17.2 Managing Your Music Library
Banshee gives you several ways to organize your music. You can create playlists, which allow you to put similar songs together, and you can sort and rate songs. You can also view a variety of information about your music collection, including playback statistics (when a song was last played and how many times).
17.2.1 Organizing Your Music
To create a new playlist, click (or press Ctrl+N). A new playlist is displayed in the left panel. Right-click , select , then enter the name you want. You can drag and drop songs from one playlist to another, or use the options on the menu to remove or delete songs and rename or delete playlists. You can sort a playlist by clicking the title of the column. Click the column again to reverse the sort. You can also right-click , then click .
You can edit the name of the artist, album, and title, as well as the track number and track count. Simply select a song, then click . You can also rate your music, which gives you the ability to play only songs with a certain rating. To rate a song, select the number of stars you want to assign in the field.
Figure 17-8 Editing Song Dialog Box
If you want to set all fields in a group to the same value, select multiple songs in a playlist, then click . Make the changes you want, then click . You can also use the and buttons to cycle through the selected songs.
Figure 17-9 Editing Multiple Songs Dialog Box
Click the tab to view detailed information about the selected song, including when a song was last played, when the song was imported, how long the song is, and how many times the song has been played.
Figure 17-10 Details Dialog Box
17.2.2 Creating Smart Playlists
You can create playlists that automatically add and remove songs based on criteria you specify. For example, a smart playlist can contain songs you rated as five stars but that you haven’t listened to for six months. Another smart playlist can contain all songs published in 2006 that you have labeled with the Classical genre.
Banshee automatically updates all smart playlists when a change is made to your music library. If you import new songs, Banshee checks to see if they match any of your available smart playlists. When applicable, Banshee also updates your smart playlists if you just listened to a song or updated a song’s metadata.
Creating a Smart Playlist
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In Banshee, click .
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Specify a name for the smart playlist, then select the criteria for songs in this playlist to match.
Use the plus and minus symbols to add or remove criteria. To use an already defined smart playlist, click , then select the playlist you want.
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Click .
The smart playlist is added to your music library.
Creating a Smart Playlist from a Search
You can create a smart playlist based on search criteria. For example, if you search for all songs in your music library by a certain artist, Banshee can create a smart playlist in which all songs by that artist are selected.
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In Banshee, click .
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Specify a name for the smart playlist, then specify the search criteria you want.
Use the plus and minus symbols to add or remove criteria. To use an already defined smart playlist, click , then select the playlist you want.
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Click .
The smart playlist is added to your music library.