I plan on creating a blog focused on playlists called “Playlists for the People.” I was inspired to make a blog like this by my passion for making music, listening to music, and collecting music in general. On “Playlists for the People,” I would create and post weekly playlists featuring a variety of different genres. Each playlist will have a theme and act as a soundtrack for everyday life. Some playlist ideas include: songs for a lazy day, songs for when you just need a break, songs that will make you have a better day, songs about the sun. The goals for my blog to are to be universally appealing and relatable, and to provide readers with new music to listen to for every mood or situation in life. In my search for similar blogs, I found it very difficult to come up with one centered around playlists. However, I perused a couple of music blogs in general, and one called Gorilla Vs. Bear especially stood out. Gorilla Vs. Bear focuses on up and coming bands and artists, and features youtube videos and soundcloud links to songs. While the site was very busy and confusing to navigate, the actual music content was easy to access. It also is updated frequently and has a good following online. I wish Gorilla vs. Bear would give more textual descriptions of the songs they feature because I don’t want to click on a song that I wouldn’t like to hear. I felt as if the blog had no real voice or personality to accompany the music posted. The website that is most relevant to my project is 8tracks. 8tracks is a very popular music sharing website in which people post playlists rather than songs. On 8tracks, you can search playlists according to what mood you are in or what music appeals to you. It is extremely easy to use and navigate, serves a specific purpose, and attracts all types of music listeners. I tentatively plan on using 8tracks to upload the playlists I post on my own blog.
I love the idea for your blog. I find that I don’t know many good blogs about music, especially one with hand crafted playlists. The one that I do know is 8tracks and agree that it could be a good resource for your blog. I also think that stereomood would be a great resource; it too focuses on music for your mood. I think if you can make the blog a mixture of the playlists and your own voice, maybe an explanation about what made you create or how you created each playlist, that would be great!
I think you have a unique idea for your blog, especially because of the importance music plays in the lives of individuals in our generation. I think that, in addition to posting playlists, you may want to generate some posts about current events in the music industry. A lot of people like to keep abreast of such issues, and I think adding that aspect to your blog will strengthen it’s already high user appeal. You might want to look at a site like Hype Machine for ideas! http://hypem.com/blogs/featured
Great idea for a blog! I am always searching for new music on many different music blogs but I have found that many of them are hard to navigate, and like you said, lack a narrative. I think it could be a great idea for you to add dialogue along with your playlists to give these playlists meaning. As a visitor to your blog, I not only want to know what the songs sound like, but how the playlist will move me or relate to my mood in that particular moment. One of the things that bothers me about 8tracks is how it doesn’t allow you to skip songs, and therefore I never know what all of the songs are in the set. Maybe if you used a different music playlist generator that shows you what the songs are that could be helpful, because like we’ve been talking about, readers tend to be impatient. A good resource for your blog could be the music blog http://goodmusicallday.com/. They explain their reasoning behind the songs they choose and make pretty decent playlists where all of the tracks can be seen. Well, I hope this helps. I can’t wait to see where you take your blog!