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I just completed the big project of overhauling my whole Spotify *from scratch* which involved a lot of work but I'm really happy with how it's turned out. The issue with my old system was I had a ton of abandoned playlists that didn't function so never got played so I started to just 'like' everything I was listening to with the hopes of just clicking shuffle and hoping for the best which often ended up annoying me because there was 0 cohesion. Now I have playlists set up according to genre and also playlists based on vibes. I even set up an 'everything' playlist which has, well, everything lol (I listen to a lot of music so I like to be able to search particular artists/song titles with ease to find what version I have saved) I even have a 'not anymore' playlist so that I can hoard the stuff I don't like anymore and don't care to have pop up on a shuffle play. If you read this far, I'd be interested to hear how you categorise your music
Jan 17, 2025

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Dis is sick. I’m a firm believer that Spotify is actually not that bad, its a set of tools for listening to music and you have to set it up to work for you. My method is super thought Out cos I have iterated on it since like 2017 lol 1. Liked Songs — all songs I have ever liked sit here, this acts as just an archive (~4k songs) 2. Current — this is all the songs that I currently enjoy and want to hear on shuffle atm. when a song annoys me I delete it from this playlist. A song can’t be in Current if I haven’t added it to liked aongs (50-300 songs) 3. personal mixtape — my discovery playlist, I add songs here from recommendations from friends, stealing songs from other playlists, rateyourmusic etc, and listen to this in order. if i like the song I remove it and add to liked + current, if I don’t I just remove it and move on (300-900 songs) Obvs I also listen to albums and have other mood playlists but this is the core structure
Jan 18, 2025
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st9n Interesting! I like that. Out of curiosity, do you have multiple 'currents' as time goes by or do you just keep on top of updating it?
Jan 18, 2025
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sinizabeth naw it’s just a constant. I had considering archiving them but I have no real urge to go back. For a while I also had a playlist where every week I added 10 songs in a mixtape format so it acted like a kind of diary, but it got too arduous so I stopped that
Jan 18, 2025

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I have over 1,000 liked songs on Spotify spanning from what feels like a lifetime of music listening. I’ve currently been in a little bit of a music slump, so throwing on my liked songs and just seeing what pops up has been a really fun reset for me. I’m rediscovering a lot of old favorites.
Jan 20, 2025
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I work alone on the computer all day and try to discover different music because it stimulates me while I mindlessly code. I think I have posted on it here before but since August, when I was in a similar headspace, I've tried to listen to 2-4 albums a day, no repeats, while I work and keep track of it in a RateYourMusic List. I get the albums I listen to from a variety of sources. RYM has a pretty cool list of the highest rated albums on the site and you can play with the filters to change the genre or timeframe, for example "the best cloud rap album from 2016", and pick out something from that. I also did a challenge a few years ago where I made a spreadsheet the "Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of All Time" and picked a few at random everyday for a couple months. Theres other good sources with lists like Pitchfork, the Quietus, Stereogum, Small Albums, Aquarium Drunkard, and so on that you could work through too. I also really like checking out the "Artist Playlists" on Spotify for people I like because they turn me on to cool stuff that inspired their music. Here are some good ones from Hania Rani, Wednesday, and Caroline Polachek. Finally, there are a number of folks on twitter and instagram with good taste like margeaux, yellow button, and people from the podcast Endless scroll who all have good playlists as well as podcasts and/or videos you can check out.
Feb 29, 2024
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These aren't curated playlists, they're just a collection of any new songs I discover and really like, or old songs I re-fall in love with. I then give each playlist a name that references how I feel or an event that happened that month. I was in a similar place to you a couple of years ago, but I've found doing this really helps me track my tastes and experiences every month, which I find is quite helpful in our streaming-dominated musicscape. When I used to actually download songs, it was easy to scroll through my library and be reminded of artists I'd forgotten about or had only listened to a couple of times. I've found that with streaming its really easy to lose track of who you listen to and enjoy, so it really flattens everything and causes you to either rely on the algorithm or your go-to past artists. As far as discovering new artists goes, there are still a few reliable sites and publications that review new albums (paste, gorilla vs. bear, pitchfork (sort of), etc.). I also like following or signing up for email newsletters (gasp!) from specific indie record labels that I enjoy. If you like several artists on the label, then chances are you'll like more, and they always notify you when something new is being released. Same goes for local venues. Check out the small stage acts coming through or various openers, even if you don't actually make it to the show. This is also a great way to get plugged into the local scene and it keeps you young, sort of.
Feb 29, 2024

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