Exabre The Filter review

Verdict:

Review Date: 19 Jan 2007

Price when reviewed:

Reviewed By: David McKinnon

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

The Filter is an iTunes plug-in that automatically builds playlists from your music library based on the properties of one or more selected songs.

Ideally this should save you the trouble of creating playlists song by song, while still giving you editorial control over the process.

Using The Filter is really easy. The interface is similar to that of iTunes when minimised, with track navigation buttons and an information display. The striking difference is the black Filter button, which you use to build a new playlist based either on the song currently playing or from a few tracks selected in your iTunes music library.

You can also create playlists based on an artist or genre, but the results are similar to those built on a song. Each playlist is saved in iTunes so you can replay it later.

Music files such as MP3s and those in Apple's ACC format contain information called ID3 tags, which hold details such as the song name, artist, album and genre. The Filter uses these tags, along with information gleaned from the internet about the listening habits of others, to find similar songs in your collection.

Skipping forward over a chosen song notifies The Filter that it doesn't suit the current playlist, and it won't appear in that context again. In this way it gradually learns about your tastes and uses this information in compiling future playlists.

While The Filter certainly takes the labour out of playlist creation and does a reasonable job of guessing what you want to listen to, don't expect it to read your mind. Creating the perfect compilation is still a manual job. However, for exploring your music collection and rediscovering old favourites, The Filter does a great job.

A promised Windows Media Player version is on its way, but for now The Filter is limited to iTunes.

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