Sadly, there are very few which offer classes on tactfulness and grace.

@Flowrush – great catch. So the edit in Automator would be to add that additional parameter to look something like ‘Rating is not 5 stars’.

@Gazoobee – If you don’t use ratings (and don’t have the desire), then this post probably isn’t best suited for you. Rest assured that it was helpful for someone. But thanks for taking the time to share your insightful comments. (By the way, spell check can come in handy – it’s ‘offense’ with an ‘s’. See you in night school…) ;)

The title indicates that for some reason we should not forget to rate our iTunes music and the first paragraph elaborates so:

“Since ratings are one of the BEST METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE USEFULNESS of your playlists, neglecting to add that information to your tracks can really handicap the power iTunes offers.”

Aside from the grammatical mangling, (what does this sentence even mean?), it’s just wrong. The body of the article is basically about how if you *chose* to rate your songs (and then rate them in a specific way), that the creation of smart playlists based on those ratings is then easier. Well, duhhhh.

The article should probably have been titled something like: “How to Use Ratings and Smart Playlists in iTunes.” Instead we have this poorly worded alert to the reader that forgetting to use ratings is somehow “wrong” or will create problems later? WTF?

If you use ratings (you may have guessed I don’t), then this is good advice on how to use them efficiently, but the title is “off” and the whole first paragraph is misleading and confusing at the same time.

There are many local colleges that offer night classes on writing skills and style.

Just one thing. In automator shouldn’t you add a rule that lets automator check if the song doesn’t already have a 5star rating ?? In the example above, automator checks any song played more than 4 times and applies a 4star rating, but what about the songs with a 5 star rating ? Will they be given a 4 star rating or will automator still let them be 5′ers ?

-Flow

I then modify the default rating as I listen to the music. I have playlists set for my favorite genre with ratings of at least 4 stars, with further settings for everything not played in the past 3 months. That way I make sure I eventually hear all my music, but I can drop any tracks I don’t care for by giving them lower ratings. I use one star for probably never again, two stars for stuff that would require a lot of familiarity to ever like, and three stars for OK but not great. Five stars obviously moves the tracks into smart lists of all-time favorites.