Of folders, playlists, and hierarchies

Allow me to get all Mac 911 on you by mentioning that reader RSJ (which does not stand for Real Steve Jobs ) has a question about the finer points of playlists. The reader writes:

Is it possible to make sub-playlists? For example, I would like to have all Beatles albums under one Beatles playlist heading, instead of 10 separate listings—one for each album. In other words, is it possible to make hierarchical subcategories, in the same way you can make folders within folders in the Mac OS?

Not exactly. A playlist contains tracks rather than other playlists, though you can design a smart playlist that holds the contents of other playlists, though not the playlists as discrete elements. In other words, with the Mac OS (and Windows, if you want to be fair about it) a folder can hold another container—another folder—which, in turn, can hold another container and so on down the line. A playlist holds what is analogous to files—it holds only single media elements such as audio tracks and videos.

However, iTunes lets you create folders for its Source list. Just choose File -> New Folder and an untitled folder appears in the Source list. To organize your music, drag playlists into this folder. If you like, you can create another folder and drag it inside this folder. Into such a folder you can put playlists built around separate albums.

In your case you could create a Beatles folder, create separate playlists for each Beatles album, and then drag those playlists into the Beatles folder. There’s your hierarchy. If you want to parse it even more—you collect Beatles bootlegs, for example—you could create a Sgt. Pepper folder inside the Beatles folder, and then create playlists of the various Sgt. Pepper sessions (say the many “Strawberry Fields” takes) along with a playlist for the mono version of the official release and another for the stereo mix.

Folder structures don’t transfer to the iPod, however. When you copy a folder full of playlists to the iPod, the name of the folder appears as a playlist but none of the folders inside—all the tracks in all the playlists within that folder will appear as one long playlist.

But the iPod offers a solution. Just choose Music -> Artists -> Artist Name -> and all of that artist’s albums appear in the resulting screen.