'Lessons to make your life better' is a series of very little rules to help mike life easier, quicker and generally less annoying.iTunes star rating is a perfect example of something which should be a no-brainier; however I soon found that I was rating tracks without applying any thought or logic.
I am betting that right now you are considering skipping this article and concluding that I must have way too much time on my hands to even think about this stuff - let alone write about it. But I implore you to give me the benefit of the doubt for a few seconds more.
The trouble is if, like me, you actually use the star rating you soon find the limiting factors. Firstly there are only 5 stars! and this means you have relatively little to play with when you are trying to rate 3,500+ tracks. Secondly if you rate hundreds of tunes over any period of time without a system you will soon find that you will start disagreeing with yourself.
So here is my rating system which, in part, has been developed to hep me delete the dross and promote the truly great.
* 'I never want to hear this track again as long as I live' (delete it, this track should never have been purchased let alone added to your library)
** 'I don't care if I don't hear this again for a long time' (consider deleting this track - I think of this as a sin-bin star rating)
*** 'I wouldn't mind hearing this again, not now though' (worthy of being in the library all day long)
**** 'I want to hear this again sometime real soon' (this is what I got an iPOD for in the first place to hear tracks this more often)
***** 'I am going to listen to this again' (an absolute tireless classic or the tune of the moment which you can't get enough of)
The beauty is you can always up or downgrade your star rating at any time. The point of this lesson for me is to have my iPOD full of music that at the very worse 'I wouldn't mind listening too'.
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