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Force iTunes to update 'played song' status Apps
iTunes3 keeps track of the number of times a song was played. Unfortunately it only increments the count for a track if it was played from beginning to end. In some cases this is not practical (great song, lousy out-tro, great song but hidden bonustrack after five minutes of silence etc). I'll keep the why out of this and cut to the how...

In the expanded iTunes window (not the tiny one), select the song, start playing, drag the time/pointer thumb thingy in the progress bar-like display almost all the way to the end (right) and let it play the last couple of seconds of the track. When the track is done iTunes increments the playcount.

[Editor's note: This trick is quite useful if you're using a smart list such as the one discussed in the "Most ignored" playlist hint.]
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Force iTunes to update 'played song' status | 8 comments | Create New Account
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Applescript
Authored by: sjonke on Jan 29, '03 11:31:35AM
Here is a simple applescript which will bump the play count of the currently playing song and go to the next. Great for use with the Keyspan Digital Media Remote or via the Script Menu.
tell application "iTunes"
	set player position to (finish of current track) - 0.01
	play
end tell
This script sets the playing position to be 1/100th of a second prior to the end of the song and then starts play (you can remove the "play" command if you don't want the script to work even when iTunes is not actively playing a song.)

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Applescript
Authored by: Thom on Feb 13, '03 08:07:03PM

This was also pretty helpful when I used Michael Kamprath's Keyboard Maestro iTunes Control to map my TiBook's F3 / F4 to prev/next track, but minding the play count.

cd /Applications/Utilities/path/to/KeyboardMaestro/etc/

open ./Keyboard Maestro.app/Contents/Resources/Keyboard Maestro Engine.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesControl.scpt

He advised changing the method called iTunesNextTrack. Made sense to me. :)

I also set F6 (the mute key) to toggle play/pause. Hurrah!



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Automate when you can
Authored by: DougAdams on Jan 29, '03 11:56:09AM
I've just posted a script that will automate the whole procedure for a selected track. It increases the selected track's "play count" by the amount you specify. Works by playing the track silently for one second. The script is located here. Doug Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes

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Start/Stop time...
Authored by: iggybird on Jan 29, '03 12:01:58PM

Wouldn't it be easier to just set the Start and/or Stop Times in song info?



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Editting the mp3 to get rid of what you don't want to listen to..
Authored by: tgchappell on Jan 29, '03 01:25:04PM

A shareware program I recently found let's you just get rid of the 5 minutes of silence...

http://www.hairersoft.com/Amadeus.html

Also great for getting old tapes and LPs into iTunes. A top notch program from somebody doing as a hobby.



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Editting the mp3 to get rid of what you don't want to listen to..
Authored by: mmouse on Jan 29, '03 01:51:37PM

If you truly dislike the end of a track, or have silence on the end of it, the simplest solution is to do a 'Get Info' on the track (File menu), click the 'Options' tab and then input a new 'Stop Time' before the actual end of the track. Now, iTunes will not only increment without having to use a script, but it will also automatically skip the silence or the bad ending without having to hunt for the 'next' command/button.



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Editing the mp3 to get rid of what you don't want to listen to..
Authored by: tgchappell on Jan 29, '03 01:59:17PM

Sorry, I wasn't detailed enough. Amadeus let's you edit anything out of a track (even if there is silence in the middle), put two tracks together (imported as two tracks from CD, but really should always be played one after the other) or break a track into multiple pieces.



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Doing the same on your iPod
Authored by: finelinebob on Jan 29, '03 11:48:16PM

In case you weren't aware, you can do the same thing LettError is talking about for a song playing on your iPod. If you click the center button while a song is playing, you should see the progress bar change so that it shows the start time (0:00) and the end time for the current song and the progress bar should change to a black diamond, marking the point at which you are in the current song's playback. You can use the shuttle to move the play marker all the way to the end of the song (or backwards, if you want to hear something again). I use this all the time to get through some song I don't want to listen to completely but I want my iPod to count as having played, instead of just hitting the "next" button.



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