first 10 random songs on your ipod

That is pretty cool. I have often wondered about that. I just thought there was a glitch in the ipod system or that they would go back to an artist that was just played to give you some continuity.

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:

Originally posted by Big KC:
has anyone noticed that the random shuffle isn't so random?

Most times, my first ten tracks include 2-3 cuts off the same album.

Apple made a fix for this in the latest itunes, but it hasn't made a difference…

No sooner did converts load their libraries onto the shiny new devices than they discovered a new deficiency: The randomization feature seemed anything but, well, random. Sure, "I Got the Blues" no longer played back to back with "Bitch," but two songs later, the Rolling Stones were back, and three tunes after that they were back again.

….

when I ran my 2,700-song playlist through the program, it didn't take long to find the same lack of variety. Song No. 4 in the list was "Bleeding Heart Disease," a tune off the first album by the Southern punk rock band The Dexateens. Song No. 6 comes from the same CD.

My playlist has a total of 17 songs by the band, so it seemed highly unlikely that two of them would be bunched so close together in a random order. But I was wrong about that.

The problem, it turns out, isn't that the programs aren't randomizing my playlists. They are. According to Jeff Lait, a mathematician and author of randomm3u, it's what's happening between my ears, specifically, in my expectations of what it means for something to be random.

To illustrate his point, Lait referred to a phenomenon statisticians call the birthday paradox. Roughly stated, it holds that if there are 23 randomly selected people in a room, there is a better than 50-50 chance that at least two of them will have the same birthday. The point: Mathematical randomness often contradicts our intuitive expectations of randomness.

What we want, Lait says, isn't a list that's been randomized, but one that's been stratified, or separated into categories that are weighted by a listener's preferences. A stratified playlist might select songs randomly but would be smart enough to throw out choices that, say, would repeat a band within 10 songs.

My iPod for A Random Playlist

It's probably been 2 years since I posted on here but this is a good thread to end the drought. I've had my non-ipod on random for the past 12 hours so I'll pick up where it is now:

M. Ward - Undertaker
Idlewild - As If I Hadn't Slept
Sloan - Can't Face Up
The Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes (Live)
Faith No More - Digging the Grave
Decemberists - Grace Cathederal Hill
Drive-By Truckers - Sands of Iwo Jima
Beck - Jack Ass
Teenage Fanclub - Slow Fade
GBV - Run Wild

out of 3,262 songs on my iTunes at work….includes lots of samplers and web downloads not on my ipod

Hopeless - The Wrens
Lost At Sea - Earlimart
Make it Together - Beachwood Sparks
Skinny - Tsunami
Ways in Which We Burn - Jason Darling
Tiny Shards - Silver Screen
Blue Knows - Rodeo Boy
Bad Times Are Coming Round Again - Waco Brothers
Pressure Point - The Zutons
Hey Baby Where You Been - Hayes Carll

Originally posted by brennser:

Originally posted by woodleygrrl:

My first post, yo

stick to the restaurant reviews…….

….only kidding, welcome aboard!

So mean! But thanks…I think?

Fleets - Cartel
Test Drive - The Mummies
The Sporting Life - The Decemberists
Magpie - The Mountain Goats
Let Love Not Weight Me Down - Ed Harcourt
Talk the Flyer Down - Helicopter Helicopter (Thanks Bags!)
Love Is - A House
Barrio - Giant Sand
Garrison - Film School
Oh Larsen B - British Sea Power

I'm playing again…

Royskopp - So Easy
Gyroscope - Raindrops
Alfie - All too Heavy Now
Interpol - PDA
Nirvana - About a Girl
Nefrit El-Or - Maya Blue
Richard Wright - Unfair Ground
Ambulance LTD - Heavy Lifting
Gustav Holst - The Planets, Mercury Winged Messenger
Mogwai - Like Herod

once more…

kanye west - we major
arcade fire - crown of love
rilo kiley - it just is
giant drag - smashing
interpol - obstacle 2
radiohead - let down
franz ferdinand - take me out
bloc party - banquet
the cardigans - sabbath bloody sabbath
gang of four - ether

the pod wanted to rock hard for a monday morn:

