approved. I would guess at least double that have been rejected. None of this rip a whole album nonsense. 4 or 5 stars goes on the zen, 3 stars doesn't. 5 stars for exceptional tuneage.There is nothing less than 3 stars (obviously).

here was the problem I had.

I would go through an album that I love say Automatic for the People and end up with 3 or 4 tracks rated 5 stars. But that dosen't mean I still want to hear them these days. I played them to death on my walkman on the way to school back in the early 90s. Does that still make them 5* songs? Should I downgrade them if I'm not still interested in hearing them?

I created a playlist called '5* and never played' and it worked through it with a sense of duty. Luckily, I lost my playcount history, ratings and everything else and now make sure I don't rate anything and keep the whole worms nest closed.

by the way, that documentary about Hugh Everett was really good; thanks for the tip - I imagine my iTunes library with ratings. But life is too short. I mean, really. How is it possible to rate the lot?

I agree entirely with your ratings. Mine are similar. Most of my smart playlists start by excluding anything that has less than three stars. Two stars are for poor tracks by artists that I like (or might like). One star is for complete dross or good tracks badly ripped (or damaged on the CD they came from). I also try and rate as I go along, but I still have about half of the tracks on the SxSW bundle from March that I have yet to get round to listening to.

One of the things that grated in Merlin's playlists was the one that he uses to rate down tracks that have not been listened to often. I have many tracks that are rated at four or five stars that I can't listen to too often -- perfection can be wearing. By the same token, I have many three-star tracks in my most-played list. They aren't great, but they are listenable.

I know I have rated a track correctly when I am listening to something that I assume needs to be re-rated (say from three to four or vice versa), but when I pull the iPod out of my pocket, the rating is already what I think it should be. My instinctive rating is usually consistent with my considered view.

Because you can set the rating straight on an ipod on the hoof, I use the stars to flag tracks as 1 (delete it next time) or 5 (there's something about it that I want to remind myself of - effectively an iKnot in an iHanky).

But then I bugger about with the BPM setting to rate the tracks. 301 marks the essentials, 201 is "from a trusted source but unknown" and 101 is "unknown". Less than 101 is that "keep on ipod for completeness" setting.

Then here's where it gets fancy. I have three play lists:

"Voyage of discovery" - any track with a BPM setting of 101, not played in last 2 weeks.

"Dad FM" - any track with a setting of 201 or more not played in last 2 weeks. This gives you the best FM radio show you've ever heard.

"Dad's Faves" - any track 301 or more not played in last blah blah blah.

Set these playlists to a limit of 70 minutes, chosen at random, and it's the perfect commute into work.

Drives Mrs H nuts, but it keeps me amused…

Can you play a Playlist at random on the recentish 80GB iPODs? If so how? Mine keeps playing the songs as albums, which isn't what I want at all.

I've never rated any songs on iTunes; if I don't like them I remove them. But if I have skipped them (as I do if I don't like them after a few seconds) they don't show up in iTunes as having been played, which is really annoying.

I don't use ratings on iTunes - what is the right tune at a particular time may be entirely the wrong tune some other time. I can't really be bothered with Genres either and only change them when the one that automatically comes up is blatantly incorrect.

I used to have a "Music only" list but then Apple put in settings for audiobooks, videos and podcasts to be sorted automatically in iTunes (albeit with some messing around for the audiobooks that you put in from a CD), so that was dealt with.

.... to mark tracks I enjoy when I'm listening to something new for the first time. That's about as granular as I get.

I'm going to have to investigate this BPM setting thing, it might be what I'm looking for.
I need a mood setting, to be able to say, yes that's one I'd play to keep me awake in the car, that's one I'd have as background music etc etc - and to be able to do this on the fly when listening to the whole of "playcount = 0" on the train.

I use ratings to help decide what stays on the Ipod.

I've only got a 4gb ipod, so I'm always swapping around what I've got on it.

So:
Anything I want to keep as a permanent fixture on my ipod is a 5 star.

4 star means it's staying for the moment, but could drop to a 1 star if I get bored of it.

3 star means it's not neccessarily brilliant, but there is a good reason for keeping it on there. eg, for completeness or diversity.

I use the 2 star for songs that haven't ripped properly (eg if the CD was dirty when I ripped it). Marking them this way means I know to take them off the ipod and fix them when I get chance.

1 star means it's coming off the ipod.

just wanted you to know I'm female and I use my ratings much the same way as above...

...and I would give Wild Honey Pie a 2 (tiresome song, but needs to stay on the iPod for completeness)