---
title: How I listen to music
date: "2005-12-09T12:00:00Z"
categories:
  - how-i-do-things
wp_id: 477
description: I rated my MP3 collection and created seven WinAmp SmartViews based on play counts, ratings, and recency to automate song selection. I also use the Pepper plugin to track listening history for more granular playlist logic.
keywords: [winamp, mp3 management, smartviews, pepper plugin, automated playlists, music rating]
---

I have a large MP3 collection (Tamil and Hindi films). I don't like selecting songs to listen to. Too much effort.

I rated all songs I had listened to (650 songs x 5-10 seconds = 1-2 hrs) and created 7 SmartViews. I just go to one of these and play them in order. Here are my views, in descending order of their use.

1. **Most played**. Sorted by Play Count. Songs I play the most. Plays stuff I listen to usually.
2. **Not heard recently**. Played Last before 3 months ago AND Rating >= 3. Plays good songs I haven't heard recently.
3. **Not played much or recently**. Played Last before 1 month ago AND Play Count <= 2 AND Rating >= 3. Plays good songs I haven't heard often enough.
4. **Recent hits**. Last updated after 3 months ago AND Play count >= 3. Plays songs recently added and liked.
5. **Recently played**. Sorted by Last Updated. Often, I like to listen to songs I listened to yesterday.
6. **Top rated**. Sorted by Rating. My best songs. (Suprisingly, I don't use this view much.)
7. **Recently added**. Sorted by Played Last. Plays songs I just downloaded.

But WinAmp's not good enough. For example, I can't find out what songs I played at least thrice last month. [How do I see what I've been listening to a lot recently](http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/28655)? Fortunately, there are a few [WinAmp history plugins](http://www.winamp.com/plugins/browse.php?search=yes&filter=C&query=history). I installed [Pepper](http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=91119), which produces a log file that can be analysed. I did this two weeks ago, and don't have enough data. When I do, I'll modify two views

3. **Not heard much or recently**. I'll change this to "Not heard much recently" - Rating >= 3, Play Count > 5, Play Count = 0 last month.
4. **Recent hits**. Modify it to show songs played at least thrice last month.

---

## Comments

<!-- wp-comments-start -->

- **arunvis** _12 Dec 2005 12:29 am_:
  Windows media player has these as auto playlists
- **S Anand** _12 Dec 2005 6:50 pm_:
  I just was the Windows Media Player auto playlists. They're pretty good, actually!
- **S Anand** _12 Dec 2005 6:54 pm_:
  But it doesn't have the equivalent of "what have I been listening to a lot recently?" -- for which WinAmp has a plugin. Wonder if there are plugins like this for WMP.
- **jawahar** _4 Mar 2007 1:50 pm_:
  hai anand how do u create such smart views

<!-- wp-comments-end -->