The art of playlisting

The origins of playlisting

A lost art form

Today, playlists are either curated for us or generated on the spot based on our listening habits. I feel like playlisting is a dying art that may have been just a blip in humanity's musical history. For most of human history, music could only be experienced live. Our ancestors would gather together and make music collectively (whether our modern ears would recognize it as music or not is another discussion), creating a communal experience. Music notation was invented to allow us to perform certain pieces repeatedly and pass them on to others. With the development of music recordings, we could suddenly share music across the world. Albums were largely shaped by the limitations of vinyl records, cassettes, and later CDs—but limitations breed creativity. Artists created beautiful works and told stories through their album compositions.

The birth of the playlist

Now that music could be shared, we wanted to personalise our listening. I remember growing up with a CD player that could hold 6 CD’s and had a shuffle button that would skip between discs and that was cutting edge. Playlisting began further back when tape decks were invented allowing listeners to create record their own mixtapes. The limitation of tape still led to big decisions as to what made the cut and what didn’t. CD burners came along as well as MP3’s being digitally available to burn onto a CD to play in your car.

With the invention of MP3 players the possibilities were suddenly endless. All of a sudden you could fit 1000’s of songs in one seemingly endless playlist. If you weren’t pirating music then you were still making somewhat conscience choices of what music you were buying.

Streaming services

Let me start off by saying that I am a huge fan of music streaming services. I’ve been an avid user of Spotify for well over 10 years. Streaming services have given us access to almost every song across every continent. We now have access to unending playlists curated by other people or generated for us on the spot based on what we like. These are great things! I love these things, but I also can’t help but notice how everyone is listening to the same songs. Rarely these days do I have the feeling that I’ve stumbled across a hidden gem that my friends have never heard before, unless I go on a deep dive for new music.

My peers largely listen to Spotify generated playlists or the new AI DJ that Spotify came out with. These make it easy to listen to music you already like and can even introduce you to songs you haven’t heard before, but still I feel like there is something missing here. I love searching for small artists that have hardly been discovered yet! I started listening to Lawrence back when they only had barely 2 albums out and today they have over a million monthly listeners and have been featured in ads, a Disney movie, and several news channels. The feeling of knowing that I listened to them before they became popular is one of my favorites and I love getting to share artists like that who I know my friends haven’t heard of yet. It does always make the question of “What artists do you listen to?” a bit lengthier to explain though since most people just look at me quite puzzled.

How to playlist

Pick a motief

What do you want feel when you listen to your playlist. Notice how I didn’t say “how do you want your listeners to feel?” Make it personal, if a playlist makes you feel a certain way, then it’s likely to make others feel that way too. Genre, tempo, key, and energy are all factors that could be considered here, but you don’t have to narrow it down so far that you can’t find any songs anymore.

Give yourself limitations

Artists and creators of all types say it for a reason; Limitation breeds creativity. If you are just starting off and this is your first time setting out to really make a playlist that brings a certain emotion, feeling, or thought then limit yourself to only a few songs. Take 12 for example. That’s about how many songs an artist may put on their album and they can create brilliant journeys that move us to tears, laughter, and/or joy. Longer playlists sitting around 60 songs are what you’re likely to find on Spotify. These are really good at capturing a mood and sitting in it. People will shuffle these and enjoy the songs in any order.

Order can make a difference

The shuffle button is great for shaking up those long playlists that we always go back too, but I find that the first time I listen to a playlist I want to listen with shuffle turned off to see what the curator intended it to sound like. With a smaller playlist this is even more important. Consider how one song transitions into the next and the overall flow of your playlist. My Swing Jazz Dinner playlist starts off with high energy, transitions to slightly lower energy songs over the course of two hours, right about when people would be in the middle of eating and having deeper conversations. It then picks up around dessert time and settles at a medium energy level at the end of the night. That playlist gets updated every week.

Share with others!

Share what you made with friends and family. Don’t just put it out there in the open, but see how people react to it. Your playlist won’t be for everyone and today listening to music has become much more of a background activity. Figure out who in your circle your playlist would appeal to.

And most importantly, have fun!