A note about skip counts in iTunes

Here’s another follow-up to my ear­lier post about my quest for the ideal smart playlist.

If you use “Skip count” as a cri­te­ria for a smart playlist in iTunes be aware that an actual skip in iTunes is only reg­is­tered when you advance to another track within the first 2–20 sec­onds of the cur­rently play­ing track¹. So, if after 20 sec­onds you get tired of a song and decide to move on, it won’t count as a skip. And this also applies if you advance to another track before the 2 sec­ond mark. Per­son­ally, I think 20 sec­onds is too short.

I think most peo­ple can eas­ily iden­tify a song within the first cou­ple of sec­onds, but I think the time it takes to judge whether you want to lis­ten to the whole song could take longer than 20 lim­i­ta­tion. I think up to 60 sec­onds is more rea­son­able, but that’s just me.

Regard­less, now that I know this I’ve been using it to my advan­tage and mak­ing sure I make my judge­ment call early in a track if I really want it to count as a skip.

¹ I haven’t timed this exactly so 20 sec­onds may not be entirely accu­rate, but it def­i­nitely won’t reg­is­ter until after 2 seconds.