42. Provide Customized Background Music with Party Shuffle
iTunes and a well-stocked Library are perfect for providing the background music at a party, particularly if you use an AirPort Express base station to broadcast your music wirelessly to your living room's big stereo system. (See AirTunes: Connect iTunes to a Stereo System with AirPort Express.) However, you don't want to spend time putting together a manual playlist for an hours-long party, or trust the automatic ordering of a Smart Playlist. In fact, you might want to be sure that certain songs show up at a certain time of the evening, or that certain pairs of songs flow into each other when the mood is just right. This need is answered by the Party Shuffle feature, which is like a specialized, dynamic playlist that you can edit on the fly. Party Shuffle takes songs at random from a specified source (for instance, a playlist or a Smart Playlist of your choice), shows you a certain number of upcoming songs and the last few songs it's played, and gives you the opportunity to fine-tune the random upcoming choices at any time by deleting selections, rearranging them, and adding new ones from the Library. You can micromanage the Party Shuffle playlist during the party to make sure that it chooses all the right music, or leave it alone to pick its own random selections. It's up to you to be the perfect host by orchestrating the ideal musical atmosphere. Note You can see a maximum of 100 upcoming songs in the Party Shuffle playlist, so that's the extent to which you can engineer the list before the party begins. Party Shuffle is intended to work from automatic random selections as it goes, but it gives you the option to change selections that are soon to be played. Provide Customized Background Music with Party Shuffle
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