iPhone: The Missing Manual

Playlists

A playlist is a list of songs that you've decided should go together. It can be any group of songs arranged in any order, all according to your whims. For example, if you're having a party, you can make a playlist from the current Top 40 and dance music in your music library. Some people may question your taste if you, say, alternate tracks from La Bohéme with Queen's A Night at the Opera, but hey—it's your playlist.

Playlists are especially important in the new world of iPhone, because they're the basic unit of music-loading. If you have a regular iPod, you can drag individual songs onto its icon in iTunes, but the iPhone is different. You can put music onto the iPhone only if they're in playlists.

To create a playlist, press -N (Mac) or Ctrl+N (Windows). Or choose File→New Playlist, or click the button below the Source list.

All freshly minted playlists start out with the impersonal name "Untitled Playlist." Fortunately, the renaming rectangle is open and highlighted. Just type a better name: Cardio Workout, Shoe-Shopping Tunes, Hits of the Highland Lute, or whatever you want to call it. As you add them, your playlists alphabetize themselves in the Source window.

Once you've ...