How Do Tauon's Playlists and Smart Playlists Work?

Tauon is built around a playlist-first library: you import your music once, then shape what you hear using search, folders and smart playlists rather than relying on a single fixed library view. Smart playlists in Tauon are defined with short filter codes that select, sort and shuffle tracks from that imported library. This model suits people who own their music files and want to organise and re-slice the same collection in different ways.

The playlist-first library model

The core idea is that the library is the source, and playlists are views onto it. According to the site, you "import once, then slice it with search, folders and smart playlists." In practice that means:

• Import your collection into Tauon.
• Slice it repeatedly — by searching, by browsing folders, or by defining smart playlists — without re-importing or duplicating files.

This is different from players where each playlist is a separate hand-built list. Here, the same underlying library can produce many different listening contexts.

Browsing alongside the playlist

Tauon pairs the playlist with a gallery view that shows your albums as a grid of cover art. So while you work within a playlist, you can still browse by cover and jump between albums visually. The site describes it as seeing "your albums as a grid of art, next to the playlist."

How smart playlists work

Smart playlists are the dynamic layer. The site describes them as "short codes that filter, sort and shuffle your library." That means a smart playlist is not a static list of tracks you drag in — it is a rule (or set of short codes) that is evaluated against your library to produce a playlist.

The three operations the site names are:

Because these are codes rather than a fixed list, the resulting playlist reflects whatever is currently in your library that matches the rule. Add music later and a matching smart playlist can pick it up, depending on how the rule is written.

A concrete example

Suppose you want a playlist of lossless tracks from a particular folder, ordered by artist. You would combine a filter (lossless formats, that folder), a sort (by artist), and optionally a shuffle for playback variety. The site lists supported lossless and gapless formats including FLAC, Opus, WavPack, APE, DSD and CUE sheets, so format-based filtering is meaningful for a lossless-focused listener.

The exact code syntax is not specified on the page, so treat the above as the shape of the rule rather than literal syntax — check Tauon's in-app documentation for the precise codes.

Who this is for

This design targets people who organise their own music collection — listeners with local files who want control over how the library is sliced, rather than a streaming-style single feed. Supporting features reinforce that audience:

• Tag editor with batch edits and MusicBrainz lookup by audio fingerprint, for keeping metadata consistent (which in turn makes filtering reliable).
• Synced lyrics that can be shown, fetched and written.
• Custom layouts built from widgets or chosen from ready-made views.
• MilkDrop visualiser presets powered by projectM.

Practical notes before switching

• Platforms: Linux, Windows and macOS.
• Licence: GPLv3.
• No ads, no tracking, no account — stated on the site. This describes the product's stance; it does not by itself confirm anything about pricing or download requirements, which the page does not detail.
• Format coverage is broad (FLAC, Opus, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, AAC, ALAC, WavPack, APE, TTA, DSD, CUE, MOD, SPC), so most owned collections should import without conversion.

If your main need is a dynamic, rule-driven way to re-slice a local library — rather than a static hand-curated list — Tauon's playlist-first model with code-based smart playlists is the feature to evaluate first.