[Philmco]

Let's just say for a moment that you're going to have a party and not use your own custom "party playlist."
Party shuffle gives you access to a max of 100 songs and will you play around with the order of what it gave you, will let you delete a song, but won't let you access the library to add a desired song. No one appreciates the wisdom of the shuffle gods more than I, but I wonder what's the point of a "Party Shuffle" vs. just plain old shuffle?? A feature I would love to see, one that works out of the main library is for times when I don't want to creat a playlist, but still want to choose certain tracks in order. Like a "next up" or on deck button. You could choose however many songs you wanted, without interupting what's currently playing, and then whenever the amount of songs you chose played through, itunes would just go back to random picks.

[mdawson]

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I just don't get the point of party shuffle

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Based on your post you really do not understand the purpose and function of Party Shuffle.

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Let's just say for a moment that you're going to have a party and not use your own custom "party playlist."

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Well it would be safe to say that most people that go through the trouble of setting up their own playlists has the intent of actually using them.

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Party shuffle gives you access to a max of 100 songs and will you play around with the order of what it gave you, will let you delete a song, but won't let you access the library to add a desired song.

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The first statement is completely false, but I will chalk it up to ignorance as to how Party Shuffle actually operates. Party Shuffle allows you to display up to a maximum of 100 recently played and upcoming songs in the order that its random selection engine chose those songs from the playlist that the user has selected as the source. Yes, you have the freedom to remove songs from the upcoming song list, but there is no legitimate reason to allow you select songs from you Library because that is not the purpose of Party Shuffle.

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No one appreciates the wisdom of the shuffle gods more than I, but I wonder what's the point of a "Party Shuffle" vs. just plain old shuffle??

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Party Shuffle does not operate the same way the standard shuffle works. In order to use the standard shuffle feature you have to be playing music directly from a playlist or your music library. Shuffle will shuffle by song, album or grouping depending on how your preferences are set. I do not play music from within playlists for extended periods, but it is safe to assume that shuffling in iTunes works just as it does on an iPod. Therefore, songs are randomly selected without replacement; once a song has been randomly selected and played it cannot be selected again. When a playlist is exhausted, iTunes next step depends on whether repeating is enabled or notif repeat is disabled, iTunes will stop playing music after the last song is played, but if it is enabled a new random play order will begin.
Party Shuffle operates more like a radio station with a large librarywell a pre-consolidation radio station in the days when the station managers did not have some national conglomerate forcing them to play the same 10 to 20 songs ad nauseam. Using the playlist selected by the user as the Party Shuffle Source, songs are selected at random with replacement. As an added rule, replacement to the selection bin does not occur until a song no longer appears in the recently played and upcoming songs lists about the current selection. Repeat functionality does not play into the Party Shuffle feature because the selection bin is continuously replenished and therefore a single track may be played a number of times before every song in the selected playlist is selected. Again, I bring up the radio station analogy as a any time, the songs in rotation only make up a small percentage of the stations actually library.

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A feature I would love to see, one that works out of the main library is for times when I don't want to creat a playlist, but still want to choose certain tracks in order. Like a "next up" or on deck button. You could choose however many songs you wanted, without interupting what's currently playing, and then whenever the amount of songs you chose played through, itunes would just go back to random picks.

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What you are asking for is unrealistic. Computers are not people and therefore cannot change selection modes on the fly without human intervention. Either you let iTunes automatically play songs in random or sequential order, or you babysit the software and choose the next track to play manually. I doubt any digital music manager has the type of functionality you are asking for because ultimately, there is no demand for it. You are trying to play DJ with software that is designed to be the DJ.
As to creating playlists on the fly, there is nothing stopping you from making a temporary playlist, placing the songs you wish to hear in the playlist in the order you want, playing it either in random or sequential order, the deleting it once it has served its purpose. Also, as long as the music is playing in sequential order you can continue to add songs to the playlist without interrupting playback; the added songs will automatically be added to the end of the list. You can even change the order of songs in that playlist around, including the song currently playing.
In all, instead of letting iTunes do it job, you seem to want to do all of the work. That is what two Technics SL1200s and a mixer are for. iTunes was designed as a fire and forget system where the user has control over the playlists, not as the virtual equivalent of a DJ booth.

[Philmco]

I'm sure you didn't mean to be so arrogant and condescending with your very lengthy reply. Seems like you went to a great effort to be insulting and yet didn't bother to fully read my questions or comprehend what I'm talking about. I'll try to respond without the same attitude.
To answer your last comment first:

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In all, instead of letting iTunes do it job...

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What exactly is iTunes job, if not as a music management tool? I never said anything that remotely suggested the need for two turntables and a mixer or playing DJ at all.
Also, at the end of the day, when we are talking about the listening experience and utilizing the music in our itunes library, whether via playlist or entire collection, there really is a barely discerneable difference between regular shuffle & party shuffle.

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Well it would be safe to say that most people that go through the trouble of setting up their own playlists has the intent of actually using them.

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Wow. That's profound. In actuality, playlists grow stale or may simply not be relevant to a current mood. Also, I specifically stated that there are times when I don't want to go through the trouble of creating a new playlist. The feature I suggested adding to regular shuffle, which you suggest is unrealistic, is nothing more than adding a "live que" so you can actually fire and forget as you say.
I would bet that any basic programmer could add this function and it would be more useable and useful than the so called "Party Shuffle."
My iTunes library consists of over 20,000 songs. When I want a playlist or a specific artist, it's an easy choice, but I find that 90% of the time, I listen with shuffle play on. Sometimes you want to throw a couple of specific tracks in without the disruption of having to babysit the computer while selecting these tracks.
Hey, if you like party shuffle, more power to you, but I don't get the point. As for the feature I'd like to see, it's just another functon that I think some would find useful.
Thanks so much for your insight and help.

[Philmco]

Thank you Kirk McElhearn.
All I'm looking for is here: http://playlistmag.c...ylist/index.php
Thanks to this insightful article, I now get it, I guess I'd just like the same dynamic features in just the regular shuffle, but that's probably my laziness. In order to utilize the talked about features fully, you have to operate with two separate iTunes windows open, a minor adjustment to make, but completely useful now.

[ballistik]

Yeah, some ppl can be pretty rude and condescending on here. Don't let them get to you. We're not all judgmental bastards, but the one thing we DO have in common is that we LOVE macs (and if not, why are you reading this?) lol.
Have fun with party shuffle!
And for christ sakes, ppl... calm down!!! This is supposed to be a helpful forum, not a place to come and vent and be all nasty and arrogant and rude. We don't want to be like WINDOWS/PC users, after all..
That is all...
-B-