Let’s take a break from games and talk about music.
I opened the music box
For a decade now I have curated playlists. This probably started with my days listening to Pandora. I would actively listen and mark which tracks I did and didn’t want in my automatically generated music feeds. It’s a brilliant system, by the way! But once Spotify became a place for more direct, on demand listening, I began to make collections there that would quickly eclipse my work on other platforms.
Office DJ #fire
At first, these playlists were intended only as stuff to listen to while I worked, and this was a great experience on its own. However, I shared an office space and didn’t care much for headphones, so I lucked out that my coworkers in earshot were already fans of the music I listened to or were at least willing to tolerate my questionable taste.
I’ve always had the bug to DJ, so playlists became my show. I was always very conscious of who was listening and what vibe I was going for. Playlists weren’t just songs dumped into a box, I would carefully choose what order to play them in, so every playlist then was specifically sequenced.
Setting the mood
Things have changed a lot since then, but the spirit of sharing cool music is still the main drive. For example, no longer do I sequence the tracks since most people just hit shuffle and randomly listen through, including myself now. My goal is to create a collection that will hold up in any order and simply achieve an overall mood or theme.
My greatest love is instrumental music, because lyrical tunes distract me while I do any kind of deep, focused work. It’s hard for me to write or program with people talking or singing. This rules out podcasts, sadly, but a musical atmosphere is just the ticket. So now, I create playlists that last for hours if not days without repeating.
Everybody talks
Now I’m not the only one who works or relaxes to this music I’ve collected. I’ve been hearing feedback over the past couple years or more about how much others enjoy my playlists that I’ve shared with them. Knowing this, I had to take things to another level.
Today, I manage a couple dozen well thought out playlists that have received great feedback and I continue to explore new moods and themes to find the next big successful collection of songs. My hope is that many people will find them enjoyable and beneficial.
Recent revival
Over the past couple months, I have begun to put a higher level of polish onto these playlists by creating custom thumbnail images and refining the titles and descriptions that introduce the style and aim of each as well as help them get found by searching listeners.
Future music
Perhaps one day I can produce the kind of playlist people would be willing to support through donations. Supporters could suggest themes. I could roll out fresh collections periodically and make updates to existing playlists. I would even love to curate on other platforms such as YouTube or other places popular for streaming music. Where do you prefer to listen?
I don’t think I’m quite ready to formalize things just yet, but that depends on the level of interest others have. For now, I’ll simply keep rolling out great music sets and keep refining my approach.
If you would like to suggest a new playlist idea, please reach out with a comment. In the meantime, check out what I’ve already got available for listening today.