I have written an application that analyses listening patterns in iTunes and generates track ratings automatically. This is particularly useful when using Party Shuffle. The application awards a high score to tracks that are listened to frequently, and penalises tracks that are skipped frequently.
It uses the formula:
rating = (100 * ( (play frequency – lower) / (upper – lower) ) – skips per month * 5
Where upper is the main play frequency + 2 standard deviations, and lower is the mean play frequency – 2 standard deviations
Download AutoRate 1.0 here
Thank you for writing this application. I, for one, do not have time to rate 7000+ songs in my collection. Hopefully, this application will ease the task of rating my songs or eliminate the task completely!
Also, I have blogged about this article on my site: http://appletvsource.com.
Thanks again.
Luck
It Sounds cool but i’ve rated alot of my songs already. I would use it if it didnt overwrite existing ratings.
Lando,
Create a smart playlist of unrated songs and run AutoRate on just that playlist. Simple as that.
Neat app and very fast. My music library has about 2500 tracks, probably 80-90% were unrated. It would be nice to have a dialog pop up when you run AutoRate noting that it will override existing ratings and explaining how to create a smart playlist so it will only rate unrated songs. Nicer yet if you could tell it not to change ratings.
Great application, I need a bit of help though. I’m trying to follow the instructions for the Rate Now.scpt but having trouble for the ‘crontab -e’ part. It says ‘no crontab for williamsun – using an empty one’ and when I try to type the next step, it doesn’t allow me. Any ideas?
Is there a version of this for iTunes for Windows? It sounds really cool.
Very neat, thanks!
Now, how about iPhoto support in the next version of AutoRate? For all us por— I mean, photographers here… ;)
It could rate the photos based on how long you watch them (and how often, of course…)
Hi, William.
That’s my mistake – I should’ve given more detailed instructions. The editor invoked with crontab -e is vi, which requires you to enter ‘insert’ mode by pressing ‘i’ before you start typing any text. So, just press ‘i’ to start entering that line, then proceed as normal.
For all those who have suggested a Windows version – it’s in the works. It looks like Windows’ iTunes version is javascriptable, so it’ll probably be in the form of a .js script that you run. Nothing too fancy, I’m afraid, but it’ll do the job.
Keep an eye out over the next week or so.
Great great great! :)
I can’t seem to get the cron job to run. I changed the time to 9PM (21) since I am using a MacBook. Should I see the app run when the cron job runs?
Also, how could I edit the script so that it runs it on “Music” instead of “Entire Library?”
Got the cron job working.
In addition to telling the app to run on the “Music” library, is there also any way to tell the app to run in the background instead of a visible window?
Ah, well done, Jarad. I’m just adding to the Rate Now script the ability to select a playlist – while I’m at it, I’m adding a couple features to AutoRate.
Give me a couple minutes, I’ll release a script that does all those things =)
Waiting patiently…
Then wait no more… Head over to http://atastypixel.com/blog/software/autorate and grab v1.2. Then edit Rate Now.scpt and set the playlist/hide options.
Awesome. Keep up the good work, bro.
Awesome app. Worked on one MacPro with 3500 songs flawlessly, however on a G5 i get an “applescript event timed out” error. Could it be a (much) larger library size causing this? Is there a limit to the size of the iTunes library that your app will work with?
Hi, Jeremy – Yes, I’m afraid there is a limit. I’ve had reports from other users that somewhere around 23,000 tracks causes problems. The timeout happens while asking iTunes for the contents of the playlist. I’ve just looked into it further, and it turns out there’s a way to extend the timeout. Give me a little while and I’ll release an update.
Thank you!
Thank you not only for this nice little app, but more importantly for releasing its source. As a Mac and Linux user, I’ve noticed that growth in the Mac developer community is really slow because any person with Xcode and a little Cocoa app asks for $20 for their closed-source “shareware.” You set a really good example for the kind of work the Mac community needs to grow.
I just wanted to say how much I love this app. This is the kind of behind the scenes learning that makes computers useful. I don’t have time to rate each song in relation to every other song, especially when I’d much rather be listening to it. Plus I may really like a song when I first buy it, but then after six months get sick of it, only to find six months later I really like it. The whole point of a large library of songs is to be surprised with what you already like.
Thanks!
I’m just subscribing to these comments so I’ll be notified when a windows version gets released. Thanks for this great app.
Wow. Great app, it seems. Hopefully that windows version doesn’t wrack your brain too hard ;)
i don’t understand how to install auto rate. maybe its because im a girl…or because im from germany… or because im too stupid. well. i dont now. could someone explain it to me ?
:D
Thanks for a great app! Any ideas on how to have this running in the background?