Should I write for playlists rather than albums?

With streaming services now commonplace, playlists – ie, collections of songs from a range of different artists – are unavoidable. As you’re probably aware, these are often curated by the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, with lists created based on genre, mood and other criteria.

Whether this change in listening patterns should influence your creative workflow, though, is debatable. It’s been argued that the playlist culture has made musicians more inclined to front-load tracks with hooks and memorable refrains in a bid to keep people engaged, but this is hardly a new idea. Nile Rodgers, for example, is on record as saying that one of the rules in Chic was that the main hook was always used to open the song. That was back in the ‘70s.

That said, skipping tracks is easier than ever, so if your goal is to produce a commercial earworm, bringing out the big guns early might not be a bad idea. Many electronic genres, though, are based on the idea of a crescendo later on, so it really depends.

Best course of action? Make the music that you want to hear!