iTunes 12.5, currently only available with the beta version of macOS Sierra, offers a number of small changes, and one of them is a Dislike flag you can set for a track. It’s binary, just like Loved: you either dislike a track or you don’t. And if you have loved a track then dislike it, the Loved flag gets removed. If you dislike a track then love it, the Disliked flag gets removed.
To dislike a track, right-click it and choose Dislike:
When you dislike a track, it displays with a broken heart:
Doug Adams also points out that dislike is a new track property for AppleScript, so you can create a script that gathers all your disliked tracks in a playlist. I would also expect this to be available in smart playlists, but it is not yet the case.
So why would you use the Dislike flag? Since you can mark an Apple Music track or playlist as something you don’t like, this helps the Apple Music algorithm improve recommendations. But you might also want to use it to flag tracks that have problems when you play them back. When I rip CDs, I don’t listen to them right away, and I occasionally find that there are problems with a specific track, such as diginoise or clicks. I rate these tracks one star so I can check them at a later date. You might want to use Dislike for this, or for tracks with no artwork, or tracks where you want to change metadata, and so on.
This all points to a dumbing down of iTunes and getting rid of star ratings (hearts are the default in iTunes now). A binary system for rating can never be enough. Most of my tracks are made up of tracks that i don’t LOVE, but I do like them, or quite like them, or like them sometimes but don’t want to hear them all the time. Five stars covers this spectrum and is well understood.
I don’t know many people who use the rating system in iTunes so I can understand why apple are introducing something new but I hope it is not at the expense of features for people who really ‘love’ music (in the general sense).
For now, there’s no indication that star ratings will be removed. I’d be very surprised if they were. But the Loved/Dislike rating makes a lot of sense for Apple Music.
I’m worried about star ratings as well… I’m running the iOS 10 beta on my iPad and can’t find any way to add or view star ratings. Since one of my main uses of the Music iOS app is rating new music so that it automatically populates smart playlists, I’m a bit concerned…
And in your screengrab above, Disliked seems to have replaced the Rating menu item 🙁
I would be surprised and disappointed, too. However, as davehornsby points out below, they already seem to have done it in iOS Music (not being able to rate tracks on the go is super annoying). And then, on the desktop, they’ve done it to Photos. So it seems like they’re wanting to dumb things down to match what Facebook/Instagram etc. do. Which is just such an annoying category error.
You can rate tracks on the go: just tap the album artwork.
Yep, that’s how it’s always worked before but I definitely can’t do it Music in iOS 10 beta on the iPad… nothing happens at all when you tap the artwork. I’m hoping it’s because the iPad version is more beta than the iPhone version (there’s no full screen view either).
Sorry, I wasn’t clear — I meant in the iOS 10 beta. My experience is the same as Dave’s — no star ratings available.
This all points to a dumbing down of iTunes and getting rid of star ratings (hearts are the default in iTunes now). A binary system for rating can never be enough. Most of my tracks are made up of tracks that i don’t LOVE, but I do like them, or quite like them, or like them sometimes but don’t want to hear them all the time. Five stars covers this spectrum and is well understood.
I don’t know many people who use the rating system in iTunes so I can understand why apple are introducing something new but I hope it is not at the expense of features for people who really ‘love’ music (in the general sense).
For now, there’s no indication that star ratings will be removed. I’d be very surprised if they were. But the Loved/Dislike rating makes a lot of sense for Apple Music.
I’m worried about star ratings as well… I’m running the iOS 10 beta on my iPad and can’t find any way to add or view star ratings. Since one of my main uses of the Music iOS app is rating new music so that it automatically populates smart playlists, I’m a bit concerned…
And in your screengrab above, Disliked seems to have replaced the Rating menu item 🙁
I would be surprised and disappointed, too. However, as davehornsby points out below, they already seem to have done it in iOS Music (not being able to rate tracks on the go is super annoying). And then, on the desktop, they’ve done it to Photos. So it seems like they’re wanting to dumb things down to match what Facebook/Instagram etc. do. Which is just such an annoying category error.
