itunes radio questions

Doublej · « **on:** 24 Mar 2012, 12:51 am »

I created a radio favorites folder with a dozen stations in it.

What is the purpose of the check box next to the numbering on the left?

How do I clear or reset the Plays count?

low.pfile · « **Reply #1 on:** 24 Mar 2012, 01:27 am »

doublej,
in iTunes, the column order is customizable (click/drag), but my checkbox column is on the far left.

The check box simply means playable...which for songs is more useful as they are finite in length. most iTunes radio station streams are infinite, so you would rarely reach the end of one to go on to the next in your playlist, which is what would happen with a song in a playlist. In other words, an unchecked song in a playlist would not play when iTunes advances through the list contents, in normal order or in random order. Though, either a song or radio station which is is unchecked will still play if you double click it directly.

srb · « **Reply #2 on:** 24 Mar 2012, 02:07 am »

Quote from: Doublej on 24 Mar 2012, 12:51 am

How do I clear or reset the Plays count?

Select one song, multiple songs or all songs in the Library or a Playlist, then Control-click (or right-click with two-button mouse) and choose Reset Play Count. iTunes previously could reset Plays and Skips independently, but both are now simultaneously reset with the command.

Steve

Doublej · « **Reply #3 on:** 24 Mar 2012, 09:31 pm »

Thanks for the explanation low.pfile. You'd think Apple would grey it out the checkboxes since a playlist doesn't apply to list of streams.

srb - the Reset Play Count only appears on songs in playlists. It's not on the menu for radio streams but it did appear when I right clicked on a song.

Oh well. I don't think Apple cares about the radio portion of itunes as they don't get any money from it.

srb · « **Reply #4 on:** 24 Mar 2012, 11:15 pm »

Quote from: Doublej on 24 Mar 2012, 09:31 pm

srb - the Reset Play Count only appears on songs in playlists. It's not on the menu for radio streams but it did appear when I right clicked on a song.

The workaround would be to temporarily add one song to the Radio Station playlist, then when that song is selected along with some or all of the radio station URLs, the context menu will then contain the Reset Play Count option.

Steve

Doublej · « **Reply #5 on:** 24 Mar 2012, 11:40 pm »

Brilliant workaround - THANKS

srb · « **Reply #6 on:** 24 Mar 2012, 11:55 pm »

Although I enjoy figuring out software solutions and workarounds, but I'm not really sure what the benefit of displaying the # of Plays is. I suppose you could sort the playlist by the Plays column to help in manually playing seldom heard songs, but I personally just ignore it by not enabling the column to be visible for any Playlist or the main Music Library.

Steve

Doublej · « **Reply #7 on:** 25 Mar 2012, 12:11 am »

It's simple for me. I have about twenty stations in a list and with plays I wind up with my favorites at the top of the list.

ajzepp · « **Reply #8 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 08:31 pm »

iTunes has radio stations? I use iTunes every day and had no idea. Is it on the main software or is this some sort of app?

srb · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 08:46 pm »

iTunes has a default Radio folder located under Library. If it is not visible, enable the Radio checkbox under Preferences > General tab > Sources. It is grouped by Genre and you can neither add to this folder nor delete items from it.

If you then create your own Radio Stations playlist, you can

1. Copy any radio station from the default Radio folder and paste it into your Radio Stations playlist or drag the station into the playlist to make a copy.

2. Add radio stations that are not in the default Radio folder by
a. Selecting Advanced > Open Stream from the main menu and pasting a URL that you have obtained from a website, etc.
b. Find the URL you just added either in the Library or the Recently Added playlist and drag it into your Radio Stations playlist
c. Sometimes, depending on the URL added, the added station may not be found either in the Library or the Recently Added playlist, but instead iTunes will automatically create a new playlist titled "Internet Songs"

Steve

ajzepp · « **Reply #10 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 08:50 pm »

Wow, that is so awesome! I've been missing my WIP sports talk station from Philly ever since I moved away, and it's there on the default list...WOOHOO!!!!

