You should make your own playlists — your mind will thank you.
When was the last time you actually opened one of your own playlists?
Do you have one, two, or ten? Because this feels like a Harry Potter safe room with everything you need to handle your current situation.
Link if you just wanna see playlists
I came across the playlist on YouTube, then I realized that it is one of my own creations, so I was like, can I give them a distinctive thumbnail just like with videos? Gemini was like yes. So I opened GIMP, Pinterest, and spent a few hours on it, not because I'm dedicated, but because I was bored— but that's another story.
Anyway, I made about nine pictures, I think. Some are for music playlists, some are non-music ones like short films or documentaries. We're talking about my personal playlists, by the way—stuff I would watch when I'm bored or need some music videos.
And yes, since this is YouTube, all music has to be either music videos or music performances. No pictures is my rule; I’ve followed it for years. If I break some sort of rule and add pictures with music it just feels wrong... those "pic and music" I don’t make because they’re hard for me to create in a way that gives those playlists an actual personality.
Of course, all the content is separated by genre and type, like live versus recorded sets, music videos, or documentaries. So, when I run them, I get a pure experience. Bonus points when I use the TV, double that if I use a randomizer.
The whole idea of making them publicly available is because enough times, you go to someone’s house and they’re stuck with music. Someone just sits at their PC hooked up to monitors and curates what’s playing so no trash slips into the music flow. So I was like, if I have playlists for many tastes, whoever sits at the PC is free to do whatever they want. And it’s worked once I tested it at a few (for lack of a better word) parties, and it worked.
I really like the fact that they are accessible—you can play them without even a YouTube account. Sometimes, people think I want to play my own music on those playlists. I don’t know what would make them think that—do you really think I’m so ego-driven or attention-seeking? But I guess the musician self-promotion fatigue kicks in, and we musicians tend to have this bad reputation for pushing our music on anyone regardless. That’s another topic, I guess.
These playlists are personal, they’ve existed for years and keep evolving with my taste and feedback, I suppose.
So, I made nine pictures, but there are a few more playlists than that. Some I privatized until they get better attention from me. Now, with their distinctive pictures, when I catch them in my own algorithm by accident, it may make me revisit them more often and add stuff to them.
Now I feel even more proud of them, even though I’m not sure anyone actually listens to them if the algorithm even pushes them to people.
I know it takes mental effort to open someone else’s playlist—too many I’ve come across are simply bad, but some are so good it was worth going through all that to find them.
If you’re running your own playlists, you should at least check out my playlists and save some of that content into yours. And if you’ve never tried it, maybe this is the moment—because if you’re on YouTube and you’ve only liked and watch later playlists, what are you doing?
You’re missing out on your own personal aesthetic corner of YouTube—a digital room you come back to to escape, recover, or focus. Your own playlists on the walls greeting you. You gotta experience it at least once.
Go check what I have in mine, save some into your existing playlists, or finally make your first one—you won’t regret it. Especially if you suffer from doomscrolling; this can save you 50% of your time, which is a good start. (me, managing those sucks me in for days sometimes)
Go check it out and let me know what you loved or hated. I’m really curious.
Have fun!
Ah yeah... the pics
