The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) wrote a really great tip today about how to make wishlists in iTunes; a feature which is “missing” from the iTunes Music Store.

Their tip is good, but they end it at making a playlist on your local machine. After reading the article, I thought… well… what about turning it into an iMix, so that you could share it with the world? Turns out, it works.

The great thing about making an iMix Wishlist is that through some finagling, people can actually gift the music to you. Because this is bit tricky, I thought I’d give further instructions on how to go about this.

First, do what TUAW says. Create a playlist called something like “iPod Nirvana’s Wishlist.”

Then go through the iTunes Music Store and find stuff you like. Drag it over to your playlist.

When you’re done window shopping, select the playlist and a little arrow will show up next to it. Click that arrow. A little window will pop up that gives you the options of canceling, “Give Playlist,” or “Create iMix.” You want to click “Create iMix.”

Follow the instructions there.

So, now your playlist is available to the world. You can even email it to people by using the “Tell A Friend” link, or link to it on your website by control clicking (or right clicking for you two button people).

But how do they buy it for you?

Easy.

All they need to do is go to your iMix, and click on one of the arrows next to a track name or album name. At the top of the screen, next to the album artwork there will be a link that says, “Gift This Music.” When they click that link the background will turn green and all of the “Add Song” buttons will be turned in to “Gift Song” buttons. They just click the track you want, and enter your email address.

To make things easier for them, you may want to include instructions in your email or on your website… or even right there in the iMix description. Something like:

Feeling generous? Feel free to buy something for me. Just click one of the arrows next to a track name. Then click “Gift This Music” in the resulting screen. Find the track you want to buy me in the new playlist, and click the “Gift Song” button. My email address is vertigo25 at gmail dot com.

And of course, I have set up my own wishlist. You can see it (and buy me stuff) here

BTW… I don’t recommend putting your personal email address in the description. The one I put is my catch-all that I don’t mind if it gets spammed or someone tries to stalk me through it :)

Oh… and one other thing. iMixes only “live” for a month. So you may want to make new ones periodically.