Since I got my new computer I’ve had an iTunes library with practically no top rated songs. I wanted to correct this situation but I find the rating UI fiddly and not likey to my mouse so I set about finding some keyboard shortcuts. None Exist.

But they can be created if you have a Mac. All with the power of Apple Script. Mac Geekery has a post on Using Keyboard Shortcuts to Rate Songs in iTunes.

The above is a little hard to follow so here’s a quick rundown.

1. Check to see if you have a folder located at /Library/iTunes/Scripts. If you don’t create one.
2. Open up Script Editor.
3. Create a script with the following code and save it as Rate as 0. This script will tell itunes to give a song a rating of 1 (itunes uses a scale of 0 to 100 for song ratings).

   tell application "iTunes"
       repeat with theTrack in (get selection)
           set the rating of theTrack to 20
       end repeat
   end tell
   

4. Create 4 other versions of this script and change the value of 20 to 40, 60, 80, and 100 and name theme accordingly. Rate as 1, Rate as 2…
5. Open up system preferences and the keyboard and mouse dialog. Click on the Keyboard Shortcuts section. Add a shortcut setting the Application to iTunes, the Menu Title to Rate as 1 and the keyboard shortcut to ⌘⌥1. Do this 4 more times for the other 4 ratings.
6. Open Up ITunes and get rating.