you can create a playlist ordered that way (i think)

Just go to settings on the iPod and remove album view from the main menu. Make sure artist view is shown on the main menu. Easy-peasy.

Just go to settings on the iPod and remove album view from the main menu. Make sure artist view is shown on the main menu. Easy-peasy.

I don't think that matches up with what iconomy is talking about. That removes album view from the main menu, but if you click "Artists" from the main menu, you then get a list of artists. Clicking on an artist then gives you a list of albums. Clicking on that gets you to the song names. Iconomy wants that middle step removed (i.e., click on "Artists", then click on the name of the artists, and the next screen shows the list of songs, not of albums)

Iconomy, to my knowledge, there's no way to get rid of the album list, but (in case you haven't noticed), the very top entry is "All". If you want to get a list of all songs by an artist, and don't care about albums, click the artist name you want, then click "All" to get a list of all the songs by that artist, from all their albums, in a big list (not alphabetical, though).

So, you can't make it go away, but it only takes an extra click, which isn't so bad. The same, by the way, goes for every other option: You can click "Genre", then select an individual Genre, or select "All" from the top. The next screen gives you a list of artists, which you can pick individually, or select "All" from the top. The next screen gives you a list of albums, which you can pick individually, or select "All" from the top.

Also, (it took me a while to notice) you can hit the play button at any step. You don't have to drill all the way down. So if you want to listen to all your gabba noisecore breakstep neogoth, click "gabba noisecore breakstep neogoth" from the genre menu, and hit play to play all of it, without drilling through the subsequent screens clicking "All" "All" "All". (Apologies if you knew that, but I only found out by accidentally hitting play while on the menu once)

I didn't know that, bugbread - thanks!

Iconomy wants that middle step removed (i.e., click on "Artists", then click on the name of the artists, and the next screen shows the list of songs, not of albums)

Yes. Ok, I've had more time to think about this, and what's irking me is how unintuitive the iPod is, at least, I think it is...maybe I just don't know its capabilities.

After giving it some more thought, and having some things that bugbread said help me to articulate my thoughts, this is what I want. I want to be spontaneous, and I don't think the iPod can be spontaneous. Say I have 200 songs loaded on it, and at this particular moment, while walking down the street, I want to hear these 25 certain songs, but all are from different artists. Can I create a playlist on the fly? Like, while I'm walking down the street, can I get it to play these 25 songs, one after the other? Not a playlist that I loaded the week before, but just an instant combination of certain songs that I feel like hearing?

For each song, keep your finger on the big middle button for a couple of seconds. After the song starts flashing, move onto the next song. These songs will then appear in your "On the Move" playlist where they can be played in the way you want.

Yes. Put the cursor/selection-bar-thingie over the song title, and hold down the middle button. The cursor will blink, indicating that the song has been added to the On The Go playlist, accessible from the playlist menu. Do that for each song, then go to the playlist menu, and your playlist is there (called On The Go). Press play to play it.

You can also create multiple OnTheGo playlists. Set up all the songs for one On The Go. Then, on the On The Go playlist menu, select "Save Playlist". You will now have a playlist entitled New Playlist 1. You can then clear the On The Go, make more playlists, etc. Note that you don't have to save the playlist in order to use it, just to make more than 1 playlist using your iPod.

On preview: beaten, succinctly, to the punch.

Yesssss!

≡ Click to see image ≡

Thanks, seanyboy and bugbread...I'm going to try this right now. This is awesome.

I hope that's pronounced "I *wuv* you very much!"

If I had a microphone I would make an MP3 of it.

"Seanyboy, I wuv yu THISSSSSSS MUCCCCHHHHH!"

Let us know if it works out for you. I found the iPod very intuitive, but On The Go playlists were the one thing that caused me to stumble (I kept pushing the middle button on the song's playback screen (the one with the album art, the scroller at the bottom showing position in song, etc.), instead of the screen that shows the list of songs). Easy once you know what to do, but hard to intuit (at least for me).