How *Not* to Organize a Music Library

Emma Withers asked me how I organize my music library, and unearthed the chaos that runs the show (and one actually useful tip!)

Expectation vs. reality?

I’m not exactly what you’d call “tidy”.

I salivate over the kind of organizational utopia promised in one-stop “fix your life, you absolute pile of garbage” guides. The kind that will have you sorting everything — your clothes, your food, your office supplies, your pets — into neatly categorized and labeled boxes tucked away behind beautiful cabinetry. I daydream about my would-be clutter-free life, promptly get sleepy, and give up before I begin.

I can’t even stick to a single system to organize my music.

So when Emma of emma withers says new music! asked to interview me about exactly that, I obviously jumped at the chance to share my expertise.

Emma is collecting intel about music organization from all of her favorite Substack music writers, and I had the honor of being her first subject.

How to organise an online music library. Part 1: Gabbie from New Bands for Old Heads

While I did toy with the idea of simply cross-posting her interview, I thought this might be a good opportunity to give her questions a bit more time and thought, and maybe elaborate on some of my abandoned tangents.

So, with her blessing, I’m reproducing the original article (somewhat unfaithfully) below.

EMMA: Let’s start with the basics, where do you make your music libraries?

GABBIE: Sadly, I do still use Spotify. It's been my main streaming service for well over a decade, and it's ingrained fully into my daily life¹. Because of the newsletter, I also pay for Apple and Tidal, and maintain YouTube and Amazon playlists as well. That's for the benefit of my readers who use those platforms, though — I rarely use them for music discovery myself.

I should mention that Spotify is only one of dozens of sources for my music discovery. It’s simply become a convenient way to consolidate everything in one place.

E: Do you have a physical music collection at all?

G: A very small one yes, but it has a totally separate function for me than music discovery. Physical media is for slow, deliberate enjoyment, mostly of old music, not new. In that way it actually hinders my music discovery process, which for me is almost painfully fast-paced, and requires the convenience that digital (streaming, I should say) media affords.

I do add to my little vinyl collection (which consists of maybe 50 records at most), but only occasionally and following some strange self-imposed rules:

1. Secondhand first. I know this is contentious, but I hate buying new vinyl (or any brand new physical media, actually)². I can’t shake the feeling that I’m contributing to overconsumption and, given my realistic listening habits, just accumulating unnecessary “stuff” that will sit around collecting dust.

2. If I'm buying old records, it has to be something that will sound better on vinyl. What does that mean? Who knows. Well, audiophiles know, but I’m not one of them, so I’m running off vibes.

3. Albums must be "special" in some way. Again, what does that mean? I know it when I hear it, but typically that means records that I want to listen to without multitasking, or that hold some particular nostalgic value, or are unusual or obscure in some way.

You may ask, how do I live with myself if I'm not directly supporting artists by purchasing new records? It’s definitely a moral dilemma, but I run a modestly popular newsletter (which itself came from an even more popular TikTok channel) that drives more record sales than you’d expect, especially to small artists. I also go to shows and buy merch³ and digital albums.

E: I was not going to ask that, but a good reminder to everyone to go to shows! Buy merch! Aside from what you publish on Substack, what are you using the playlists you create for? For your own enjoyment, for when you have people over etc?

G: Many of my playlists are for there to keep track of the best music of each year. This has become my default organization method after many years of failing to maintain spreadsheets with rigorous scoring metrics, genre categorizations… the whole works.

Either I throw a song into a “best of” playlist while I’m listening to a full album to remind me that it’s an album of the year contender, or I do the same for a single song to remind me to check out the full album later. Either way, it serves as a bookmarking system. Not a good one, mind you, but I manage.

Outside of new music, many of my playlists have niche themes (e.g. the witchy disco). Some are genre-specific (hand-curated) mixes and others are to fit a mood of a specific time or event in my life. My favorites playlists are for travel — I like to have a "movie soundtrack" for each trip I take, which helps me remember that trip later on.

E: I love that you’re creating playlists for trips! Are you making them before,
imagining what a place will feel like and what you'd want to listen to there? Or do you make it while you're there, and does it often reflect the music of the place you're visiting?

G: I make them in advance, before I arrive at my destination, generally with music that I don't have strong associations with already. I may like the music and know it (but not ALWAYS — maybe I’ll toss brand new discoveries in there too, but in either case, nothing can be tied with a memory yet). The idea is to force that music to bind to my memory of the trip. I will add to it during my travels if I hear something particular that catches my attention, to remind me of specific events.

