New feature in SmartPlaylist v5.1: Jump to "Now Playing" from anywhere

Playback control: Jump to "Now Playing" with the new blue button "➜". In the list view it will scroll to the now playing song (if the displayed list is actually the current playback queue).

New feature in SmartPlaylist v5.1: Sort by multiple criteria

All sorting functions have now been centralized into the "Mix" rules (formerly called "Limits"). Now you can choose a secondary and even a tertiary sorting criteria, if you wish.

In the above example all songs are first ordered by Artist (in ascending order). Then within the same artist the songs get sorted by rating (in descending order), then within the same rating they get sorted by their play count (again descending). In other words: Highest play count per highest rating first for each artist in the list.
This should satisfy all your sorting needs.

Note: Albums are always sorted by track # (unless you specify another sorting criteria).
Deleting the first sorting will give you a different random mix with each search.

Remember: Some handy hidden functions

If you have studied this blog and read all release notes, then you should already be familiar with these tricks:

1. In all list views (in all apps, by the way): Tap on the status bar at the very top of the screen (e.g. on the time) to scroll to the top of the list.
2. On the main rules screen of SmartPlaylist: Tap on "X: N rules" (e.g. "A: 3 rules") at the very bottom to show / hide inactive rules (same as "Show only active rules" / "Show all rules" in the tools menu "⌘")
3. In SmartPlaylist's result list: Tap on "SmartPlaylist X: N" (e.g. "SmartPlaylist B: 39") at the top of the list to refresh the display of play count and last played (or the rating, after having changed it in the built-in music app) -- in most cases this happens automatically, but with this trick you can enforce screen refresh.
4. On the "Now Playing" screen: Tap on the time already played on the left or on the time remaining on the right of the playback time slider to pause / play the current song.

So now you know.

New feature in v5.0: Search by groupings

New search criteria: groupings. Also available in the hierarchical MusicBrowser (Genres ➤ Composers  ➤ Groupings ➤ Artists ➤ Albums ➤ Titles)

NOTE: This feature does not work with iOS 4.0 and iOS 4.1.

Many more features in the future

Which of the following enhancements do you need most in SmartPlaylist?

1. Save rule-sets by name
2. Export and import rule-sets (to store, edit, mail, etc.)
3. Search in all text fields (artist, title, album, composer, comments, album artist, grouping) at the same time -- UPDATE: implemented in SmartPlaylist v7.1 (Quick search in list view)
4. Sort by multiple criteria (e.g. 1. by playCount, 2. by lastPlayed) -- UPDATE: implemented in SmartPlaylist v5.1
5. Search by grouping -- UPDATE: contained in SmartPlaylist v5.0
6. Search in lyrics -- UPDATE: will be implemented in SmartPlaylist v5.3
7. Filter by mediaType (only songs, only music videos, etc.)
8. See all the playlists a song belongs to

Please leave a comment here or write to Support.SmartPlaylist@gmail.com.

And don't forget to write a (hopefully positive ;o) review in the App Store to encourage others to download SmartPlaylist. Thank you!!

New feature in v5.0: Add/remove individual songs (exceptions)

SmartPlaylist is rule-based, i.e. you get a set of songs according to the selection criteria (rules) you specify.

Well, now you can also add exceptions to the rules by adding or removing individual songs from one or multiple smart playlists:

In the playback control for the now playing title you can open an extra dialog where you can add ⊕ the now playing song to one or more lists (A, B, C, ...) or remove ⊖ the now playing song from one or more lists. Each list button cycles from "no exception" to "include" and "exclude", e.g. "A"→ "A⊕" → "A⊖" → "A".

In the above example the song "To Kutsavaki" is set to be excluded from list C and included in list F. When list F is reloaded, the selected song will be added to the result set and marked with "⊕":

These exceptions (includes /excludes) are only applied when the corresponding list is reloaded (with ⏎).
They appear as a new "rule" which can be edited:

So, whenever you are listening to a special song you like, you can now simply add it to a playlist of your choice without having to adapt the rules of this list. Likewise, if you dislike a song, you can quickly mark it for delete and with the next reload it will be removed.

Any questions or suggestion? Please write to Support.SmartPlaylist@gmail.com

New feature in v4.12: Fusion of different smart playlists into one

Until now you could only add / subtract / intersect the previous results with the new results within the same playlist.
Now you can add / subtract / intersect any of the existing smart playlists. You can have a smart playlist just to mix different lists into one (just fusion rules, no other rules), or you can mix the results of some rules with the results of other lists.

