Tips

Quickly creating a playlist from an artist or album

If you want to quickly create a playlist with particular album or all the songs by an artist you don’t have to search through your entire library and drag songs into the playlist one by one. In iTunes, select Library or a playlist, and then go to the Edit menu and choose Show Browser. In the iTunes browser, find the artist or album you want, and then drag it to the Source column to automatically create a playlist. This is also a great way to create playlists to burn on CD.

If you no longer want to hear a song

After you import music to your iTunes library, you may find some songs you don’t want to listen to anymore. To the left of each song name, you’ll notice a checkbox. If you decide you don’t want to hear a song, simply uncheck it. Unchecked songs also won’t play in all playlists in which they’re included. On a Windows computer, you can uncheck every song in a playlist at once by holding the Control key when you uncheck a song. On a Mac, hold down the Command key when you uncheck a song.

Opening a playlist in a separate window

You can open any item in your Source list, like a playlist, the Music Store, or the Party Shuffle, in a separate window. Simply double-click the item in the Source list that you want to open. Having a second iTunes window open will let you compare two playlists, or easily drag songs between two playlists.

Finding a song in playlists (ADD 6.0.2)

If you’ve created several playlists and want to find out which playlists a song belongs to, right-click (or on a Mac, Control-click) the song, and then choose Show in Playlist. You’ll see which playlists the song belongs to, and if you choose one you’ll be brought to that playlist.

Make a playlist with a specific duration

Whether you want music for your daily 30-minute walk, need songs that are exactly as long as a movie you’ve created, or want to fill a 60-minute CD with music, you can get duration information about each playlist to help you choose the right songs. With your playlist selected in the Source list, the bottom of the iTunes window displays the number of songs included in the playlist, total playlist duration, and the amount of space the songs occupy on your computer.

Copy the contents of one playlist to another

You can quickly create a new playlist by just combining existing playlists. Simply create a new playlist, and then drag each playlist you want to the one you just created.

Steps

Create a custom playlist

1. From the File menu, choose New Playlist, or click the Add (+) button in the lower-left corner of the iTunes window. An untitled playlist with a musical note icon appears in the iTunes Source list.
2. With the untitled playlist selected, give your playlist a title.
3. Select a song in your Library and drag it to your playlist.
4. Add as many songs as you want to your playlist.
5. Select multiple songs on a Windows computer by holding the Control key as you select songs. You can select a range of songs by clicking the first song, then holding the Shift key as you click the last song in a range. On a Mac, you can add multiple songs at once by holding down the Command key as you select songs in your library.
6. Click the playlist in the Source list to view all the songs you’ve added.
7. To change the order of songs in the playlist, just drag the song to where you want.
8. To remove a song from a playlist, select it, and then press the Delete key. This does not delete your song from your library, it only removes it from your playlist.
9. If you want to keep a song in your playlist, but you don’t want to listen to it or burn it to CD right now, click the checkbox next to the song. Your song will stay in your playlist, but won’t be played the next time you listen to your playlist.