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Share your Music Organization System

I recently have been studying music publishing and pitching. I find it interesting how some people in the industry categorize music and it had lead me to spend more hours funneling my music library on Spotify. I have heard people mostly organize by mood and style, but let me know what your system is!

 

I'll go first:

 

1. If a song catches my attention, it goes to my "Liked Songs". When I have time at the end of the week I go through my liked songs and categorized them into folders.

 

2. Folders

- Genres

-Theme (These are more niche and for fun)

-Languages

-Places

-Holidays

-People/Friends

-Project Ideas

-School (Studying tools for music classes I currently am studying)

             - Western Music History

             - Traditional Music of America

             - Traditional Music from a Global Perspective

- Others Playlists/Liked Playlists

 

3. Once its in a folder I usually remove it from my "Liked Songs" so I know I already put it into my playlists.

10 Replies

Cool thread, @Tiona-Rene!

 

My system of organizing music within my Spotify library is mainly focused on genres, because for the most part, my public playlists on Spotify have genre themes (with the exception of a couple of playlists for which the theme is "new releases"); and it is these public playlists that I update most regularly.

 

Here’s my typical music organization process for songs that I’ve just discovered (or re-discovered), and would like to listen to later:

 

1. If I enjoy listening to tracks all the way through, I save them to Liked Songs, as well as to a public playlist that I’ve made (which is also called “Liked Songs,” and is intended to contain the same selection of tracks).

 

2. In addition, if any genres that the songs represents are genres of music for which I have public Spotify playlists, then I also add the songs to these relevant genre-themed playlists.

 

3. Over the course of the next few days or weeks, I listen to newly added tracks often, so that I’m sure that I still enjoy them after repeated listens (sometimes this is the case; and sometimes not, in which case I remove these tracks from my Liked Songs and “Liked Songs” playlist, as well as from any genre-themed playlists that I had added them to).

 

4. For my playlists that aren’t public, I don’t typically add or remove tracks very regularly; most of these are in one folder called “Additional playlists,” which I occasional go through and update with any tracks from Liked Songs that have been added in recent weeks or months. These playlists in my “Additional playlists” folder have a variety of themes, and are not organized in any particular way.

 

Cheers!

AdamDamSpotify Star
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I'll like a song if i like it (or think i should/might).

When i first started using the service - and before i started perusing habitually(/"obsessively") - i had a metal and a dubstep folder, but the genres quickly blended and i subsequently stopped caring, especially when i found swancore and myriad related ones.

I have at least 5 "queue lists," into which i add songs as i find them. Once a list reaches an interesting length or enough time has passed, i'll start a new queue list while trying to work through old ones (not very efficiently).

Curated lists generally begin with a handfull of new (to me) discoveries, and i'll then add either similar or contrasting songs; i might find or force a (loose) theme, citing everything from lyrics to album art to artist/album name.

Moving between (genre) extremes with ease, most of my lists nowadays could be titled "this is what i found in these months," but because i dont sort by release dates (and often add songs i liked in the past into the new lists), i instead assign them uniquely, vaguely.

I do have a few intentionally themed lists, such as "trippy album art," a couple of "(literal) novel" lists, "talking to myself," etc., but i hardly ever start with some thing in mind. 

If someone should trust their ears with me, i strive to make it memorable/prompt them to think. Even my "most hardcore metal" playlist has a few songs meant to make one laugh (such as one sung by Yosemite Sam, the rootinest, tootinest).

Without conscious intent while compiling, i guess i "make lists for myself," but there's usually something for every-one; not a flat line to it, buried amongst the opposite.

I don't really do a lot of playlisting, mostly because I fear it gets out of hands and becomes difficult to keep tidy. But anyway, I do have a few playlists... : )

 

New interesting things end up in Liked Songs. There I check them out again to see if I still find them as interesting.

Music I find really good travels into "You Sound Good" playlist. If it's beat stuff, there's also "Lace me with those beats" playlist that holds strictly electronic selection of bangers.
I have a playlist for old childhood favourites. It's called 'the "Oh God I listened to that" playlist'.

Other playlists I have may not have much to do with my own taste of music, they serve other functions like all ID'ed tracks from Amon Tobin sets, some community playlistings and so forth.

