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Trick for Fun : iTunes Play Count

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Being iTunes user, especially if you have a mountain of songs in hand, it's usual to filter out all of them by sorting the Play Count in descending order.

In this case, a song with the most Play Count will appear on the top of the lists. You can trick iTunes so that your favorite song will appear on the first rank which of course has the most counts.

How to Increase Play Count Drastically

First of all, select your favorite song. After that, call up the contextual menu (Control-Click) and choose Get Info. Then, click on the Options tab.

Inside here, I believe you could see the checkboxes labelled Start Time and Stop Time. This song will start from the time specified by Start Time and end at the time specified by Stop Time.

Play Count will be increased when the song is finished playing. Why don't we try to change the Start Time to certain value so that the song will end in a split second after it's started?

For example, if the Stop Time is 4:03.644, set the Start Time to 4:03.643. Now, you could sit back and watch the Play Count dancing in front of your eyes.

P.S.

Don't forget to turn on the Repeat button for one song.

Categories: Audio, Tips and Tricks
Tags: iTunes

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18 Comments

NichM 

I also remember using an Applescript to do this... However this way works too. Well there isn't much point of it, unless you want to impress your friends so either way works :D

Wendy 



When I showed this to my friends, they responded, "Omg~ Are you crazy?" without knowing the fact that I use a simple trick. lol

twood 

i'll try this. thanks

Michael 

I won't try this, it's stupid.

if the song truly IS a favorite, it will be at the top already. 

just my $0.02

-m-

Dennis 

You saved my day man!! There is a point for this and it´s not stupid. 
When you find a better quality version of your favorite track and replace the old version, the track count is 0. 
This is very irritating when you make smart playlists based on different tags, e.g play count. 

Thank you for the tip.

Mirabelle 

Thanks you very much that's very smart! I've been looking for a way to increase the play count on some of my songs for a long time!

IgorChete 

I know this trick, but i do something way faster and more efficient that this, i hack the play count using a program called "Cheat Engine". It's quite easy and fast, and witht hat program you can edit the play count number into ANY number you want. I'm doing that to cheat Audioscrobbler and sites like Last.fm

Totally 

Finding a better quality version and then wanting to keep play count is great reason to use this!

Not anonymous 

I think this is a good idea, not stupid, as somebody commented simpy becaues sometimes you only have the playlist on for a short time and through time the variety seems to narrow.  In fact, zen players have a play least played option.  I always liked that.  But this helps especially if you still want a random order in your favorite playlists.

Donald Gripper 

i never use playcount.... ever
seems a little pointless
but a good idea nevertheless

Mickey 

This is so funny. It seems like Lastfm isn't picking the counts up, though.

Curt 

Alternatively just change the play count in the iTunes Music Library xml file? I'm a PC user though, so I'm not sure whether mac users have access to that. For me its in the 'Music/iTunes' directory.

Sarah 

Thank you so much, man! It's a brilliant idea.

Mikaela 

i already knew how to do this but i never thought of putting the start time that close to the end......for all you people who think its stupid, the reason I use it is cause like at times when i have to transfer my iTunes the play count doesn't come with it. I like to keep the play count so I know how many time ive listened to a song so i use this method but im not cheating!!

muhappe 

I just wanted to know what triggers a play count and it seems it is playing the end of the song... Hm. I am using the play count to create my own "recently added" (play count=0, added within the last two months), but since I am skipping sometimes I will have to change to skip count=0 I guess. Thanks.

Out of curiosity though: why do you not use the rating system instead of play count?

Nat 

Thank you so much for this !!  I recently got a new laptop and the low play count is REALLY annoying !!

Xavier 

Soooo much help :D I've been sitting here doing ti the long way :L

Xavier 

Soooo much help :D I've been sitting here doing it the long way :L

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