I have multiple smart playlists that automatically sort out music added within a certain time period and consider their rating as well. What I quickly found out with the DRM-free upgrades is that replaced music is considered as added to your library on the day you do the upgrade. Yes, this makes sense when I think about it, though it irks me that the upgrade process can still manage to keep my assigned ratings intact when replacing the DRM-protected files – so why can’t it keep the date marker the same? Grrrrr.

So, I now have a bunch of playlists that are completely useless to me since they’re pulling my upgraded music in addition to my latest downloads of new music. If I really want to focus on the real new music I’ve gotten recently, I’ll need to do it manually. I frankly didn’t realize how much I rely on these smart playlists in listening to my music until this happened. When trying to listen to music on my iPhone these days, I literally stare at the screen for a few moments to get my bearings and think about what I want to listen to rather than automatically going to my new music playlist or the playlist that pulls my 4 and 5-star rated music added in the last 6 months. I don’t buy that much music, but it’s still very easy for me to lose track of new music if I don’t hear it soon after I buy it.

There you have it – my music listening experience all jacked up thanks to an arguably fabulous move made by Apple. Damn, damn, and damn!