Getting the most out of your playlists and instant mixes

Not too long ago, creating a custom mix of songs usually involved physical media, time limitations and a lot of trial and error. OK, we admit that it's been sometime since physical media was absolutely necessary, but even at a 50 cents each, the cost of those blank CDs and tapes added up! Fortunately, there isn't a blank media tax on each playlist that you create, so you can mix and match your Google Play collection till your heart's content.

Creating a music playlist is pretty straight forward, as you simply click on the arrow next to the song title and select Add To Playlist. By holding down Shift to select songs in a row, or Ctrl to select separate single tracks, you can select and add multiple songs at a time. You will then be given the opportunity to name your playlist, or if your don't have time for such silliness, it will default to the current date.

A playlist of music

Google Play also provides several Auto Playlists, which generate playlists of music based on certain preset parameters.

Queue

This list lets you queue up any combination of playlists, albums, songs, and Instant Mixes without having to create a brand new special playlist for just one listening session. It also functions as a Now Playing list, showing you what's up next even if you are listening to a playlist of shuffled music.

Thumbs Up or Highly Rated

This creates a dynamic playlist of only the music that you have marked as Thumbs up. As your collection grows, it may become harder to choose which album to listen to. Sometimes you just want something to listen to while you are cleaning the house, and don't want to put a lot of thought into it. Think of the Thumbs Up auto playlist on shuffle as your very own personal online radio station. You are the Program Director, and your job is to make sure that this playlist only contains the best of  the best of your collection. 

Here are some ideas to help keep your Thumbs Up playlist awesome:

1. Exclude songs that contain an album's secret track at the end, especially if there is a long gap between them. This may be cute when you are listening to the album as a whole, but this dead air will likely cause you to stop what you are doing to see if Google Play is working correctly. You can separate the two songs using software such as Audacity if you want to experience and treat them individually.

 2. If you want to include an artist's entire oeuvre, simply click on their name while viewing an album, and using the MORE menu, select all of the songs, then give them the big Thumbs Up using the same menu. Be careful rating a large amount of music like this, as you might accidentally include some unwanted tracks like those mentioned above.

3. Don't Thumbs Up songs that you're tired of, out of guilt. If it is marked, it will show up in your Thumbs Up playlist from time to time. Once you've had a break, you can add it back later. This also goes for novelty songs that wear out their welcome after more than one listen.

4. Prune and update your Thumbs Up "directory" from time to time. If something pops up that doesn't fit, go ahead and unmark it. If it's absolutely terrible, give it the Thumbs Down or delete it. If you upload a lot of music frequently, there might be songs that you forgot to mark, so check your collection often.

5. A great Thumbs Up playlist is one that you don't have to worry too much about re-rating the music while listening to it. Don't rate everything Thumps Up first and ask questions later. Start with a few songs, and build this playlist up from scratch. Once it is finely tuned, it will blow your Pandora stations out of the water!

In Google Labs you are given the option to rate your music using a 5 star system. In this case, any music rated 4 or 5 stars will be used.  If you are using the Thumbs Up system, and you switch to the Star system, your high-rated tracks will be converted automatically to 5 stars. Since this is not a supported feature, it could disappear without notice, so who knows if rating each song in this manner is worth the time spent.

Last Added

This auto-playlist isn't as exciting, but useful nonetheless. This is a playlist of the last 500 songs that you uploaded. You can use this to view your recent transfers to see if everything uploaded and is tagged properly. If the last 500 songs that you uploaded were awesome, then this playlist will be awesome when you use it. 

Free and Purchased

Guess what's located here? That's right, any music you added to your collection through Google Play, free and purchased. None of these songs count towards your 20,000 quota, and you are even able to download them twice through the web interface, just as you can with your personal collection.

Shared With Me

These are songs that have been shared with you through Google Play. You are currently able to share one (1)  listen with your friends when you purchase music though Play, and if someone shares a song with you, it will show up here. These songs can automatically self-destruct.

Instant Mixes

These are special playlists that are automatically generated using your choice of song as a starting point. This is accomplished using the same technology that powers the Pandora music service. Using information gathered from the Music Genome Project, Google Play is able to find music in your collection that fits together extremely well.

The number of tracks and the length of the playlist will vary with each Instant Mix that you create, though they usually will be between an hour to an hour and a half long. You are not able to edit these mixes, though a quick workaround is to select all of the songs in the Instant Mix and add them to a new playlist yourself. This is also a good way to create a playlist of random songs without putting too much though into it. If there is a decent collection to choose from, and Google Play is familiar with the songs contained therein, they usually are pretty good.

There are two ways to create an Instant Mix. If you highlight a song and click the plus sign shown in the image above, a new mix will be created and added to the list below it. You are then able to view and approve this playlist before you sink time into listening to a bad collection of songs. If you're feeling lucky, you can click the arrow next to the song title and instantly play your Instant Mix. This will interrupt the currently playing music for the new playlist, and if you have shuffle enabled, it will start somewhere in the middle of that list.

If Google Play isn't familiar with your song selection, it will either create a playlist of random everythingness from your entire collection, or flat out refuse to even try. The later option is usually best, as the former tends to not have any rhyme or reason to it, and are generally not enjoyable. Making sure that your music is properly tagged can help prevent this from happening.