# Smart playlists for music

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800>\
**Category:** Feature Suggestions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2015, 8:55am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800 "2015-06-22T08:55:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ahell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Ahell](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Ahell)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:55am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/1 "2015-06-22T08:55:02Z")

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Would it be possible to add smart playlists for music? If I e.g. make a playlist of all albums in the "Cool jazz" genre, it would be fantastic it it updated automatically when I add a new album in that genre to Plex.

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**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 11:57am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/2 "2015-06-22T11:57:05Z")

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1. navigate to your music library

2. set the view mode to 'album', do not click on any album!

3. open the left action bar

4. 'new Filter', select 'cool jazz'

5. click on 'Add to playlist' (the icon in the left action bar)

6. name your playlist

go into 'Playlists'

look at the icon of your new playlist. if you see a 'cog' icon on top of it, you have a 'smart' playlist

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**Author:** ![Luc4Plex](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/luc4plex/32/7590_2.png) [@Luc4Plex](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Luc4Plex)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/3 "2016-11-28T19:58:39Z")

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So now, would it be possible to add smart playlists for music based on Genre and Stars? e.g. If I make a playlist that will include only 4 and 5 starts tracks on all albums in the “Christmas” genre.

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**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/4 "2016-11-28T20:07:04Z")

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> @Luc4Plex said:  
> So now, would it be possible to add smart playlists for music based on Genre and Stars? e.g. If I make a playlist that will include only 4 and 5 starts tracks on all albums in the “Christmas” genre.

Unfortunately not.  
Genre is only available for Albums and Artists.  
But the ‘star’ rating is per track.  
These two cannot be combined.

You could make a playlist with all christmas albums, but not exclude certain songs from it.

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**Author:** ![beckfield](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/beckfield/32/7227_2.png) [@beckfield](https://forums.plex.tv/u/beckfield)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/5 "2016-11-28T20:17:04Z")

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Forgive me for being a little opportunistic, but this is a perfect opportunity to encourage people to vote for Plex to pay attention to [track-level genres](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/160854/music-tracks-need-genre "track-level genres"). If you agree, please add your vote by clicking ‘Like’ on the first post in that thread.

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**Author:** ![Luc4Plex](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/luc4plex/32/7590_2.png) [@Luc4Plex](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Luc4Plex)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/6 "2016-11-28T21:29:20Z")

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Hi all,

@OttoKerner: Thank for your quick answer. For now, my trick is :

- Click on an album,
- Click on the “select” (uncheck the checked box icon on the left)
- Select all tracks for this album
- Click on “Modify” (pen icon on the left) and write “Christmas” onto the “Mood” field.
- Save changes.

But honestly, “Genres” is already defined in every music files (ID3 album’s tracks tags) and I suggest this field should also be accessible in “Tracks view mode”.

@Beckfield : I already vote a like to this post but thank for the opportunistic suggestion, it may inform other forum’s users about this request. 🙂

Cheers and happy Christmas’ shopping

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**Author:** ![b3m3](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/b3m3/32/10973_2.png) [@b3m3](https://forums.plex.tv/u/b3m3)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/7 "2016-11-29T06:48:14Z")

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smart playlists does not only consist of genre.  
More important than genre would be **really smart playlists** like they are available in iTunes or others.

examples are:

- last (50) tracks played
- last (100) tracks added
- (100) most played tracks

and of course what @OttoKerner said:

- tracks with more then 4 Stars
- tracks with 5 stars and added last year
- …

these list would be smart and if they can be synced for local playback you’re ready to go, even if you have no internet access.  
Please **like the first post** to vote for this!

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**Author:** ![fishpatrol](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/fishpatrol/32/2017_2.png) [@fishpatrol](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fishpatrol)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/8 "2016-11-30T18:38:02Z")

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In addition, the Plex server needs to rescan ID3 tags so that changes made to song files (genre, stars, other tags) are picked up. It would be great if one could easily edit ID3 tags within Plex, too, instead of doing it in iTunes.

For me, Christmas is a time when smart playlists are particularly useful. Give me a playlist of 50 songs that I haven’t played in the last 6 months with the genre “Christmas” that have 4 or more stars. As songs get played, the playlist refreshes so that I don’t hear repeats and get to hear a broader range of my Christmas music.

Maybe I’d like another playlist of “traditional” instrumental Christmas music. I like Vince Guaraldi very much, but in this playlist I don’t want him playing side by side with Celtic selections. This is easy to do by adding keywords in the Comments tag, but it takes some heavy lifting to force Plex to pick up these changes.

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**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/9 "2021-03-27T23:37:51Z")

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Early 2021 clean-up: implemented (custom filter → smart playlist)

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**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-for-music/106800/10 "2021-06-10T00:58:42Z")

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