Criteria for Determining Album Rating

[alext05]

I'd like to have some input from user's that actually rate their songs, I always seem to end up with too much of 3 stars vs 4 stars or 2 vs 1....

I am not interested in knowing how you rate your music since a few threads already cover that (from crap to greatness), I am more curious in knowing what type of distribution guidelines/parameters you set yourself when rating your music. Do you set yourself a certain amount of songs or percentage per star? Do you apply a limit per CD? or as a whole for your library?

Thanks

[mrad]

I don't limit, I simply set stars based on whether I would like to hear the track again ... 0.5 - 4. 0 being a timeless classic choooooon.

And thanks to some recent help.  I [ have auto-dj play whatever number of stars I want e.g. greater than 0 stars ]

For me, this adds value to reason for using rating stars.

[boroda]

@alext05
You might want to try Additional tagging tools plugin, "Auto-rate" command. You can define percentages of library based on play counts to rate your songs in this command.

[lnminente]

I use the following rules for rating all the library has a whole, and not per album, so i can use smartplaylists based in how much i like the songs:

0 stars for intros, outros and dialogues/speech
1 star for rare songs in which i don't get their consonances or i feel disturbed listening that song
2 stars for easy listening, good for working concentrated in something, these songs will not keep your atention
3 stars for good songs
4 stars for good songs which has to be differenced between the ones of 3 stars
5 stars for songs which after listening them some times they still give me strong feelings

In between them, i also use 1,5 and 2,5 stars as it is the more bloated range of stars and needed it for cases many cases of doubt

Edit: as a protocol before adding new songs to my library I have to listen them more than 4 times and after that rate them.

[Anti]

I find it impossible to rate tracks on some kind of 'absolute scale' across my entire collection.
Instead, I find it easier to rate the tracks relative to the album they're on.

· I've disabled half stars, because I don't need such granular ratings.
· I only star albums that I know intimately (only about 250 hundred albums so far - rating is not a thing I spend a lot of time on).
· I use 'ban' for tracks (Eg. intros) that I don't want played in auto-lists, because you don't need to write any extra rules.
· I use the 'bomb' rating to mark tracks that I need to replace (regarding glitches, low bitrate, etc) as well as 'ban'.
· I use 'love' to mark unfamiliar albums - ones I currently want to force myself to play instead of listening to favourites all the time.

I begin by marking 2 or 3 five-star tracks on the album. That doesn't necessarily mean I love the tracks - it just means they're the best on that album. However, if the whole album really is mediocre, then I'll mark the best tracks as 4-stars.

Then I mark the weakest/worst 1 or 2 tracks on the album with a 1-star. Again, it doesn't necessarily mean I hate the tracks, but it forces me to use the whole range of ratings.  Occasionally if an whole album is brilliant and I want even the weakest tracks to appear in my main auto-lists, then I'd mark the them with 3-stars instead.

Then I divide up the rest of the tracks into 2, 3 and 4 stars, relative to each other, which is usually straight forward to do.

I use the 'auto calculate album rating' feature, and obtain ratings between 2.5 and 4.5 stars (although one album has five stars), which is useful enough for filters. In album and tracks view I have the rating column shown, and I really like the visual 'graph' that the stars form for each album.

[alext05]

Thanks for the comments (here and other post). I think I figured out how I want to set this up without too much pondering. Even make it fun.
I have establish 2 basic questions that I need to force myself to answer when listening to songs in order to rate them.

My rating is based on 5 stars system (no half stars).
1-   Crap
2-   Don’t know yet
3-   Good
4-   Great
5-   Best

So the 1st question is pretty simple and basic, “do I like the song?” It takes a whole 30 seconds to know if it falls under 1-2-3. By the way 1 star never comes up on any playlist, 2 stars will have to be listened to again, so I have a playlist for that.

The 2nd question is “how much do I like song?” This one establishes the 3-4-5. Again pretty simple and this is the guidelines that helps me do it.
4 – Stars are songs I would expect to come up if I am listening to the artist “best of”.
5 – Stars are songs I would expect to come up if I am listening to the genre or the year “best of”.

At this point, everything else that doesn't fit 4-5, is a 3.
3 Stars are songs I would expect to come up if I am listening to a CD on its own and would not skip the song, 3 stars are limited in my auto playlist but should come up every now and then.

The only restriction I set myself is to limit the 5 Stars to 1-2 if the CD contains less than 14 songs and 2-3 if it contains more (that way I get ever zealous and don’t end up with tons of 5 stars). I try to listening to any new CD 5-6 times before actually rating the songs.