Thanks Steve!

Doublej · « **Reply #11 on:** 28 Mar 2012, 12:08 am »

Quote from: ajzepp on 27 Mar 2012, 08:50 pm

Wow, that is so awesome! I've been missing my WIP sports talk station from Philly ever since I moved away, and it's there on the default list...WOOHOO!!!!

Thanks Steve!

Hint. If you put the call letters and the words listen live into Google it will usually return the a link to a radio station's stream. Works great for stations that are not in itunes.

ajzepp · « **Reply #12 on:** 29 Mar 2012, 02:15 am »

Quote from: Doublej on 28 Mar 2012, 12:08 am

Hint. If you put the call letters and the words listen live into Google it will usually return the a link to a radio station's stream. Works great for stations that are not in itunes.

great tip, thanks!

dB Cooper · « **Reply #13 on:** 29 Mar 2012, 02:10 pm »

I may have to try that one as I often listen to KUWL-FM, but iTunes only gives you their 128K stream. They have a 256K stream but can't get iTunes to play it- I have tried pasting in the URL under 'open stream' to no avail.

srb · « **Reply #14 on:** 29 Mar 2012, 04:18 pm »

Quote from: dB Cooper on 29 Mar 2012, 02:10 pm

I may have to try that one as I often listen to KUWL-FM, but iTunes only gives you their 128K stream. They have a 256K stream but can't get iTunes to play it- I have tried pasting in the URL under 'open stream' to no avail.

Is this the URL you are trying to play?

http://wprhqstream4.uwyo.edu:8000/kuwl256.mp3

Steve

dB Cooper · « **Reply #15 on:** 31 Mar 2012, 04:03 am »

Quote from: srb on 29 Mar 2012, 04:18 pm

Is this the URL you are trying to play?

http://wprhqstream4.uwyo.edu:8000/kuwl256.mp3

Steve

No, it sure wasn't. The '256K' link on their homepage took me to a tunein dot com page (which didn't play in itunes). The link you provided plays fine. Thank you *very* much. I just didn't want to devote an entire browser window to playing a radio station. Now, if I could find a lightweight media player so I didn't have to run itunes to do it either...

srb · « **Reply #16 on:** 31 Mar 2012, 06:58 am »

Is it that iTunes is using too much of your computer's resources?

At any rate, there is a program for the Mac OSX 10.6+ that sounds pretty cool from Vemedio called Snowtape2. It's exclusively an internet radio player with some neat features.

It lets you schedule internet radio recordings, record MP3 or AAC+ streams (even several at a time), automatically cut the stream at track boundaries if stream titles are transmitted, filter commercials and duplicates, add ID3v2 tags and iTunes metadata, export to MP3 or MP4 files, 1-click export to iTunes and it even supports the AirPlay protocol.

It costs $33 for a single user, $45 for a household.

Steve

dB Cooper · « **Reply #17 on:** 31 Mar 2012, 08:17 pm »

iTunes is kind of a hog, although I have to admit I haven't opened Activity Monitor (or whatever the hell it's called in Lion) to look at the usage. Will look into that and some other small footprint players. I have Audio Hijack Pro which records (even by timer) but it sounds like the one you mention has some really interesting features. Thanks again for the KUWL link.

ajzepp · « **Reply #18 on:** 30 Apr 2012, 06:16 am »

Hey guys...so I'm trying to add a couple radio stations, and I can get it to where it shows up in the library, but I can't seem to actually get it to play. Can you guys try to add WGR (Buffalo, NY) radio to your iTunes and see if you can get it to work?

srb · « **Reply #19 on:** 30 Apr 2012, 07:10 am »

If you're clicking the Listen Live link, then trying to add the url that is shown in the address bar of the streamtheworld.com player window (http://player.streamtheworld.com/_players/entercom/player/?id=WGR) - that won't work.

The only URL I've found that works in iTunes so far is:

http://6693.live.streamtheworld.com:80/WGRAM_SC

Try adding that one.

Steve