How do you decide which songs to add to your Spotify library/playlists?

[AdamDamon]

For me, the songs that I typically add to my Spotify library and playlists are ones that I can listen to seemingly endlessly without them becoming annoying or boring, as I use playlists (including Liked Songs) primarily for saving music to return to for relistening at later times. 

I often listen to songs that I’ve just started to appreciate over and over again, to test this quality before adding the songs to my Spotify library and playlists. I also like to think that doing so helps to reduce the frequency of situations where I end up changing my mind about how much I enjoy listening to a song and end up removing it from my playlists.

Feel free to share about how you decide which songs you add to your Spotify library and/or playlists as well. Cheers!

[PvP1]

I make playlists for genres (slow instrumental jazz, 60s music, triphop etc), as it depends 100% on my mood of the moment what I want to listen to. Makes it a lot easier when I come home - how do I feel? Press play. 

[funny_cat]

Similar to yours, I also listen to music and see if I actually like the song or if it just fits the mood I’m in at the time, usually I would listen to the same song for a while (like few days) before I add them to my playlist. But some songs have that kick to it which I enjoys a lot so goes in my playlist instantly. And also I would listen to albums from start to finish and songs that I didn't enjoy at first would come around when I actually know what the song is about…

[AdamDamon]

Thanks for sharing, @PvP1  and @funny_cat!

I also make playlists based on genres, @PvP1, and agree with you that it’s nice to have these types of playlists for any mood or situation that I might be in as well (although I should also admit that the majority of what I tend to listen to these days tends to fall into just two related genres, so I mostly end up just listening to the same playlist, regardless of my current mood 😅). I think genres are great for building playlists, since when the songs in the playlist are filtered by this quality, they keep the same “vibe” or “atmosphere” going that you feel like hearing at the time. I also think that I tend to specifically try to find new music within genres that I like, rather than music from a certain decade, country, or any other factor, so it makes sense that I would build playlists based on genres first and foremost, too.

It sounds like the way we choose songs for our playlists is quite similar, @funny_cat! I also sometimes get really excited about a song after just a few listens and add it to my playlists immediately; that’s usually not the case, but sometimes I just can’t help myself with saving tracks that sound amazing on the first listen. Usually I listen to the song I’m considering adding to my playlists many times throughout the day, but I might try your strategy of listening for a few days instead of just one—I think the different moods and environmental scenarios occurring on separate days could affect the how we appreciate the song we’re listening to, such that listening on multiple days could be really helpful to more thoroughly test whether the song is enjoyable for a listener to hear, regardless of one’s current mood or situation at the time. Plus, there’s of course more time for additional listens over the course of a few days. Thanks for that suggestion! And I also sometimes come back to releases for which I didn’t fully appreciate any of the songs on the first listen, and like you, end up finding that I really enjoy a song from it later on; so for that reason, I sometimes browse my last.fm library, looking for music that I haven’t listened to in a while, and then relisten to it to see if my opinion has changed about any songs. I think it’s really nice when that happens.

Cheers!