(There are other iTunes utilities out there that can do this, such as Instead of just a number of tracks since tracks can vary wildly in length, I’d like to be able to tell iTunesShut to put my Mac to sleep after 30 minutes of playback. (For the math sticklers, it’s always a percentage of 100 if you type 25, each reduction will be 25 percent of iTunes’ total volume scale, not 25 percent of the current volume.)Īlthough iTunesShut’s functionality and interface are easily understandable, there are a couple improvements I’d like to see. Enter the percent you want each song to decrease in volume (for example, type 25 for 25 percent-the scale goes from 0 to 100) as the track changes, iTunes’ volume will be reduced by that percent. You can also choose to gradually reduce iTunes’ playback volume-a unique but welcome feature in a “sleep” timer-via the Volume field (the one furthest to the right). This also means that if you want the action to occur immediately after the current song, enter 0.) If you prefer to finish the current playlist, instead of choosing a number of songs, check the “Or wait for the playlist to finish” box. (Note that the current song doesn’t “count” if you enter 5, the count starts with the After the designated number of tracks finishes playing, iTunesShut performs the chosen action iTunesShut updates the “Songs left” box during playback to let you know how many tracks remain before the action occurs. ), which offers a simple but effective solution: Enter the number of songs you want to play, choose an action to occur after those tracks finish-Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, Pause iTunes, or Quit iTunes-and then click Start. I’ve recently been testing GuguSoft’s free And what if you want to shut your Mac down or put it to sleep afterwards to save energy? I suppose you could coordinate your playlist with Mac OS X’s Energy Saver preferences but, again-a hassle.

Have you ever wanted to listen to a few tracks in iTunes as you’re going to sleep, or had some other reason to stop playback after a certain amount of time or number of tracks? You could create a new playlist with the appropriate number of tracks and just let it play out, but that’s a hassle if you have to do it on a regular basis.

Mac sleep timer