Anyways I thought I’d share, for me having this pattern makes much more sense and I am pretty confident that 95% of my songs are rated at the right place while keeping a balance between the stars and not feeling guilty that I have over/under rated a chunk of my library.  It does not take time and makes it easier to do great playlist.

[mrad]

Thanks for the comments (here and other post). I think I figured out how I want to set this up without too much pondering. Even make it fun.
I have establish 2 basic questions that I need to force myself to answer when listening to songs in order to rate them.

My rating is based on 5 stars system (no half stars).
1-   Crap
2-   Don’t know yet
3-   Good
4-   Great
5-   Best

So the 1st question is pretty simple and basic, “do I like the song?” It takes a whole 30 seconds to know if it falls under 1-2-3. By the way 1 star never comes up on any playlist, 2 stars will have to be listened to again, so I have a playlist for that.

Nice! I had to giggle when i read "1 = crap". But seriously, as 1=crap, then what is 0!? uber crap? Half stars are useful, they expand your range from 6 to 12 markers. Half of one to me indicates crap cus that first half marker isn't even worthy of a 1.
Therefore, 0=Don't know yet, 0.5=crap, 1=worth listening to occasionally, 2=good, leaves me 5 more markers (very little would get a 5)

Just my 2 cents, and building on your ideas

[alext05]

Hey mrad,

I don't use half stars, I already had a hart time figuring out full stars....
So a 0 = unrated, 1 = crap and 2 = I have listened and I know the song however I can't confirm yet If I like it or not, need to listen again before I can make up my mind (sometimes a song will grow on you and I don't want to rate that song too low so it doesn't get played at all). Eventually the song should go up or down the ladder. It is the only star that I have to think as the other ratings are pretty obvious for my own personal assessment. 

[mrad]

I don't use half stars, I already had a hart time figuring out full stars....

hehe

[BlackRip05]

I tried to rate my library on a few different occasions with different systems that in the end didn't really work out, mostly because I have a reasonable size library 12,000 and I like to listen to most of it.

I realize along the way that really there is 2 ways to look at it; songs you like and songs you don't.
If I listen to the radio in the car and a song comes on that I like I will listen to it and if I don't I will change station, I am not going to ask myself if it feels like a 3 or a 4 star song. What is the point really in identifying songs you like, songs you really like and songs you really really like....

For the only purpose of removing the songs I don't like and having some sort of variety in my playlist which also takes into consideration play count, last played, genre, year, etc.. I use a 3 star system based on the Good (****) and the bad (**). I use the (***) for the "unsure" songs that I need to listen to a couple of more times before taking my decision.

Now, I just enjoy listening to music and have stop wasting my precious time.

[Xyzzy]

I use 1-5 stars scale with half-stars (though  initially I didn't want to use halfs, but eventually they have appeared to  be useful).
Only albums are rated as a whole.
Weak ratings appear, because I tend to have complete discographies of bands, especially ones I like.

1 - Mistake. Bad music.
2 - Sounds like OK, just I don't like it.
2.5 - Great album they say, classic, but still I don't like it (rare rating, artificial - not based on my personal taste).
3 - Definitely worth listening again.
3.5 - Halfway between 3 and 4
4 - Great record in every aspect
4.5 - Halfway between 4 and 5
5 - Epitome of a genre (like 4 with a strong personal preference, not related to any common perception of an album)

Now, if anyone asks me for good albums to listen, I select 2.5, 4, 4.5, 5
If I want some undistracting muzak, I select 3, 3.5
If I want only personal favourites, I select 5
If I want to have a good listen, but not music I know by heart, I select 4, 4.5 or 3.5, 4, 4.5
etc etc

1-2.5 stay in ghetto of badness forever.
3 and 5 are very unlikely to change after first rating
3.5, 4, 4.5 are subject to change at subsequent listens in any direction.

[gladtobeblazed]

I don't see any reason that my ratings should follow any type of distribution. Well, I suppose I would expect a normal distribution if I listened to music randomly, but I don't. Since I only listen to music I like, or think I might like, I expect the vast majority of it to be in the 4-5 star range. And indeed that is what I have in my library.

 If you are ending up with more 2 and 3 star songs, then ask yourself: why am I wasting my time with mediocre music? The majority of the albums and songs should be rated high, else why the hell are they still in your library?

[lnminente]

@gladtobeblazed:  only 1 star for your comment 

[tompeto]

1-1.5: I don't like it and it is bad/annoying
2: I don't like it
2.5: so so
3: good
3.5-4: I like it a lot
4.5-5: favorite

I wish there was a value to indicate intros, narrations, etc

[ThY]

I don't use the rating system.
I listen once to a track before i include it in my library.

I only use the love system to mark my favorite songs, then if i don't like a track i don't down-rate it, i simply don't add it in my library and delete it ^^