Are Seven

Nutshell: Using the rating function in iTunes may seem excessive and pointless, but it can be extremely helpful in organizing your music and optimizing your listening.

When I first got iTunes once upon a time, I turned up my nose at the ability to rate things one-to-five stars. I’m only putting my music in there, I figured. I like it all, so why rank them?

I first started rating songs when I figured that I could make mixes that were immediate decade best-ofs, and it grew from there. I started finding that rating songs in iTunes was a fantastic way to:

• Mark songs that I liked as I stumbled across them while shuffling. When I’m shuffling my “Never Played” playlist (play count=0) or my 2007 Radio playlist, there’s songs that I come across that I like, so I mark it with three stars, and then when I return to that album or artist later, wondering “what was that one song I liked?”, I’m immediately reminded.
• Easily keep my iPod healthy. When I ran out of room on my iPod, I knew that I wanted to keep music on there that was recently added or never played, but what else? Simple: everything rated three stars and higher.
• Have a constant go-to playlist. I always had my five-star and four-star playlists, but when I made one that had everything three-and-up, I found that ultimate decider. When I can’t decide what I’m in the mood for, I just put that on shuffle and let it go, and I’m treated not only to my favorites, but songs that I don’t know very well but had tagged with three songs.

I can understand why someone might object to rating. But I highly recommend it. In my rating system, much of my library remains unrated, but the stars start for these songs:

• Three stars for songs to mark songs that I like on first listen as well as songs that I want on my iPod, but don’t necessarily love. This last part is especially for those songs that bring out nostalgia in me, but aren’t exactly good. Lots of early ’80’s stuff there.
• Four stars for, “Oh, this is such a great song.”
• Five stars for, “I will not be able to do anything at all until this song has finished playing.”

Do you rate your library? What system do you use? If you don’t, is it a contentious objection or just nothing you’ve ever really considered?

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