I made my Plexamp playlists feel like a streaming service - Smart playlists + cover art pack (free)
UPDATE 1: Thanks everyone for the positive feedback and for actually trying these out, wasn't expecting this kind of response.
Also fixed a few filter issues, credit to u/Jopurda and u/dschwizzle for finding them:
- Track Mood / Album Style only support is, not contains, so some playlists were empty as written.
- Critics Were Right also came back empty for most people, Album Plays is 0 was too strict, switched it to Track Plays
If you're into this kind of thing, I've got two more Plex/Plexamp projects coming: an Apple Shortcuts tool for track and album recommendations, and an iOS app currently in development, more on that soon. Follow if you want to catch those when they land.
TL;DR: 9 smart playlist recipes that make Plexamp playlists feel like a streaming service. On Repeat, Discover Weekly, Wrapped plus a free Apple Music–inspired cover pack. All recipes are below. playlists and the full art pack are on GitHub.
I got tired of my Plexamp playlists looking like a folder of files, so I created smart playlists and made covers inspired by Apple Music.
Building one: Music library → Advanced Filters → set the conditions → Save As… → Save as Smart Playlist. Set the column sort before you save, since it's stored with the playlist.
New To You
Discover Weekly's logic pointed at your own library - tracks you've never played, by artists you've been listening to lately. Mine came out at 1 day 16hr and it's the one I use most.
Track Plays is 0
Artist Last Played in the last 90 days
On Repeat
What you've actually been hammering this month.
Track Plays is greater than 4
Track Last Played in the last 30 days
Limit 40 · Sort: Track Plays (desc)
Repeat Rewind
Songs you played into the ground and then abandoned. Enough time has passed that they land again.
Track Plays is greater than 9
Track Last Played not in the last 120 days
Limit 50 · Sort: Track Plays (desc)
Your Year - In Music
The Wrapped clone. Rebuild it every January.
Track Last Played in the last 365 days
Track Plays is greater than 2
Limit 100 · Sort: Track Plays (desc)
Just Landed
Everything added this month, newest first. Where I look after every import.
Track Added At in the last 30 days
Sort: Track Added At (desc)
Loved
Your Liked Songs.
Track Rating is greater than 3
Sort: Track Last Rated (desc)
Late Night
For after midnight. This one leans on mood metadata, which varies depending on how well-matched your library is - check a few tracks before trusting it.
Track Mood contains melancholy
└ nested Match any: melancholy / reflective / sombre / dreamy
The 80s / The 90s
One filter, swap the decade. Obvious, but they earn their spot on the shelf.
Album Decade is 1990
Two things that cost me time
There's no Random sort in the smart playlist editor (or I couldn't find it). Turns out you don't need it, just hit shuffle in Plexamp, which re-rolls every play anyway.
Only set a LIMIT when the sort is doing real work. With a limit, the sort decides which tracks are in the playlist, "top 40 by plays" is the definition, not the running order. Without a limit it's just stored order, which shuffle overrides.
Capping New To You was actively bad: every sort option handed me the same artists forever. Unlimited plus shuffle is the only version that stays fresh.
The covers
1000×1000 PNG, one fixed lockup, Plexamp mark top left, name in two lines, only the colour changes between them. Loosely based on how Apple Music does its Mix / Smart Mix / Essentials tiles.
There are also 1920×1080 backgrounds and transparent logo PNGs, since Plex gives you Poster, Background and Logo as separate slots. The logo one is worth doing — it replaces the plain text title on the playlist page, and it's most of what sells the look.
Apply with: playlist → Edit → click the artwork → Upload.
The rest
I built 27 smart playlists in total. The other playlists, plus all the artwork, are here:
https://github.com/jeanrdfs/plex-smart-mixes
If you want to go further
Fields Plex gives you that streaming can't: Album Critic Rating, Track Skips, Artist Country, Record Label, Album Type, Folder Location.
Happy to answer questions on any of the filters.