Nate Dickson Thinks...

Music is the thin, vibrating line between me and insanity, many days. Being able to channel my emotions into something, anything, has been a requisite activity. Anyway, on with the post.

I learned that Plex has the ability to create “Smart Playlists” a la iTunes back in the day when we all used iTunes. I never used that feature to the fullest, but I did enjoy it.

So I created a couple of my favorite smart playlists, only in Plex:

• Forgotten favorites
  
  • Rated ★★★★ or ★★★★★
  • Haven't been played in the past 3 months.
• Top 10s
  
  • Played ten or more times
  • limited to 10 tracks (so far I only have two...)

And then the one that inspired this post:

• Never Played
  
  • Tracks that haven't been played in the past 20 years (there doesn't seem to be an option for “never played”)

And...that playlist is by far the longest:

Well that's embarrassing.

So I've started listening to this playlist. What songs are on my server but haven't been served?

And it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly tracks I have recently ripped from CDs into my library. They're songs with which I'm deeply familiar but haven't listened to in this setting.

So I'm listening to that playlist on shuffle. And you know what? It kinda rocks. These are all songs that I liked enough to buy them at some point and it turns out I still like the vast majority. Also, since it's so scattered, I get some really interesting transitions. Going from Steely Dan to Ben Prunty to Dar Williams is a trip, but it's a fun trip.

Also, I'm not going to stop adding to this playlist. I'll keep encoding my physical media, I'll keep buying music on Bandcamp Friday, I'll keep collecting music, making the choice to invest in something that I think will enhance my life.

#100DaysToOffload 39/100