"Semi-Shuffle" for iTunes and iPod

I would love to have a plugin for iTunes that allowed me to create "suggestions", "connections" or "musical journeys".

Would work like this: after song A, I would normally (or often) like to listen to song C and sometimes to song F. So in iTunes, I drag a line from A to C and another one from A to F and I tell iTunes to use these when shuffling, one or the other.

Thing is: I think stars and playlists are fine but they do not come close to capturing the way I listen to music. There is no "mood" in there. No concept of memories attached to songs and the string of memories in my head. So we need more!

This being 2009, I would probably also want a way of importing those "connections" or "musical journeys" via social networks like last.fm, facebook or whatever else I am using.
 

A "mix tape" site for MP3 play lists

So you have 5000+ songs on your iPod. But which one do you want to listen to next?

Remember the days when we would make tapes?

In those days, everybody had at least one friend who made really good tapes. For me, it was my friend Arne. Somehow, he knew the good music. And somehow, he knew what I wanted to listen to. I still have a couple of his tapes. Never mind that I don't actually own a cassette player anymore.

I would bet that he has more than one play list these days. While I usually listen to my music using "Shuffle Songs", he is probably creating play lists for different occasions or moods. For different genres or artists. For different times of the day or seasons of the year. And most likely for different people.

So where is the site that brings his play lists to me?

The way I see it, a plugin would scan my music library, then go out and search for play lists that match my songs. I would select some of them, probably based on their name and a short description provided by the creator. I would have my favourite creators in a short list, and I would probably automatically download new lists they made.

(Marketers: the site would of course have a "buy missing tracks" button)

What's in it for play list makers? Well, they would really be DJs. Create good lists, and you'll create yourself some fans...

Somehow I think there must be something like this out there already. No?