratings are not for everyone. If you are okay with two indicators for music tracks (Loved, Disliked) then this topic is not for you.
I have spent many years building my music library (15+ years, 15,326 songs, 9,382 rated). Star ratings have been the key way to differentiate between how well I like different tracks. At a simple level, 3+ indicates that I like a track, two or less means I don't like it. This level of thinking works well for the loved/disliked.
However I prefer to go further to track what I "like" and "don’t like"….
1 Star is reserved for short intros or songs I absolutely hate (1%)
2 Stars are songs I don't really like (but may be okay for a general artist/genre shuffle) (36%)
3 Stars means I generally like a song (37%)
4 Stars means the song is among the best on a given album (22%)
5 Stars means the song is among my favorite of all time (3%)
Unrated - never got to or didn't form an opinion and okay with not including in playlists
The most important aspect of these ratings is their use in iTunes Smart Playlists. Smart Playlists are invaluable for someone with lots of songs to manage. By simply adjusting a star rating, I can affect which playlist a song fits into. Genres and star ratings help me build great playlists for whatever my mood.
So, with iOS 10, I have lost the ability to use star ratings to automatically affect my playlists from my iOS devices.
Workarounds/Alternatives:
Do you use star ratings? Are your use cases similar to mine? What are you going to do without the ratings capabilities? Any ideas for workarounds or alternatives?
I have spent many years building my music library (15+ years, 15,326 songs, 9,382 rated). Star ratings have been the key way to differentiate between how well I like different tracks. At a simple level, 3+ indicates that I like a track, two or less means I don't like it. This level of thinking works well for the loved/disliked.
However I prefer to go further to track what I "like" and "don’t like"….
1 Star is reserved for short intros or songs I absolutely hate (1%)
2 Stars are songs I don't really like (but may be okay for a general artist/genre shuffle) (36%)
3 Stars means I generally like a song (37%)
4 Stars means the song is among the best on a given album (22%)
5 Stars means the song is among my favorite of all time (3%)
Unrated - never got to or didn't form an opinion and okay with not including in playlists
The most important aspect of these ratings is their use in iTunes Smart Playlists. Smart Playlists are invaluable for someone with lots of songs to manage. By simply adjusting a star rating, I can affect which playlist a song fits into. Genres and star ratings help me build great playlists for whatever my mood.
So, with iOS 10, I have lost the ability to use star ratings to automatically affect my playlists from my iOS devices.
Workarounds/Alternatives:
- Use Siri to change ratings. Siri recognizes rating commands. For example I will say "Siri, rate this song three stars." This works for now, but only in private situations (in car on the way to work).
- Use iTunes to change ratings. Requires my Macbook, so only practical while at work or home.
- Change my smart playlists to use two settings (loved/disliked) plus "not set". I would have to give up the ability to differentiate between "pretty good", "great" and "all time fav" status.
- Manually move tracks in and out of playlists. This would be a ton of work on an ongoing basis and is not practical at all.
- Find another music library system for iOS devices that works like iTunes used to. Seems unlikely but something could be out there.
- Explore alternatives such as Google Music, Spotify, Amazon. None have the star ratings feature last I checked. But maybe I'll save money, be more platform agnostic, or I'll find new features (ex. Amazon Echo integration).
Do you use star ratings? Are your use cases similar to mine? What are you going to do without the ratings capabilities? Any ideas for workarounds or alternatives?