I'm very nerdy about my music, and I like interrogating people about what they put on playlists.
In the 2000s, I became an artist. I started preserving and educating. I became more obsessed with making iPod playlists for people.
For my shows, I don't play too many slow songs.
I've always cared about how certain songs fade into other ones and which songs should follow others. I studied that as a consumer and fan before I even got into music.
One of those things that I find hard to dispose of is my attitude to album sequencing, the layout of the pieces.
I just do a random roulette wheel version of what I've recorded or sometimes tunes I haven't recorded. It's a collection of whatever happens, happens.
When people ask me for playlists, I always put in 'Moonlight Sonata' because it is my favorite song. I play it all the time.
I'm very excited about my new Spotify account, which gives me access to twenty gazillion songs any time, all the time. The day I opened my account, though, I sat there perplexed. How would I figure out what I wanted to hear?
I'm listening to Spotify all the time and pulling in different things. I might find an artist or a song that I like, and I'll pull that into playlists, and then you'll find related artists. But I like an album as a nostalgic thing; I remember buying albums and getting into the whole thing.
I have a weekly playlist on Spotify called Mixtape Mondays. So every Sunday night, I sit around listening to tunes to place. It's becoming my favorite part of the week.
I know when it's getting close to game time, I create a different playlist for each and every game. Before the game, to game time, to warm-ups, going to the stadium, I have a different playlist that puts me in a different mode.
A music service needs to be more than a bunch of songs and a few playlists.
I base my track-listing and what songs I pick by what my fans expect from me and what they want and what I think they want.
Given my district, it would not have been right to put together a 99-song playlist and not include Barbra Streisand. She has appeal across several demographics of the district.
Creating a set list is like making a running order for an album. Certain things get pitted against one another that make more sense. One song sets another one off, or it might diminish it. You're just constantly looking for the next thing that's gonna make sense in a particular place.
I get music from odd places that I assume are fairly typical at this point. I'll just go on iTunes, go to EDM and just look at the Top 100, or I'll go on the Beats app and look on the playlists that are sort of curated.
DJ Jazzy Jeff is the best DJ you can have at a party. Did you see his playlist? He has good taste.
A DJ can't just play one song. It's about playing a set, or how you connect songs in those two hours, and where you place them.
