Obsessions: iTunes playlists
At Umbrella we appreciate the details. So we understand when our readers are into something – really into something. In this instalment of our regular Obsessions feature, Matt Reynolds comes clean about his playlist habit.
There used to be a jibe about keeping your record collection stored alphabetically. It was meant to be a dig – directed at someone so anal about cataloguing music that they spent their time joylessly reordering their shelves instead of enjoying listening to the tunes. I never did that. But then iTunes came along.
My iMac G3 (Apple’s first mega-popular desktop machine, released in 1998) introduced me to iTunes. Back in those days I was a light user, I just dabbled with the software.
I set about manually transferring my music from compact disc to hard drive. The process took ages – held up by a fairly large record collection and a dial-up internet connection that only intermittently provided (often incorrect) track names. Within a few weeks however I had laid the foundations of my ‘iTunes library’.
I loved the way I could now organise tracks by artist, by album, by genre. Beyond that, I could organise them by duration (in ascending or descending order) or by track name – though this did increase the risk of hearing The Cure’s A Forest followed by A Forest (Demo) followed by A Forest (Extended instrumental 18-minute dubplate mix). That was when I discovered playlists.
I began to divide up my newly-created library along straightforward lines at first: Pop, Rock, Soul – that kind of thing. Soon I discovered that iTunes allowed sub-folders within playlist folders. So Rock became home to Psychedelic Rock, Instrumental Rock, Garage Rock, Acid Rock, Krautrock and Post Rock. You get the idea.
Sometimes I’d sub-categorise again – after all, the instrumental Post Rock of Tortoise had no business next to the vocal-led output of Slint. And, thinking about it, weren’t the Canadians so prolific with their millennial Post Rock output that they deserved a playlist of their own? Suddenly I’d become an indexer.
Arrange my record collection alphabetically? Sure I do – I arrange my ‘Instrumental/Canadian/Post Rock /‘98-‘04’ playlist in reverse alphabetical artist order, since you’re asking. That way the Hrsta records play before the Godspeed ones. Got it?
Since then my strange experimentation with sub-folders and arranging by artist name has led to a fully-blown playlist addiction.
I can lose hours in front of iTunes, stopping to examine, reorder or update any one of the hundreds of playlists that nestle on the left hand side of the display. Endlessly procrastinating, I might decide that Dum Dum Boys from The Idiot really does deserve a place in the ‘Best of Bowie & Iggy In Berlin’ playlist, or that Turn it on Again from Duke is worthy of inclusion in the ‘Post-Gabriel Genesis’ list (it definitely is, by the way).
And it doesn’t stop there. ‘Smart’ playlists allow me to create lists according to a file’s metadata (stay with me), so for example, the ‘Forgotten bangers of 2002’ smart playlist would contain all the tracks that from 2002 with a star rating of five that hadn’t been played in six months. How else would I remember to listen to All Things To All Men by the Cinematic Orchestra? Exactly.
I know I should share the playlists on Spotify so that others can benefit from the fruits of my labour, but still they remain hidden in my iTunes account, locked away and private. Like a collector’s toy cars in their sealed boxes. For shame.
So why do it? Because, simply, there’s joy in compiling these lists – a joy that comes from knowing that I have the unique musical knowledge and impeccable taste required to create them. To be a curator. Something that gives me a deep sense of satisfaction.
Hang on, did someone mention satisfaction? Now, where’s that ‘Rock/60s/US number ones by a UK band’ playlist when you need it…