By simply tapping on "A", "B", "C", "D", "E" or "F" you cycle through the set operations "+" (union), "-" (minus) or "=" (intersection).
Adding is done first, then all subtractions are done, finally all intersections are executed.
In the above example for smart playlist "E", all songs with BPM < 160 are selected in the iPod music library, then these results are joined with the current results in list "B" and "D" and then this result set is intersected with list "A".

New feature in v4.12: Search/sort by BPM

You can now filter by BPM (beats per minute) to get only slow or only fast songs. Of course, this only works for songs that have a BPM value.

Empty list in "Limits"?

If the list of selection options on the "Limits" page is empty

then you need to restart SmartPlaylist. Please shut down SmartPlaylist in the Multitask bar:

If you know how to reproduce this problem, please report it to Support.SmartPlaylist@gmail.com.

Remember: After syncing it is always best to restart SmartPlaylist.

Sorting of playlist very slow with iOS 4.3

The sorting of playlists with iOS 4.3.3 on an iPhone 3GS is now 5 times slower than on an iPod 2 with iOS 4.1! And there is nothing I can do about it in SmartPlaylist.

New feature coming soon in v4.11: Music Browser

Browse your music library hierarchically by Genres ➤ Composers ➤ Artists ➤ Albums ➤ Titles to pick exactly what you want (similar to the Column Browser in iTunes):
1. Pick the genre(s) you are interested in (1, several or all)
2. Then pick the composer(s) within the selected genres - or skip to the next level
3. Pick the artists you want to hear (limited to the previously selected genres/composers)
4. Select the albums (again: 1, several or all)
5. Pick the titles, now narrowed down according to the selected genres/composers/artists/albums

You can cancel or finish (OK⏎) browsing at any level. The selected elements are then used as search rules and can be combined with additional rules like play count, rating, etc.

More infos and previews soon.

New feature in v4.10: Playback control

With v4.10 you will have all playback controls in 1 place:

• Volume control
• Shuffle off, Shuffle by title, Shuffle by album
• Repeat none, Repeat now playing, Repeat list (all)
• First song in smart playlist, previous / next song, last song in list
• Play / Pause
• Now playing: Artist and title
• Playback position (time played / time to play)

This playback control is always at your fingertip in the upper right corner - on iPhone: "♬", on iPad: "Playback ♬".

It lets you skip songs in the currently playing list even while you're having a look at another smart playlist or at another song in detail.

Save a SmartPlaylist to the iPod playlists?

Sorry, not possible: the MPMediaLibrary is read-only. That's why it is also not possible to modify the rating in SmartPlaylist.

Please support SmartPlaylist

Would you recommend SmartPlaylist to your friends?
If you find SmartPlaylist useful, please leave a positive review on the App Store to encourage other users to download it.


Thank you very much!

Coming soon: Improved iPad version (v4.9)

You will get a proper iPad version included in SmartPlaylist. Here's a preview:

What is "⌘" and "⌥"?

Those 2 symbols are used on Apple keyboards.

Features different from other keyboards include:
The Command key (⌘)
The Option key (⌥)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Keyboard

So, that's why I use those 2 symbols in SmartPlaylist:
⌘ for different commands (tools)
⌥ for different options to load a list

Bug with (corrupted?) artwork

There are some songs with a kind of corrupted artwork in them, which make SmartPlaylist crash. Reason: The artwork has a size of 0 by 0 pixels. With v4.9 SmartPlaylist will detect that and treat it as "no artwork".

Workarounds:
Add "real" artwork
Create new mp3 from "corrupt" song

Hidden feature: Secondary sorting

UPDATE: This can now (v5.1) be done "officially" in the "Mix" options -- see here.

With the new Limits feature you can apply a secondary sorting criteria, as this example shows:

1. Set Play Count as primary sorting criteria ("Sort 0...n ⇣")
2. Set "Limit list to 9999 titles", selected by "least recently played"

Like that the titles will be ordered by Play Count, and within the same Play Count they are ordered by Last Played, with the least often and least recently played songs on top.

Comments work again in iOS 4.3 beta 2

It seems that Comments again can be used in iOS 4.3 (beta 2). Let's hope that it will stay like that.