If you're of one age, you may have fond memories of mixtapes. If you're a bit younger, you probably have enjoyed making or receiving a mix CD or two in your day. In the digital age, the equivalent of both is the playlist, a custom created and ordered group of songs.
Besides just creating custom mixes, though, iTunes playlists can be used for many more things:
- burning CDs
- syncing multiple iPods to the same computer
- optimizing the storage space on devices with low capacity
- letting iTunes show you great combinations of songs.
Before you get to the advanced topics, though, you need to know the basics of creating a playlist in iTunes.
To make a playlist, open iTunes. In iTunes 11, either click the Playlist button at the top of the window or turn on the sidebar (View -> Show Sidebar). In earlier versions, you can skip these steps--the sidebar is already visible.
No matter what version you're running, the next step is to look for the + icon in the bottom left corner of the window. Click it. In the window that pops up, choose New Playlist. A new playlist will appear in the left-hand column in iTunes. It will be called Playlist (or Playlist 2, Playlist 3, etc.) and will be empty.
