iTunes Song Options Without Opening iTunes
February 21, 2011 9:58 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for an Apple script or (preferably) Automator or Quicksilver action that will allow me to set a song to "Skip When Shuffling" while I'm listening to it on iTunes, so I can mark songs I don't want to hear when they come up without switching windows.
Response by poster: tomswift, the point is that I have done a fair amount of pruning, including smart playlists, but if something comes up that I've missed I want to be able to mark it on the fly.
posted by moviehawk at 10:11 AM on February 21, 2011
posted by moviehawk at 10:11 AM on February 21, 2011
Couldn't you just create a playlist that doesn't include those songs?
I'm guessing his method of discovering these songs is to listen to them and hear that they're unsuitable, and he wants to mark them before they end and he stops thinking about them. If he already had a list of all these songs, it would be easy to do that, yes.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:14 AM on February 21, 2011
I'm guessing his method of discovering these songs is to listen to them and hear that they're unsuitable, and he wants to mark them before they end and he stops thinking about them. If he already had a list of all these songs, it would be easy to do that, yes.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:14 AM on February 21, 2011
There are definitely ways to rate a song without switching windows-- I once used Sizzling Keys for that. You could rate songs one star and set your playlist to only include "2-star and up" songs, with live updating.
(This is assuming that you haven't already done comprehensive ratings, and would therefore not want to overwrite them.)
Alternatively, you just skip the song, and set your smart playlist to have a requirement, "Not skipped in the past X days."
posted by supercres at 10:15 AM on February 21, 2011
(This is assuming that you haven't already done comprehensive ratings, and would therefore not want to overwrite them.)
Alternatively, you just skip the song, and set your smart playlist to have a requirement, "Not skipped in the past X days."
posted by supercres at 10:15 AM on February 21, 2011
I'm trying to build an Automator script to do this. I'm a professional programmer, but have never used Automator before. Let's see how successful I am.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:17 AM on February 21, 2011
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:17 AM on February 21, 2011
Ok, my automator script works. Double-clicking it while a song is playing marks the song to "skip while shuffling". It does not also skip to the next song, but that would be easy to add. How would you like me to send you this file?
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:20 AM on February 21, 2011
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:20 AM on February 21, 2011
Response by poster: supercres, rating it as one star and keeping a live-updating playlist that I later go back and do the necessary marking on could work.
Unfortunately, skipping the song provides different results based on when in the song you skip. Sometimes it's counted, sometimes not.
tylerkaraszewski, please come back and let us know how you do!
posted by moviehawk at 10:23 AM on February 21, 2011
Unfortunately, skipping the song provides different results based on when in the song you skip. Sometimes it's counted, sometimes not.
tylerkaraszewski, please come back and let us know how you do!
posted by moviehawk at 10:23 AM on February 21, 2011
Response by poster: How would you like me to send you this file?
If you can get it to also skip, why not put it on a popular sharing site like Dropbox so the world can have it?
posted by moviehawk at 10:24 AM on February 21, 2011
If you can get it to also skip, why not put it on a popular sharing site like Dropbox so the world can have it?
posted by moviehawk at 10:24 AM on February 21, 2011
Ok, I figured out how to add a system-wide keyboard shortcut for it, too. Let me see if I can export it in some usable way. I'll add skipping the currently playing song after marking it, as well.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:32 AM on February 21, 2011
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:32 AM on February 21, 2011
Best answer: Ok, here, I think this works.
First, download this file, and unzip it. Move the unzipped file to the following folder:
/Users/[Your Name]/Library/Services/
If there is no "Services" inside of "Library", create a new folder with that name.
Once that's there, you should be able to click the "Application" menu in any application (this is just the name of the currently running application in the top left corner of your screen). From there select "services" and you should see "Skip Current Song When Shuffling". clicking this will mark the currently playing song as "skip when shuffling" and skip to the next song. Note that you can do this from any application, not just iTunes.
How to add a keyboard shortcut for this:
Open "System Preferences" and go to "Keyboard".
Select the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab.
Click the "+" icon.
For "Application" select "All Applications".
For "Menu Title" type "Skip Current Song When Shuffling" *exactly* the same way as it appears in the services menu.
