MP3 Collection help

Yes. I think you're on the right track. I realize it's not a good option because when dealing with playlists, then you're constantly having to add new songs to perhaps multiple playlists. But I don't know of an "exclude" option.

 

Looks like smartphone players could refer to the genre that is built into the song files and play accordingly but perhaps these are too widespread and mid-applied by the recording labels.

 

The best way to go about all this is to the the Amazon music app and go from there. I tried itunes etc and kept coming back here.

 

What I'd do is move the Christmas tunes to their own dedicated USB (thumb drive - your stereo has a port, I presume?). Then I'd break it out for the season; put it away for the rest of the year. It'd also free up space on your phone.

 

I have tried everything and started doing this before Apple ever heard of MP3 files. I've settled on using a small inexpensive, dedicated MP3 player. I use my phone as a backup device in case I lose/break my Sansa Clip Jam. The Jam has a slot for microSD (up to 32GB). The Clip Jam is available in 4GB and 8GB versions. 100% of my daily listening is from MP3 files. The dedicated players allows me to skip, rewind, fast-forward by feel only. The smartphones require you to look at and put your finger in the right place on the smooth screen. The Clip Jam is about $35 on Amazon. The previous Sansa ClipPlus was much easier to use and required MUCH less understanding of MP3 ID# tag info than the Clip Jam. . If you use Bluetooth various phone functions can unexpectedly cause the phone to lose it's place in a long MP3 file.

I use MP3Tag, from some German site. It's in English and simpler to use than others. I listen to "talk radio" type files which can be 60-90 minutes long (no commercials) and label them in Albums for each day of week I will listen. You can use it however you like and put a lot of work into it or minimal work.

You can email me at tscottme AT hotmail DOT com if you want help in learning MP3Tag just enough to be useful. Some MP3 users are obsessive and compulsive in "tagging" their files. It's up to you. I don't pay for subscriptions or software to use or download. I donate to software authors. There is far more to listen to from the internet. There is probably more on the internet (free) to make satellite radio seem as limited as over-the-air AM/FM radio by comparison.

 

I carry a 64GB thumb drive that plugs into the truck stereo as a backup to my smartphone which is a backup to my dedicated Sansa Clip Jam MP3 player. The files play fine from the thumbdrive plugged into stereo but the long filenames are truncated so be careful of filenames like AlbumNameArtistName_TrackName.mp3. In some cases every track of an album will show up on stereo as AlbumNameArtistNa. Some stereos will follow track number and some go by Ascii file name.

 

My only suggestion regarding this would be to know your stereos carrying capacity.
I don't know what my truck will handle (Ryder CSS-5930BT), but my car stereo (Pioneer FH-X721BT) can only deal with a 16g USB before files just don't show up as selectable.