Create Your Own Playlists
A playlist is your customized collection of audio files. You can create as many playlists as you like, and you can arrange the songs in any order you prefer by dragging selections up or down in the list. You create playlists so you can play custom collections of songs on your computer, download them to a portable MP3 player, or burn them onto CDs.When you create a new playlist, iTunes assumes you'll want to change its name so it highlights the text for you. Just type to replace the existing text.

Create a new playlist and add songs to it
To add selections to the playlist from a CD
1. | Insert a CD whose songs you want to add to a custom playlist. |
2. | Click the CD icon in the Source pane to open its song list. |
3. | Drag desired selections from the "Song Name" column and drop them on your new playlist in the Source pane, as shown below. |
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To add a song to a playlist from the Library
There's another method for creating a new playlist that's even easier:
1. | In the Source pane, single-click the "Library" icon to display your entire Library collection in the "Song Name" column. |
2. | Select all the songs you want from the "Song Name" column (see how to make multiple selections below).Note: |
3. | From the File menu, select "New Playlist From Selection." iTunes automatically creates the playlist and adds the selected songs to it. |
You can drag multiple selections all at once to a playlist:
- To make a contiguous selection of songs (songs that are next to each other in the list), Shift-click the song names.Or single-click on one song, then Shift-click on another song: all songs between the two clicks will be selected.
- To make a non-contiguous selection of songs (songs that are not next to each other in the list), click a song, then Command-click additional song names you want to add to the selection.
This example shows a non-contiguous selection of songs.[View full size image]

Smart Playlists
Smart Playlists are collections of songs that are generated automatically when imported songs meet certain conditions that you define. iTunes provides several Smart Playlists (indicated by the gear symbols) in the Source pane: '60s Music, '90s Music, Top Rated, Recently Played, and Top 25 Most Played. You can create new Smart Playlists that meet other conditions, such as your favorite Hawaiian songs, flamenco music, or certain artists.Smart Playlists display a gear symbol.

To create a new Smart Playlist
1. | From the File menu, choose "New Smart Playlist…." Or Option-click the "New Playlist" buttonthe "plus" symbol on the button changes to a "gear" symbol (Smart Playlist) when you press the Option key.Press the Option key to change the "Play-list" button to a "Smart Playlist" button.![]() |
2. | In the Smart Playlist window that appears (shown below), use the menus and text fields to set conditions for the new Smart Playlist. |
3. | Click OK. |
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