You can rate tracks on the go: just tap the album artwork.
Yep, that’s how it’s always worked before but I definitely can’t do it Music in iOS 10 beta on the iPad… nothing happens at all when you tap the artwork. I’m hoping it’s because the iPad version is more beta than the iPhone version (there’s no full screen view either).
Sorry, I wasn’t clear — I meant in the iOS 10 beta. My experience is the same as Dave’s — no star ratings available.
Do star ratings have any impact on iTunes itself? Is a 2* track twice as likely to be played than a 1* track?
The only thing I’ve ever used the star ratings for is to mark bad tracks, as Kirk now uses Dislike. One of thse years I’ll go back and re-rip those tracks 🙁
Do star ratings have any impact on iTunes itself? Is a 2* track twice as likely to be played than a 1* track?
The only thing I’ve ever used the star ratings for is to mark bad tracks, as Kirk now uses Dislike. One of thse years I’ll go back and re-rip those tracks 🙁
I combine “Love” and star to further broaden the spectrum to mark how much I “Love” a track. If a track is really good and I want to listen to it over and over I will rate 4-5 stars and add “love”. if This is not the case then I don’t add “love”.
Simple “Love” and “Dislike” is easy when design the interface and 3D touch menu than star ratings. And yeah I believe this thing makes a lot of sense when using Apple Music.
Still, I don’t want rating system go. If Rating system is gone then I will stick to the last version of iTunes supporting it until I have no choice but to abandon them.
I combine “Love” and star to further broaden the spectrum to mark how much I “Love” a track. If a track is really good and I want to listen to it over and over I will rate 4-5 stars and add “love”. if This is not the case then I don’t add “love”.
Simple “Love” and “Dislike” is easy when design the interface and 3D touch menu than star ratings. And yeah I believe this thing makes a lot of sense when using Apple Music.
Still, I don’t want rating system go. If Rating system is gone then I will stick to the last version of iTunes supporting it until I have no choice but to abandon them.
I used to make the genre “f-ing annoying’ to tracks I dislike.
I used to make the genre “f-ing annoying’ to tracks I dislike.
Remember you can easily tweak the system to make iTunes use & show half-star ratings (providing 10 levels of scoring)
Remember you can easily tweak the system to make iTunes use & show half-star ratings (providing 10 levels of scoring)
I’ve always wanted two separate ratings, one for the piece, and one for the performance. Having to figure out a combined single rating is often impossible. I rarely rate things since I’m often not near enough to the device playing it, and it’s less useful with Apple Music, since I keep AM segregated from my own stuff. When I do rate, I treat the stars as -2 through +2: hate enough to throw away, dislike enough to uncheck, problem with the track, like, like enough to try to get a score and learn at least parts of it.
I’ve always wanted two separate ratings, one for the piece, and one for the performance. Having to figure out a combined single rating is often impossible. I rarely rate things since I’m often not near enough to the device playing it, and it’s less useful with Apple Music, since I keep AM segregated from my own stuff. When I do rate, I treat the stars as -2 through +2: hate enough to throw away, dislike enough to uncheck, problem with the track, like, like enough to try to get a score and learn at least parts of it.
The “Dislike” is all but useless as a separate category for managing music. Why? You cannot use the feature in a Smartlist and neither does it “sort” any differently than “Loved”. Until we can differentiate between “Loved” and “Dislike” in a Smartlist and/or via sorting, they’ve wasted my time by offering the new feature.
Dislike is only useful for Apple Music.
The “Dislike” is all but useless as a separate category for managing music. Why? You cannot use the feature in a Smartlist and neither does it “sort” any differently than “Loved”. Until we can differentiate between “Loved” and “Dislike” in a Smartlist and/or via sorting, they’ve wasted my time by offering the new feature.
Dislike is only useful for Apple Music.