Month-by-Month Music Playlists?

Genre/artist organizational methods or month-by-month?

I don’t know about you all, but I love music. I love both playing music (I play bass guitar and dabble with the drums at times) listening to music. Whether it’s when I’m lifting at the gym, going for a run, studying, playing pickleball, or just folding laundry in my dorm, I love having some background tunes on.

However, unlike many people I’ve talked to who organize their music in playlists based on either genre or artist, I organize mine-by-month. The idea is simple: at the beginning of each month, I simply create a new playlist and if I hear new songs I want to listen to or have a certain vibe I’m going for that month, I add them to that playlist. Once the month ends, I keep the previous playlist, make a new one, and repeat the process.

This may seem strange to some people, but I find I like how it organizes my music into unique groupings of songs, artists, and genres. While I do still have several playlists that are genre/artist specific (like country, worship, and pop, for example), the majority of my playlists now are month-by-month organized.

You may be wondering, why try month-by-month playlists? First, I love being able to go back to a playlist from a couple months ago and see what I was listening to at that time. I can look at my playlist from July 2024, for example, and remember exactly why I added each of the songs that I did. Whether it was because a friend recommended it to me, I heard it at a sporting event, or was into a certain style of music at that time, I can point to a specific reason why each song belongs on the playlist.

Journaling isn’t something that I’ve really gotten into well before; I find it difficult at times to write about my day, what I am going through, or what is happening that I find important. I have seasons where I can journal a few days a week and it helps me to process situations, but I’m not consistent in doing it. However, by organizing my music in this format, it is a way I’ve found to “journal” my life. As I mentioned, certain songs remind me of specific situations/experiences; hearing songs in their context of the month helps me reminisce about what I was going through several months prior.

On top of that, I typically try to come up with a creative name for my playlist and a fun cover photo. Instead of simply naming it “November 2024,” I named it “turkey time” as Thanksgiving happened towards the end of the month, and the cover picture was one of me and my mom during Thanksgiving break. Or for this month (April 2025), I named it “one month to go” because there is only one more month of college left in the year (which is crazy to think about). While these names are nothing too difficult to think of, it is yet another way for me to remember key events/themes for the month, which is fun to look back and see what I was doing then.

Another benefit of doing this style of playlist organization is since I create a new playlist every month (on average 30 days), my playlists tend to be shorter. This is a practical and strategic plan for me because since I love music so much, some playlists could last anywhere from 2-15 hours of music playtime. By keeping my playlists shorter, it is easier to find a specific song if I know which playlist it’s on. Instead of scrolling my playlists for a minute or two to find the song I’m looking for or searching for it (because I like playing it off my playlist so I can keep the music playing after the song ends instead of having to search for another song right after), I can find the song I’m looking for in a relatively quick manner.

I do realize that there may be some downsides to this style of organization, though. The largest downside that I see is that it breaks up artists and genres into separate playlists. This would make it difficult if I wanted to listen to Rihanna (I love Rihanna), but I have songs of hers on multiple playlists. I wouldn’t be able to lock in studying with it switching from Rihanna to rock (I love listening to Rihanna when studying by the way).

One way that I combat this issue is by having those specific artist/genre playlists that I mentioned earlier. While I don’t have a playlist for every artist and mood, I have some more general ones where I have it geared towards mostly country or worship or pop or movie themes or funny songs (and I do have a Rihanna playlist for when I need to lock in). By doing that, I am able to focus in a little on specific music types if that’s what sort of mood I’m in as compared to month-wise. Even with doing this month-by-month music organization system, when I find a new country song I like, for example, I add it to both the current month’s playlist, and my country specific playlist.

Additionally, it could be tricky going from a genre style playlist to month-by-month because it is just different. I know it was definitely a change for me when I switched. However, one thing that made it a smoother transition for me was that I kept all of my previous playlists and then started doing the month-by-month style. And as I mentioned, I add new songs to the current month’s playlist as well as the general playlist that I already had created before so if I want to go back to the old style playlists, I still can but have the new favorite songs on there as well.

While I realize that this may not be a commonly utilized playlist system, I’ve enjoyed it as it has provided a fun way to change up how I listen to music. No pressure from me to change your playlists, I wanted to share something that I've been experimenting with the last eleven months, but I would recommend this approach to anyone wanting to try something new in regards to their music listening habits!