My most useful playlist recipe

Back in the dim dark mists of time (probably back in the iPod days), Apple introduced the idea of Smart Playlists. The basic concept is simple — you set some rules and a playlist is created (and kept updated) and kept synced across your devices.

Neat, right?

Ok sure, but can you think of an actual use for it? Playlists are, for the most part, something that you build for a vibe, for a mood, or even for an event. They require the magic ingredient, which is taste. Robots, for the most part, are terrible at taste.

But you are not bad at taste. Your taste is great and I bet I know who it appeals to. You.

Over the years, whenever I'm on an Apple device and a song comes on that I really like, then I hit the favourite button (it's a little star on most devices). This keeps track of the songs that I really dig, even if they're on compilations, shared playlists, or Apple Music stations.

Over time, that's created a rather large corpus of songs that I've gone to the effort of noting that I like. So what do I do with that? I've created a Smart Playlist that has some very simple rules.

• I like it

• I haven't played it in the past x days

Screenshot of the Apple Music Smart Playlist recipe that shows me only songs that are in my favourites that I have not played in the past 90 days.

The result is that whenever I don't know what I want to listen to, I can drag up that playlist and know that past me is going to spin up some hits.