the big list

new project, semi long term. . . hopefully completed within a year.

this ‘big list’ relates to my itunes.

i have started a project. the project is to listen to every album in my itunes, completely. while listening i plan to denote the songs that i really like from each album and appoint them to one large playlist.

i have a lot of music i haven’t heard even once.

i have even more music that i haven’t really listened to.

according to my itunes, i have 942 albums currently. i’m sure that there are many that aren’t complete albums, just singles. i’m conservatively guessing that there are 600 to 700 complete albums. it’s still a lot to listen to, but i’m kinda looking forward to it.

it’s been a long time coming. i’m sort of ashamed that i don’t have a better grasp on my own music library. i am so thankful for all my friends who have gifted me music. i should honor that gift by listening to it, right?


i make lots of playlists. usually i start a playlist with a bunch of music already in mind- to fit a particular mood or event. i add more with time, and if i really want to flush out the playlist i will scroll through the entire library for more ideas. it’s a slow process. i might know of an artist or album that i want to incorporate, but i’m kinda bad at remembering actual song titles, so i need to touch through each song to find the one i meant to use.

there is a lot of music that is fine but i’m not going to listen to it over and over, so it’s not something that will go into a playlist. i can skip it. therefore, it doesn’t go into ‘the big list.’ eventually, if i start to run out of room on my ipod, i could strip out the songs that aren’t in ‘the big list’. . . but i hope that won’t happen too soon.

some people might find this form of organization a bit of overkill. i’m actually really excited about having a list of ALL the songs i like, that i can then pare down further. it will make my playlist process more efficient. ahhh, efficiency. . . my german side is so appeased.

i thought that i might try to review the albums on this blog as part of my process, but i don’t know if i want to commit myself to that. we’ll see. . . maybe i’ll do it when i’m moved to do so. . . eh. . . time will tell.


one of my friends probed me about this new project. (i was relieved to know that she actually thought it was a good idea.) she wanted to know how quickly i could tell if i wanted to keep or pitch a song, and if i had a set criteria.

interesting questions. . .

some songs i know within the first few bars, though it’s still a good idea to listen to the whole thing to make sure there isn’t some sort of annoyance later that would disqualify it.
there are some songs that i don’t love completely, but i really like the bass line. songs like that deserve to be in ‘the big list’ but probably won’t end up in a lot of the subsequent playlists.
i will initially pick and gravitate to music that i’ve heard before, but didn’t really pay attention to. stuff from commercials, from movie soundtracks. . . music that other people have played around me. (probably the only way i ended up with a phish album. an assistant technical director i worked for played it in the scene shop constantly. what can i say, it grew on me.)
so no real criteria. . . just what i like.

so, how well do you know your music library?



(i have another big list to talk about at some point, but it needs to percolate a little more.)