Sharing iTunes playlist from the same computer

Question

I just set up my new iMac to allow the iTunes library to be shared by several people using the one computer. The playlists did not transfer over though, just the entire library of music. Is it possible to share the playlists as well as the library?
Thanks

Answer 1

Yes, you should be able to either copy the individual songs from one library to another or, for economy of space, add the file from it's existing location into an alternate library. Whether or not you can do this now depends on the status of your various accounts and sharing options. For example, you may need to grant read only access to each of the other users for each music folder in each user account.
Here is a link to the Apple Support Doc: How to use multiple iPods with one computer which should give more information on the various options.
Instead of multiple libraries, I use method two with a slight twist. Rather than regular playlists I set the grouping field to indicate which users should receive which tracks and create smart playlists based on the content of this field.
e.g.
"Alice's Tracks" is "Grouping contains Alice" + "Kind contains audio"
"Bob's Videos" is "Grouping contains Bob" + "Kind does not contain audio"
Tracks that both Alice & Bob want on their iPods have the grouping set to "Alice/Bob"
etc.
I currently manage our family's four iPods using this system, each getting a different selection to suit their tastes and the capacity of their iPod. An advantage of using the grouping field is that it is stored in file tags (for audio files anyway) so that it is relatively easy to recreate the playlists should the iTunes library get trashed. Also useful if you move files about manually as playlist membership is preserved when you delete & re-import the tracks.
tt2