I do this with fragrances, too. I choose one or two perfumes to travel with usually and wear them so I can build a scent memory. How very Proustian of me.

E: Do you save other people’s playlists and keep them, or do you take certain songs from other playlists you listen to and add them to your own?

Both. I save other people's playlists and listen to them, but I also cull from them into mine or else I'll forget the specific tracks/albums that I actually like.

There isn't anyone out there whose tastes match mine note for note, but following other people's playlists is a great way to stay on top of new releases. I have to assume we’re all constantly checking out each others’ lists, right?

After I have a better idea of what the full album sounds like from hearing a track in a playlist (and then checking out the rest of the record), mine or somebody else's, I will sort specific tracks into my existing genre-based playlists (or create a new one if needed).

E: How much attention are you paying to full albums vs. songs, and does this affect how you sort your music collection?

I'm a full album girly.

Playlists are my bookmarking and "awareness" tools, but they are almost always there to remind me to head to the full album for further exploration. The exception to this are playlists aren’t meant for discovery, like one of the travel or mood playlists I mentioned. Those were created for a very specific purpose, so I'm happy to listen to those playlists as playlists.

I cringe at the thought of recommending an artist without having listened to the full album, unless maybe it's part of one of my massive playlist roundups that's based around countless genres and bands. In those instances I may rely on a faster scan. But certainly my default is always full album listening, and I'll never recommend an actual album without having listened to it minimally twice through.

E: Do you save full albums to remember them? One of the things I do is put full albums under a folder just titled full albums, (known) or full albums (unknown) and it’s a lot of the ones I love that feel important to me, or ones I want to take a proper listen to.

I don't save albums. The playlist system I have basically replaced that need. Or so I like to tell myself.

E: Do you feel like you do have a good system for how you sort your music?

Absolutely not.

I want to be the kind of person who keeps spreadsheets of all new releases. I want to cross-reference everything I hear against older influences in advance of writing about them, not just on the fly. I want a lot of things.

The best I’ve been able to do is create a spreadsheet of the bands I’ve mentioned in this newsletter. Retroactively. It’s something, I guess?

Let’s be honest, the playlist/bookmarking system sucks. I’m not married to it and I’ll abandon it the second something simpler and more clever pops into my head. But I can’t think of anything better when I rely on so many different sources for music discovery; it’s nothing more than the path of least resistance.

Sometimes I think I started writing a weekly newsletter just so I can keep track of everything.

E: Yes I feel like that too! At least my new releases are very well sorted and I feel like I have a system there! Lastly and I suppose most importantly, how are you actually sorting your music?

95% of the music I listen to is new (and by that I mean brand new music, freshly released each week). I have my stalwart genre-based playlists where I toss in tracks as I come across them that remind me of past classics (and that will hopefully be nostalgic for my readers, too).

For these mostly utilitarian playlists, I tend to create them by genre first, then maybe vibe.

I miss listening to older music, though. Even music that just isn’t from this year. I try to dedicate some time on a somewhat regular basis to go back and listen it, since I have to rely on those older reference points to make recommendations. A “new old discoveries” playlist takes care of that to some extent.

Honestly, at this point I’ve just learned to lean into the chaos.

Are you like me — a total music chaos goblin?

I like to imagine each and every one of you with massive, meticulously organized vinyl collections. For what it’s worth, I also assume that you manage to keep your towels folded in an aesthetically pleasing manner and that you have small decorative pillows that go on top of the larger, functional pillows that you actually sleep on.

Er — in other words, you don’t need me to help you organize your music collection. Nor could I if you asked, as Emma helped uncover.

What I can do is help you discover new music. Hopefully you’ll still trust me now that you’ve seen under the hood.

Ciao for now,

Gabbie

P.S. Since I left this out of my Best of February post last week, and I’ve so rudely deprived you of a new music recommendation this week, I’ll throw one in now.

How to describe Youth Lagoon’s latest? If you like Perfume Genius, this will appeal, but I’m trying to reach for older touchstones. There are elements of trip-hop and grunge, and even the fuzz of shoegaze here and there. It’s an introspective and beautiful record. I’d provide a standout track, but this is a concept album that deserves to be enjoyed whole.

1. You can read a little more about the agony I went through trying (unsuccessfully) to leave Spotify here.

2. Absolutely exceptional new records, like Cindy Lee's Diamond Jubilee, are a special case. I'm also sent PR by labels regularly, but I prefer to reroute those to my readers via giveaways instead of accepting the PR myself.

3. Again, if I know I’ll have use for it. I really do hate accumulating stuff for no reason, and this isn’t the time or place for yet another one of my anti-fast fashion rants.