I use Playlist inclusion extensively to create really smart Smart Playlists. An example usecase: I add all Christmas music to a Christmas playlist, then exclude this playlist from a smart “Music to Shuffle” playlist.
Huh, that is a clever approach.
1 Like
I was just about to post this same feature request when I found this thread that is over 2 years old! I completely agree and really want to revive this feature request. I am a Lifetime Plex Pass holder and use Plex for all of my video needs (movies, tv, live tv/dvr), but can’t fully switch over to Plex for music until it can incorporate better playlist support.
The OP has a good example Use Case. Another basic use case would be something like:
Playlist 1 = “90’s Rock Favorites”
Playlist 2 = “90’s Pop Favorites”
Playlist 3 = “90’s Hip Hop Favorites”
Playist 4 = PL1 + PL2 + PL3 (“All 90’s Favorites”)
And there are a million other use cases, because playlist aggregation makes smart playlists a powerful tool and almost all playlist aggregation can be performed using simple “Playlist” “is” or “Playlist” “is not”, where the “is” or “is not” simply includes or excludes a track based on it’s inclusion in the named playlist. (I would also love to see something like “Playlist” “[not ]contains” in combination with criteria conditionals to make it super powerful/practical and to perform name matches like "Playlist contains “90’s” AND “Favorites”, but I would settled for simple “is” “is not”.)
This and a couple of other features are preventing me from moving away from my current music software solution. Please add!!
Other must-haves before I can switch to Plex for music are
adding track genre capabilities:
and better local tag support:
1 Like
Moving a comparable request from Create Custom Filter using "Playlist" to here.
Getting playlist for music and movies to the selection criteria would be great
This would be amazing. It would be great to have
Playlist Dad
Playlist Mom
Playist Kid 1
Playist Kid 2
Playlist Family (Dad + Mom + Kid 1 + Kid 2)
1 Like
I’m curious for why this request isn’t gathering more votes - maybe the title is a little too generic? I would think there’s more demand for those who seriously use Plex for bigger music collections.
I have a “Best of Soundtracks” playlist (> 4 star rating from a single library), but some songs on these soundtracks are pop songs. I want to filter out any song I added to a manual “pop” playlist. Excluding songs found in another playlist (making it a filter).
Let me know if there’s anything we can do to raise the chances of this happening (would assign more votes if I could, would pay for it…).
2 Likes
This feature would be amazing to have, I have recently played around with smart playlists and this is missing for me!
I already have a playlist for Songs I regularly listen to and would like to create Playlists by Genre based on that first playlist.
My Playlist (manually created)
- Rap = My Playlist + Album Genre = Rap
- House = My Playlist + Album Genre = House
- Hard Rock = My Playlist + Album Genre = Hard Rock
I also looked around in the SQLite Database of Plex and would also love being able to use a SQL query in Advanced Search. The possibilities are endless here!
I am new to Plex music, however not new to managing large music libraries. Is there a way that a user can create "Multi-level Smart Playlists? 
Coming in from Apple Music (formerly Itunes), a user could create a smart playlist comprised of other smart playlists. Essentially a primary smart playlist draws tracks from sub smart playlists which are defined by specific criteria and update dynamically.
When interacting with larger libraries this is an excellent way of managing the weighting of genres in a smart playlist, acting as a sort of primary key, to keep the music fresh and balanced. Essentially a tool to create your own radio station.
None of the cloud music services can even offer this sort of granularity.
I’m more of a visual person, see the example flow below.
Example of one of my primary 35 tracks smart playlists which draws from other smart playlists from iTunes. At Christmas time I like to sprinkle in a 4 or 5 tracks holiday smart playlist.
Individual Smart Playlist Close Up. 
(As per request)
#Recently Added • 7 (tracks)
#Higher Love • 3 (tracks)
Of note — “Higher Love” is homage to an excellent Depeche Mode track of the same name, check it out. 
Mod-Edit: moved this post in the existing feature suggestion which is already covering this (in order to avoid distracting votes/attention) – though I suppose the screenshots / mockups help to better visualize what you’re looking for!
3 Likes
Not sure why this isn’t a more in-demand topic. This is especially important to those of us with large music libraries. My guess is the title is a bit misleading, hence why I couldn’t find this thread in the first place. It should be more like “Multi-Level Smart Playlists”. ugh.
I am all set up to turn the key over to Plex from Apple Music (iTunes), but it’s just not there when it comes to managing content for larger music libraries.
1 Like
I agree. I had to “hack” my iTunes smart playlists to be smarter than the Apple “limitation” Engineers that took away everything good about iTunes originally. Therefore, if Plex would simply allow me to add SMART playlists using the word CONTAINS under Genre then I could easily recreate all of my iTunes playlists. Unfortunately, Plex only allows for IS or IS NOT. Therefore, even if I import my iTunes playlists, they wouldn’t process properly since the algorithms don’t match. In other words I utilize a multi genre approach for all songs. In other words some song’s genre may include SOFT ROCK, CLASSIC ROCK while another song contains ROCK, CLASSIC ROCK. These potentially are two very different types of music which I may want in separate playlists. To claim a song has only one genre is ridiculous. Therefore to force a Smart Playlist algorithm to declare the genre (etc.) IS or IS NOT is also ridiculous. In addition, bring back “Play least skipped songs more often” etc. for each playlist, and “play higher rated songs more often” etc. Apple had this until they took away our ability to track or reset song skip counts.
