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Playlists allow you save groups of songs to play later, allowing you to craft the perfect mixes for parties, road trips, exercise, or just lounging around. They are incredibly easy to make and edit, and you can even have iTunes craft custom playlists for you.
Steps
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Open up iTunes. Double click on the icon or select it from your menu to open the music playing program.
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Make a blank playlist by clicking on "File" → "New" → "New Playlist." File is located in the upper left corner of iTunes. In some versions, it is represented by a small grey and black square next to a triangle. You can also press "Ctrl" or "Command" and the "N" key simultaneously.Advertisement
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Name your playlist something memorable. While you can change this later, name your playlist something easy to remember, like "Running Music." Once you name it you'll be taken to playlist's page, where you can add, rearrange, and rename your music.
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Click on "Add Music" in the upper right corner. There is a button labeled "Add Music" that allows you to make your playlist from your library. Clicking it brings you to your music.
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Click and drag your songs into the playlist. To the right of your music is a large box labeled with your playlist. To put songs into it, just click on them and drag them into the playlist box.
- You can drag multiple songs at once by holding the "ctrl" or "command" keys when you click on each song.
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Click "done" once you've finished the playlist. You'll be brought back to your playlist where you can reorder the songs or rename the playlist.
- Click and drag songs to reorder them.
- Right click on the playlist and choose "Rename" if you want a new name.
- Click "Add Songs" to add anything you forgot.
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Add new songs from your library by clicking and dragging them to the side. After 2-3 seconds, a list will appear on the left that shows all of your playlists. Drop the songs onto your playlist to add them.
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Use "smart" playlists to let iTunes make playlists for you. Smart Playlists allow you to give iTunes a set of parameters to make a playlist for you. For example, I could create a smart playlist that organizes all of my recent music label "rock," and iTunes would find all of the songs for me. To make one, click on the "Playlists" header at the top of iTunes, click on the small gray cross in the bottom left corner, then choose "New Smart Playlist."
- Smart playlists can make a list of all the music you've added that month, every one of your top rated "jazz" songs, only songs with high quality audio, your most played songs, and more.
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Set the parameters for your playlist. The smart playlist window allows you to tell iTunes where to find the music you want. From here, you can choose the parameters for your playlist:
- The first box chooses how to organize you playlist (album, artist, genre, file size, etc.)
- The second box defines the parameter, (contains the phrase, is not, etc)
- The third box let's you input what songs you want to choose from.
- For example, if I want a playlist of all songs by "The Who," I would select "Artist" in the first box, "Contains" in the second, and then write "The Who" in the third. This means the playlist will contain all songs by the artist, "The Who."
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Click the "+" button to add new parameters. This lets you chose songs by genres, plays, date added, bit rate -- you name it. You can make as many parameters as you'd like and iTunes automatically sorts your songs.
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Click the "..." button to adjust parameters. For example, if you want to add The Who, but don't want any of the songs off of the album "Tommy," you can click "..." and choose "Album," "Does Not Contain" and write in "Tommy."
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Make sure the "Match The Following Rule" box is checked. Otherwise the playlist will just choose random songs.
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Check "live updating" to keep your playlist automatically up to date. This is useful if you choose parameters like "recently added songs" or constantly download new music. Every time you open iTunes it will update the playlist for you.
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Alternatively, make Genius Playlists to find similar songs automatically. iTunes can take almost any song and find 20-30 songs like it, making a playlist for you. To make a Genius Playlist, right click on a song and select "Create Genius Playlist." You can then add or delete songs from this playlist like any other.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionHow do I delete a playlist?Community AnswerGo into the settings and click 'music,' Then, click 'delete.'
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QuestionCan I add songs downloaded from the net into other programs to iTunes?Missabell16Community AnswerNo, Apple likes to disconnect themselves from all other programs so this means that you can't add them from anywhere to iTunes. You have to buy them on iTunes instead.
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QuestionHow do I remove songs from a playlist?Missabell16Community AnswerSwipe right and it will come up with a remove/delete button. Click that and it should remove the song.
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Tips
- If you want this playlist to go onto your iPhone or iPod you will need to sync it after you make the playlist.Thanks
- If there are multiple songs next to each other you want to add, you can click on the top song, hold shift, and click the last song. This should highlight them all, so you can drag them all at once.Thanks
- Instead of dragging each individual song, you can click one song, and then command-click the next one. This will highlight both of them, so you can drag them at once. You can also do a combination of shift-clicking and command-clicking.Thanks
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About This Article
Article Summary
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To make a playlist in iTunes, open up iTunes and click "File" at the upper left corner of the screen. Next, select "New" and click on "New Playlist." iTunes will prompt you to name your playlist and take you to a blank playlist page. Click "Add Music" in the upper right corner to bring up your music library. Then, click and drag your songs into the playlist. Click "done" after you add all of your songs to the playlist! To learn how to rearrange the songs in your playlist in a particular order, read on!
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Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 77,136 times.
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