How I have created Spotify playlists every month for nearly five years.

If you know me even a little, you know I love music. I will listen to anything and everything for the sake of finding that next great song.

In 2015 I began working for MLive Media Group in Grand Rapids, MI. It was a sales position that included lots of "cold calling" prospective clients. While I called I got sick of the blank white noise that was in the room while I called to set appointments. I decided I would listen to music and maybe help the time go by faster.

In May of that year I began listening to Spotify, but as I listened I began saving songs in a playlist. I didn't mind listening to terrible songs in order to find great ones. If I was going to set appointments, I needed good music.

So... in May, 2015 my first playlist was born. It was created so I had great background music that I could listen to while I made calls.

This is my very first playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2pb17jtwDsqcHewqowNOWP?si=8KsW8i1sSOSP-yb2GdJ4UA

It is a short 18 song playlist, but it still managed to tell a story about who I was then and who I am today.

I created another playlist while in the hospital less than one month after my stroke in 2017. I don't have any memory creating this playlist, but the songs tell the story. Look at the names of these songs: Stroke Me, Going Backwards, Comatose, Shelter, Same Old Blues, Some Kind of Drug, and Home.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6zqjmP850r9pnv11lXjJoF?si=72LMEMFUQ2CMVuSkLuUb7g

They are mostly self explanatory and it's a playlist that I still listen to on occasion.

My favorite playlists are my end of year playlists. I bottle up two songs from each month from the year and create a 24 songs Greatest Hits Playlist. Many of these songs carry meaning with them and also bring memories from that month. This is my Great Hits Playlist from 2018:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ZKwlTrD5jlUNXCbuzX55s?si=ZNlDpJ1lQjSMvQxW7IHRHw

The very first songs kicks-off with a reminder of a UFC event that I always look forward to watching. The song was used in a Promo Video:

In March that year my family went to a Toby Mac concert at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, MI. One of the other artists that night was a Ryan Stevenson. One of the songs he sang that night captured my attention and my heart:

Three short months later, my son found himself on stage with 30 Seconds to Mars dancing to "Rescue Me" at DTE Energy in Clarkston, MI. It was one of those surreal moments that I put down my camera and watched my son take it all in. Over 10,000 people were cheering him on that night and he was known as the "Yellow Shirt Kid" until we got home. He was even recognized by people in the hotel the next morning. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

The thing that made this moment more special is that we missed a 30STM concert one year prior because I was in the hospital. We had plans of going on a road trip to Tennessee. There were fears that I wouldn't make it through the 2018 concert, per complications I was still having from my stroke. BUT, we did it! That memory will never go away.

So... how do I make playlists?

One moment at a time.