Plex engineers, please update your Smart Playlists to allow for the word CONTAINS or DOES NOT CONTAIN (as a catch all) then please also allow us to carry over our iTunes playlists so we can move over to your innovative product. Something Apple wishes it was still able to create. I would like to import my iTunes playlists so I can be DONE with iTunes forever!!! The issue is the limitations with the PLEX Smart Playlists. Cheers!!!
2 Likes
Hey,
I know that this has been mentioned in a few different ways. but I would love the ability to create a smart playlist off a playlist. The filter system for smart collections or playlists would be very handy for this, and allow users to add playlists together to create a new one dedicated for them. Or in my case, using PMM, I have created playlists for MCU and all the rest. But I cannot for the life of me, figure out how to create a playlist off it (as it gets updated weekly) to a smart one that will only show the episodes and movies i have not yet watched.
I think it would be very handy and could be applied to music as well Unplayed Rock etc. (items in playlist last played greater than a month etc.)
Bump, I do this in iTunes and I’m looking to move to Plex for music.
Just an annual check-in. I am aiming to migrate my music library completely over to PLEX. As a DJ I curate very unique listening experiences, so smart playlists play an integral part of my flow. Smart playlists facilitate a sort of personalized radio station.
Below is just a simplified example playlist of what I am trying to accomplish in PLEX, and something that can be easily curated in Apple Music.
Main Smart Playlist QTY 25 Tracks
Criteria - Sub Smart Playlist 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ingredients (% Per 60 mins of listening)
Sub Smart Playlist 1 - Rock
Track Criteria - 10 tracks (40% per hour)
Track Criteria - Genre - Rock
Track Criteria - Not played in the last two months
Sub Smart Playlist 2 - Electronic
Track Criteria - 5 tracks (20% per hour)
Track Criteria - Genre - Electronic
Track Criteria - Not played in the last two months
Sub Smart Playlist 3 - Hip-Hop
Track Criteria - 3 tracks (12% per hour)
Track Criteria - Genre - Hip-Hop
Track Criteria - Not played in the last two months
Sub Smart Playlist 4 - Reggae
Track Criteria - 2 tracks (8% per hour)
Track Criteria - Genre - Reggae
Track Criteria - Not played in the last two months
Sub Smart Playlist 5 - Recently Added
Track Criteria - 5 tracks (40% per hour)
Track Criteria - Added in the last three months
Track Criteria - Not played in the last week
How would you suggest I create the playlist in Pex, if at all possible?
Creating playlists like the ones above is very important in order to manage a library of over 50,000+ tracks to keep the listening experience fresh and controlled.
My guess is this is a limitation of the way the tables are structured. It appears the Album table houses the genre, not the track table? I have tons of single tracks, remixes, and edits that don’t fit these confines.
I have also tried to visually show this a couple of years ago in a few posts above this, but I feeling maybe this was lost in translation so I thought I would try explaining it again in a more simplified approach.
Even streaming services can’t provide this sort of granularity when it comes to personalization and weighting.
4 Likes
As others have said, not sure why this isn’t getting more votes. This (and the lack of robust tag support (primarily “composer”, “grouping”, and “comments”) are what’s holding me back from dumping itunes for this. I just pulled in my music library to Plex to play with PlexAmp for a music player . . . and wow, for a large classical music library, this is just completely unworkable. I see the potential, and hopefully they get there so I can use it some day as I’d love to dump itunes, but for now looks like I’m stuck with a network share and iTunes or MediaMonkey to be able to sort and browse my library.
2 Likes
Not being able to reference other playlists in playlists is the only reason I can’t use Plex for my music collection yet 
2 Likes
Smart”er” Playlist Use Case Example: Tis’ the Season 
During the holiday season, I enjoy infusing a touch of festive spirit into “The Elixir”. I start with 3 tracks for approximately every hour of music, gradually elevating this ratio to 5 to 7 tracks per hour as the weeks unfold.
This showcases the level of detail essential in crafting an exceptionally tailored listening journey, especially for individuals with extensive music libraries.
Happy listening! 
1 Like
Yes yes yes!!! Please add this feature! I am also someone who is trying to move exclusively to Plex for my music library organization, and this is the one thing holding me back. I come from MediaMonkey that allows referencing one smart playlist into another, which is something I use all the time.
For example, I want to have one playlist that contains only 70’s songs that are rated 4 or 5 stars.
But, lots of the songs I want in that playlist are on compilation albums, and the year of the album is not in the 70’s. I’ve tagged all those songs with the genre “70’s”
So what I need is one smart playlist that references in two smart playlists: one that contains tracks from albums in the 70’s decade rated 4+ stars, and one that contains tracks with the genre “70’s” rated 4+ stars. That’s the only way to get all my 70’s songs rated 4+ stars into one playlist.
If there’s another approach that will work that I’m missing please let me know, otherwise please add this feature!!! Thanks!
-
Create an advanced filter and set it to
Match all of the following(default) -
Set the default criteria to
Track Rating>is greater than>
-
Click the advanced filter‘s context menu (3 stacked dots next to the plus button) and select
Add Group -
Set the newly created group to
Match any of the following -
Create 2 criteria in the group and set them to
Genre>is>70’sAlbum Decade>is>1970s
1 Like
Thank you Tom!! I was not aware of the “Add Group” option, great stuff!!
It would be helpful to have a filter parameter for playlists / collections that is basically “track is in [specified other playlist/collection]”
For example, if I have a playlist of Rock Music for the gym and another playlist of Electronic Music for the gym, I’d like to be able to make a third playlist for ALL Music for the gym that simply references those two playlists and updates as I add tracks to either one.