My local library is sorted as well - I have folders for artists, and under them are subfolders for albums.
If I have a lot of releases from a certain label, then I make a folder for the label and add artists with their subfolders under that.
And I have a separate folder for singular songs.
All this keeps things quite neat for backupping purposes especially, but also in tree-view music players.

I never sort by genre or mood. : )

SebastySpotify Star
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My music organization system  in folder by  creator: 

 

I like to playlist arranged in folder by the creator of playlist.

 

my main playlist is not to folder because the listen all the time

My daily mix

My other playlist

the playlist of spotify

the playlist of nicolas 

 

 

My organization system is similar to yours, except instead of a week, I do it per month. 

I listen to some songs on "Top Global 50" or playlists made by Spotify. Then, I see if I like it or not. If I do, I add it to my liked songs, which goes into a playlists, ten remove the liked songs.

 

Hi!

 

I think my folder organisation is a little all over the place as I have MANY. When I first got Spotify a few years ago I started to make seasonal playlists to save the music I found every few months and to this day those playlists remind me of specific memories which is really cool. When the playlists got out of hand, I naturally made a folder for them and that's where my folder organisation started. 

 

From then on it goes:

- Spotify-made playlists

- Mood playlists

- Character playlists (each TV show gets their own folder) 

- The 'best of' - my favourite songs, favourite soundtracks etc being the playlists in this folder.

 

Other than that, playlists are dotted about in the list of folders from most listened to to least listened to. 😊

I treat my playlists like a song journal.

 

I have no actual categorical system, because I am a person that’s all over the place with my mood. Not to sound unstable though haha!

 

I’m not a gifted writer, so I find that this is the only way I can journal. I also have a secret back burner playlist where I hold songs that I like, that I may use in the future for relatable moments.

I tried doing playlists based on genres, but it doesn’t work for me because I become easily bored and need to mix it up after a bit, like if I made a playlist dedicated to just hip hop I won’t keep listening for very long because after two songs, or so, I might want to listen to psychedelic lol

Nice topic! Learning how people use different organisation systems for music is interesting. Here's mine:

 

I save all the songs that I like to my Liked Songs, and I sometimes shuffle my Liked Songs to listen to everything I liked since I started using Spotify.

Also, I have 5 main folders where I sort my custom playlists and other playlists that my friend or Spotify created:

- Cheer up (playlists like Mood Booster, on my way to class...)

- Chill (Chill Beats, Piano relaxation, and similar)

- Music (my Hits playlist where I save my current favorite songs, Top 50 Global, Today's top hits...)

- Artists (This is *Artist name* of my favorite artists, and my favorite songs from other artsts)

- Unused (this folder contains all the playlists I don't need. For example, I have a Downloads playlist with my offline songs, playlists I create for my friends, for special occasions...)

 

That's my music system, hope you like it!

Jose_MSpotify Star
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It's so interesting to see how every person here organizes their collections, that's such a cool topic! I did not know there are so many options.

 

My own goes something like:

- I listen to a track/album: if I like it, I heart it. This puts all my hearted tracks to my Liked Songs or saves in my Albums.

 

At the beginning of each month, I'll start a playlist for the current month and add the liked tracks from that month in there. These playlists go into yearly Folders (so like, I have 2020 > January to December playlists nested inside for example).

 

Occasionally if I listen to a track I enjoyed but wasn't worthy of being in my Liked Songs, I'll simply only add it in the current month's playlist (just so I remember I listened to it and enjoyed it briefly).

 

 

 

I'd love to hear how @Soundofus@osornios and @Bittencourt organize their (I assume :D) vast music collections.

KaterinaModerator
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Hey all!

 

It's great to see all those different ways you use to organize your songs. 

 

As I work with playlist curation, I'm always thinking "Ok, this song sounds like which client?" and then I drag it to the most suitable one(s) and move on. 

 

Of course I have my own playlists and they are quite diverse in terms of genres, but that's pretty much how I do. One thing I'm particularly glad of is to keep track of the best songs of the year (to me at least) since 2013. 

 

I only heart songs that I reeaally love and that also don't fit in any of the playlists. I generally listen to them when taking cold showers 🙂

 

Here's the link to my profile in case you want to check them out!

 

BittencourtSpotify Star
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