***************************************

Heaven is Truck ~ Pavement

In Houston ~ Tapes N Tapes

Kissed By Lightning ~ Deadboy & Elephantmen

Ancient Man ~ Deadboy & Elephantmen

Let You Down ~ Trespassers William

Don't Love You ~ TVOTR

I'm A Tree ~ GBV

White Unicorn ~ Wolfmother

Dirt ~ Stooges

Underneath the Waves ~ Twilight Singers

shangri-la- the kinks
the question is how fast- superchunk
the happening- pixies
breakin' the law- the new pornographers
slip it in- black flag
walk a mile- holly go lightly
hummingbird- wilco
a night like this- the cure
bury me beneath the weeping willow- the carter family
decomposing trees- galaxie 500

Chutes And Ladders - Gray Matter
Storm In My House - The Minutemen
Catch Me Now I'm Falling (Live) - The Kinks
E.S.P. For Now - Casual Dots
Pretty Persuasion - R.E.M.
Stacked Crooked - New Pornographers
The Adverts - The Adverts
Deep - Pearl Jam
The Jack (Live) - AC/DC
Haven't Got The Time - (the sounds of) kaleidoscope

ordinary life - samiam
overwhelming - everclear
food - common
red mosquito - pearl jam
long as i can see the rain - ccr
heart - atmosphere
never learn - mxpx
ageless beauty - stars
great day today - madvillain
change in speak - de la soul

these threads are the most fun to participate in, and the most boring to read.

I'll bite…

Twin Falls - Built to Spill
Stay Forever - Ween
Christ for President- Billy Bragg & Wilco
Dear Employer - Minus 5
In My Time Of Dying - Led Zeppelin
Don't Go To Strangers - JJ Cale
I Can't Get Next To You - The Temptations
Rubber Ring - The Smiths
Eugene's Lament - Beastie Boys
America - Spinal Tap

Originally posted by you be betty:
these threads are the most fun to participate in, and the most boring to read.

Haha, that is very true. So here's another one:

Ambulance LTD - Anecdote
The Flaming Lips - Pilot Can at the Queer of God
Pixies - Wave of Mutilation
Pink Floyd - See Emily Play
Neutral Milk Hotel - The Fool
Modest Mouse - Satin in a Coffin
Bright Eyes - Laura Laurent
Elliott Smith - Say Yes
Franz Ferdinand - Come on Home
The Delgados - The Light Before We Land

Lake of Fire - Nirvana
Ladies and Gentlemen - American Music Club
Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros
Van Tango - Franz Ferdinand
Valet Parking - Super Furry Animals
Superman - Cinerama
Longtime Coming - The Zutons
Girl from Mars - Ash
Sure Got me - Paul Kelly

friday night fever - silver jews
kissability - sonic youth
bed on the floor - woody guthrie
father to a sister of thought - pavement
soup - can
atom bomb baby - scientists
all i really want to do - bob dylan
silence - kittyhawk
night ritual - josef k
fashion cult - nikki sudden

Eagles of Death Metal – I Like to Move In the Night
Social Distortion – Dear Lover
David Bowie – Be My Wife
Material Issue – Crazy
Queens of the Stone Age – Go With the Flow
Echo & the Bunnymen – Parthenon Drive
David Bowie – Sound and Vision
Beastie Boys – No Sleep Till Brooklyn
The Damned – Drinking About My Baby
Supergrass – Caught By the Fuzz

The Smiths - Hand In Glove
Rancid - International Cover-Up
John Wesley Harding - The Flandyke Shore
The Five Americans - I See The Light
The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket
The Beatles - What Goes On
Drive-By Truckers - The Day John Henry Died
The Features - Me & The Skirts
Kaiser Chiefs - Modern Way
The Hissyfits - California

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket

love that song.

Calexico - "Close Behind"
The Stone Roses - "I Wanna Be Adored"
Blackalicious - "First in Flight"
U2 - "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
REM - "Kohoutek"
Two Cow Garage - "Bethlehem"
Nas - "The World Is Yours"
M83 - "On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain"
The Beta Band - "B + A"
The Fall - "U.S. 80's-90's"

Superdrag - Sold You An Alibi
Sugar - Changes
The Rolling Stones - Ventilator Blues
Billy Bragg - King James Version
Pulley - Nothing to Lose
The Sights - It'd Be Nice (To Have You Around)
British Sea Power - Victorian Ice
Band of Horses - The Funeral
The Dandy Warhols - Horse Pills
Mission of Burma - Fame and Fortune