Ever been riddled with anxiety when in the car and someone offers you the AUX? Lost in doubt that your playlist may be as stale as last week’s Saladas?
The struggle is real when it comes to creating the perfect playlist; seamless changes, the right feel, weather appropriateness and relevancy are all factors that need to be considered. It’s tough, but we’ll get through it.
How do you make a good playlist? Tune curation is one of the big issues of our time, and extricating all evil from the practice is a top priority.
Creating, sharing and mixing your music catalogue to perfection within a tune obsessed community is an absolute treat, when done right. There is something for everyone and the possibilities to pick up some sweet skills in formulating the perfect playlist are endless.
In recent times, there’s always been technology to harbour our curative obsessions. If you can remember you’re feature song on Myspace, you know what I’m talking about. With Spotify playlists already being as huge as they are, we’re even seeing sister apps like Mixably popping up, turning the existing tech into a more realised social network.
So here are the key steps in building the all-time banger compilation:
- Pull songs from Spotify.
- Add a cover photo: picture, GIF or selfie.
- Tweak the wheel to sort your music.
- Add title, tags and description.
The key words here are songs, sort, and title.
Songs
Obviously the songs that you choose are important for your mix. I used to create playlists in the most stupid way and I am happy to share with you my foolish mistakes. Firstly, I used to just chuck a whole heap of songs in that I liked…. which kind of seems like the point… a playlist is just a mix of songs that you are keen on?
But they bounced around in genre, tempo, era, there was no structure and very little TLC towards creating the optimum vibe for my listeners. To all that were made to sit though those dark car rides, I am deeply sorry.
Here is an example of a bad playlist.
While all great tracks, the playlist is lacking in cohesion. One minute you’re sipping a cold one in a blow up pool in the yard, and then next you’re nanging in a small dark space in Petersham.
So the key here is picking your tracks and making hard calls about how tender and loving a relationship certain songs have with each other. You want a flow smoother than a Maccas soft serve.
It would have been better to create two playlists and work on both separately. This would probably make a much better car ride.
Sort
If you know that you are travelling from the city to the beach or that the party is starting in the afternoon and progressing into the deep dark of night, the order in which you set your tracks is massively important.
For a party playlist, having the groovy classic hits and disco pop as the opening titles is what it’s all about, then as people’s vision and coordination becomes less acute, revving the hype and pace is the natural progression.
It might seem obvious, but too many times have I been witness to some shocking playlists simply because the curator chucked together a heap of ‘good songs’ without acknowledging the intricacies in timing of mood, lighting, inebriation and party theme.
Title
This is where the real wankers are revealed. I don’t like to judge a book by it’s cover but be warned if you name your playlist something lame like ’Sunshine in Summer’ or ‘Banging Party Mix’, I will vom and hold you personally accountable. Get creative everyone!
Obviously the name of your playlist should be in touch with the vibe you’re going for, but have a personal and intriguing spin to it. Some of the better one’s I have come across in my time include:
Poppin’ Master Party
Marinating in My Own Come Down
I Hate Driving
The Birth of Cool
Mint Indie
Make a playlist name relevant, funny and obvious – no one wants to click on ‘Rollin’ Vibey Chiller’ and get hit with Meek Mill’s On the Regular. Red hot tune, but not what I needed when I’m dropping Grandma off to the RSL.
It takes time, consistency and commitment, but once you master playlists you’ll never get clammy at the thought of a group car trip or sharing headphones again. Get creative and share on Mixably, you’re sure to find some killer lists and maybe some sweet skills in setting the mood, amping the vibe or numbing the aching pain of a wretched Sunday morning hangover.
