(*
A to Z from Playlist: Creates a playlist using songs from an existing playlist with one of the tags beginning with each letter in the alphabet, as theorised on http://www.psychoticmonkey.co.uk/2007/01/31/the-a-z-of-my-ipod/#comment-1194

©opyleft Peter Burkimsher 2/4/2007

*)

property tags : {“Song Name”, “Artist”, “Album”}

tell application “iTunes”

set tag to (choose from list tags with prompt “Choose the tags to title case” without multiple selections allowed) as string

set header to “A-Z ” & tag & ” ”
set this_playlist to (view of front window)
set playlist_name to name of this_playlist

set alphabet to {“A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, “E”, “F”, “G”, “H”, “I”, “J”, “K”, “L”, “M”, “N”, “O”, “P”, “Q”, “R”, “S”, “T”, “U”, “V”, “W”, “X”, “Y”, “Z”}

set playlist_tracks to {}

repeat with this_letter in the alphabet

if tag is “Song Name” then
set letter_tracks to (every file track of this_playlist whose name starts with this_letter)
end if

if tag is “Artist” then
set letter_tracks to (every file track of this_playlist whose artist starts with this_letter)
end if

if tag is “Album” then
set letter_tracks to (every file track of this_playlist whose album starts with this_letter)
end if

set number_tracks to (number of items of letter_tracks)
if number_tracks > 0 then
set this_track to item (random number from 1 to number_tracks) of letter_tracks
set end of playlist_tracks to (location of this_track)
end if
end repeat

set new_playlist to (make new playlist)
set name of new_playlist to (header & playlist_name)
repeat with this_track in playlist_tracks
add this_track to new_playlist
end repeat

end tell

cheers for that. I know there are loads of artists beginning with O (Our Lady Peace certainly takes me back a few years!). I definitely need to expand my music collection by the sound of things! I’m sure I’ve got an Our Lady Peace album somewhere, just a case of digging it out I guess! If you have any other suggestions of novel ways to make up playlists I’d love to hear them. I’ve started at A again but have decided to go for different artists this time around so I may well do a list of these when I get to the end.

Monkey.

If you like, I can write an Applescript to do just this, it would actually be really pretty easy. Randomly selecting an artist whose name begins with a letter is easy enough, putting a repeat loop around that wouldn’t take more than about 5 minutes. Only songs from a particular playlist? Of course.

Good idea, hope it catches on. And I really should iMix my playlists some day. As a taster, my driving playlist includes Anberlin – Autobahn; RHCP – Can’t Stop; 12 Stones – Crash; New Found Glory – Head On Collision: you get the idea. lol.

P

p.s. there’s loads of artists starting with O! O-Zone, Olivia Newton-John, Oasis, OPM, Our Lady Peace, Outlandish, and more! X has Xzibit, Y has Yellowcard and more…you should acquire some more music!