Advice for a new Nano user

[ADt800]

Hey all. Been a long term iPod user, currently own a 30 gig iPod video. But have recently wanted to downgrade to a smaller iPod, so ordered me one of these awesome new Nano's. Only thing is, I have never had to worry about managing my music, as I just had everything on my 30 gig. So whats the best way to manage music on a Nano when you have more than you can fit on it. Do people just make one mega big playlist incl all their fave albums/songs? Or do people make loads of seperate playlists for each album? Any tips would be appreciated, Im sure its no big deal, just seems a bit differet coming from the luxury of docking and syncing!

Cheers

[AmazingDM]

Make an iPod Nano playlist and load it on there

if you still have more than you can fit on the Nano, I think you can probably make it fill it randomly everytime so you have a virtual space of more than 8gb (as long as you sync your iPod Nano more than you listen to 8gb of music at once)

[pemvapor]

I have the 30GB and use a 2nd gen nano at the gym. I made 9 workout playlists on iTunes, of varying lengths of time, and then just pulled them over to the nano. (I use the manual mode, because everyone in my family uses the same iTunes and the last thing I need is an autosync bringing all my daughter's music over to my iPod.)

[T.J.]

I just got my 8 gig nano last night, but I will tell you that I have no prior experience with iPod's let alone video iPods.

Anyways, before I got my nano, I just made a bunch of smart playlists for all the albums I had, and for the individual songs that I have that don't have albums for, I just put those in a seperate playlist. For the individual playlist, I took out the album names, because it gets annoying looking a hundred different albums with only 1 song in them.

[JazzyMac]

I have various playlists: Gym, Favorites, Songs with the word "Love", Newest songs, etc.

The nano is a double blessing because I'm not overwhelmed with tons of music; I can listen to the good stuff at a whim.

[GregMac1213]

I have various playlists: Gym, Favorites, Songs with the word "Love", Newest songs, etc.

The nano is a double blessing because I'm not overwhelmed with tons of music; I can listen to the good stuff at a whim.

I second that. My 80GB iPod has my entire library. It can be overwhelming to find/choose something.

But for my nano, I've made several playlists:

one with my all-time favorite artists/albums that I always want with me. So I never have to leave the house without taking Aimee Mann with me. :D

one with albums that are 'in rotation'. I update this frequently, depending on what I might want to hear. For example, I've recently got back into Steely Dan. So I'll put one or two of their albums on there for a week or so and then replace them with different albums when I'm ready for a change.

one with my favourite songs based on ratings and play counts.

I find that gives me the perfect blend of on-the-go music.

[tonyclifton]

thats a good system which covers all the bases

I second that. My 80GB iPod has my entire library. It can be overwhelming to find/choose something.

But for my nano, I've made several playlists:

one with my all-time favorite artists/albums that I always want with me. So I never have to leave the house without taking Aimee Mann with me. :D

one with albums that are 'in rotation'. I update this frequently, depending on what I might want to hear. For example, I've recently got back into Steely Dan. So I'll put one or two of their albums on there for a week or so and then replace them with different albums when I'm ready for a change.

one with my favourite songs based on ratings and play counts.

I find that gives me the perfect blend of on-the-go music.

[urbanlegend]

Check out Code Monkey's paper at http://filebox.vt.edu/users/channum/files/smartlist_management_v5.1.pdf

I use a modified version of this for my playlists and now wish I had a nano instead of my big 80GB. I could never listen to more music than could go on the nano between sync's.

John

[chrisgeleven]

This is what I do:

I have a big smart playlist (about 4 GB worth of music) that contains a random selection of music that is rated 3 stars or higher that hasn't been played in the past 2 weeks. That is basically my shuffle playlist.

I then have a several smart playlists for the artists I like most (essentially a "Best of" smart playlist for say the Foo Fighters, U2, etc.), which holds songs rated 4 stars or higher.

Finally, I have a "Listen Playlist" where I manually drag albums over that I am into currently (such as a new album I just purchased, an old album I haven't listened to in awhile, etc.).

This exactly fits any music need I want. I don't remember the last time I went on a road trip and realized that I am missing something I want to listen to.