I’m really having fun with the playlist I talked about the other day. The key is not to worry too much about what to give five stars. It’s not a rating of how good the song actually is, it’s a rating of how much you enjoy the song. “We Built this City” is the worst song of all time? Nah. Five stars.
Assigning a song rating is no harder than dragging it onto a playlist, and once your music library is sufficiently tricked out with ratings, genre, year, and all sorts of other metadata, you’re got lots of smart playlist options. One thing I’ve already figured out is that when you get a new album you can give the really good songs high ratings until you’re no longer enamoured with them, then downrate those tracks until they’ve settled into an equilibrium with the rest of your music.