iTunes Song Survivor

Here’s a diversion I came up with for having some fun with your iTunes music library. One statistic that iTunes tracks for the songs in your library is ‘play count’, and it’s used in creating some smart playlists such as the ‘Top 25 Most Played’ list.

I’ve used it to create a different smart playlist called ‘Never Played’ (set ‘play count’ is 0, live updating = on). It gives me a list of all the songs in my library that have never been played, that automatically shrinks as soon as one of the songs in the list has been played. With that, you’re ready to play iTunes Song Survivor. Turn ‘shuffle’ on, so that iTunes plays songs in random order, and listen to your ‘Never Played’ list. One by one, your list will shrink. Which song will be last?
Of the 5,235 songs in my iTunes library, 1,754 have never been played. That’s 4.4 days worth of rarely heard cuts here on my own digital juke (currently playing ‘Goodnight Irene’ by James Booker’). I played iTunes Song Survivor once before, and found a silver lining in the corruption of my library file a few months back in that I got to start the game all over again. Stay tuned for word of the final song survivor to be announced here whenever that happens.

4/23/05 – Update – 300 Songs to go! Currently playing, “Down at the Laundrymat” from Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie by Black Randy & the Metrosquad.