For "Keyboard Shortcut" press the shortcut key combination you want to use (I tested with control+option+7, you should be able to use anything).
Click "add".
It should work now. Try out your keyboard shortcut.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:50 AM on February 21, 2011
First, download this file, and unzip it. Move the unzipped file to the following folder:
/Users/[Your Name]/Library/Services/
If there is no "Services" inside of "Library", create a new folder with that name.
Once that's there, you should be able to click the "Application" menu in any application (this is just the name of the currently running application in the top left corner of your screen). From there select "services" and you should see "Skip Current Song When Shuffling". clicking this will mark the currently playing song as "skip when shuffling" and skip to the next song. Note that you can do this from any application, not just iTunes.
How to add a keyboard shortcut for this:
Open "System Preferences" and go to "Keyboard".
Select the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab.
Click the "+" icon.
For "Application" select "All Applications".
For "Menu Title" type "Skip Current Song When Shuffling" *exactly* the same way as it appears in the services menu.
For "Keyboard Shortcut" press the shortcut key combination you want to use (I tested with control+option+7, you should be able to use anything).
Click "add".
It should work now. Try out your keyboard shortcut.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 10:50 AM on February 21, 2011
Response by poster: It didn't show up in my Services menu(s), and when I opened the workflow in Automator it says:
"The Action Get the Current Song could not be loaded because the application iTunes is the wrong version. Try upgrading the application to version 4.6 or later"
and
"The Action Set Options of iTunes Songs could not be loaded because the application iTunes is the wrong version. Try upgrading the application to version 7.0 or later"
I find this supremely odd because I'm using iTunes 10
posted by moviehawk at 11:08 AM on February 21, 2011
"The Action Get the Current Song could not be loaded because the application iTunes is the wrong version. Try upgrading the application to version 4.6 or later"
and
"The Action Set Options of iTunes Songs could not be loaded because the application iTunes is the wrong version. Try upgrading the application to version 7.0 or later"
I find this supremely odd because I'm using iTunes 10
posted by moviehawk at 11:08 AM on February 21, 2011
Response by poster: Sorry...I restarted and it shows up, but grayed out.
posted by moviehawk at 11:11 AM on February 21, 2011
posted by moviehawk at 11:11 AM on February 21, 2011
I built this script on OS X 10.6.6 with iTunes 10.1.2 and Automator 2.1.1. Are any of those things older on your computer?
I could also tell you how to recreate the script by hand on your machine and see if it works. It probably does require OS X 10.6, though.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:11 AM on February 21, 2011
I could also tell you how to recreate the script by hand on your machine and see if it works. It probably does require OS X 10.6, though.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:11 AM on February 21, 2011
Response by poster: I'm on Leopard, not Snow Leopard. Boo!
posted by moviehawk at 11:17 AM on February 21, 2011
posted by moviehawk at 11:17 AM on February 21, 2011
Response by poster: But your head start inspired me to write a custom Apple Script.
tell application "iTunes"
if player state is not stopped then
set cur_track to current track
try
set shufflable of cur_track to false
end try
end if
end tell
tell application "iTunes"
next track
end tell
Win! Thanks for getting it started.
posted by moviehawk at 11:22 AM on February 21, 2011
tell application "iTunes"
if player state is not stopped then
set cur_track to current track
try
set shufflable of cur_track to false
end try
end if
end tell
tell application "iTunes"
next track
end tell
Win! Thanks for getting it started.
posted by moviehawk at 11:22 AM on February 21, 2011
I can try one more thing. It seems that Automator's services require 10.6, but maybe it will still work if I make it an application? The ability to modify iTunes song options directly might also be new in AUtomator for 10.6, too, though.
Here's a .app version of the same thing. Double-clicking that should mark the file to skip when shuffling and then skip to the next song. I don't guarantee it works on 10.5 either, but it's worth a try.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:25 AM on February 21, 2011
Here's a .app version of the same thing. Double-clicking that should mark the file to skip when shuffling and then skip to the next song. I don't guarantee it works on 10.5 either, but it's worth a try.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:25 AM on February 21, 2011
Ah, I see you solved the problem while I was doing that. Good work. :)
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:26 AM on February 21, 2011
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 11:26 AM on February 21, 2011
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posted by tomswift at 10:06 AM on February 21, 2011