Create, play and sync Zune playlists

Create a playlist

Playlists can include any songs, artists, albums and genres from your Zune music collection. You can listen to your playlists on your computer, or you can sync them to a Zune player or Windows Phone and play them on that device.

Songs are played in the order they were added. You can edit the playlist to change the order, or you can shuffle your playlists to listen to songs in a random order.

To create a playlist:

1. Start the Zune Music + Video software. At the top of the screen, click collection, and then click MUSIC.
2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click PLAYLISTS.
3. Click NEW PLAYLIST, name your playlist, and then click OK.
4. Start dragging artists, albums and songs into the darkened Playlist icon, located in the lower-left corner of the page.

If you have more than one playlist, a pop-up menu displays your playlists. Drop the item onto the playlist you want.

Or, you can right-click an item, like an album or a song, click Add to playlist, select the playlist and then click OK.

Autoplaylists are updated dynamically, based on the criteria you select. Here’s how to create one:

1. Start the Zune Music + Video software. At the top of the screen, click collection, and then click MUSIC.
2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click PLAYLISTS.
3. Click NEW AUTOPLAYLIST.
4. In the AUTOPLAYLIST menu, name your autoplaylist, select the music filters that you want to use, and then click OK.

You can find your new autoplaylists under Autoplaylists with your other playlists.

Edit a playlist

1. Start the Zune Music + Video software. At the top of the screen, click collection, and then click MUSIC.
2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click PLAYLISTS.
3. Click a playlist, and then do any of the following:
   • To remove a song, right-click a song title, and then select Remove from playlist.
   • To rearrange songs, click a song title, and then drag it up or down the list.
   • To add songs to a playlist, drag music from your music over to the Playlist icon and then drop it into the playlist that you want.

Sync a playlist from your computer to a Zune player or Windows Phone

1. Start the Zune Music + Video software. At the top of the screen, click collection, and then click MUSIC.
2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click PLAYLISTS.
3. Drag a playlist to the Device or Phone icon, located in the lower-left corner of the page.

The next time you turn on your device, you’ll see your new playlist.

Sync a playlist from a Zune player or Windows Phone to your computer

1. Connect your Zune player or Windows Phone to your computer using the USB cable that came with your device.
2. Start the Zune Music + Video software. At the top of the screen, click Device or Phone, click MUSIC, and then click PLAYLISTS.
3. Drag a playlist to the Computer icon, located in the lower-left corner of the page.

To see your playlists:

1. Start the Zune Music + Video software. At the top of the screen, click collection.
2. Click MUSIC, and then click PLAYLISTS.

The following table summarises what you can do with playlists and autoplaylists.

Playlist tips

• When you drag an album to the Playlist icon, you add all of its songs to the playlist.
• When you drag an artist to the Playlist icon, you add all music by that artist to the playlist.
• A playlist can have up to 2,000 songs. If you add more than that, the playlist won't sync to your device.
• When you delete a playlist, the songs that were in the playlist remain in your collection.
• If you remove a song from a playlist, the Zune Music + Video software removes that item from the same playlist on your device the next time you sync.
• Autoplaylists are a great way to keep your playlists up to date with the latest downloads from your favourite artists.
• Zune Music + Video will work with playlists in two formats:
  • ZPL (.zpl) is the Zune playlist format.
  • M3U (.m3u) is the playlist format used by many media programs. If a playlist is in the M3U format, simply drag it into your Zune collection.