I have recently been enthusiastically creating music playlists… only 10-15 years late to the game. The truth is that I normally listen to my digital music collection from a computer – making it easy to pick and order the songs I want, when I want – and I still tend to listen by album. I used to enjoy making mixtapes but that was a long time ago, back in the day when cassette tape was king.

The reason for my belated enthusiasm is that the new car doesn’t have a CD player but it does have a USB slot and a big touchscreen display. It is great for seeing what is playing but actually picking tracks is a bit fiddly while driving. In consequence, I’m finally at the point where it makes sense for me to bundle up larger collections around genres and moods so I can just pick one at the start of a journey and put it on shuffle.

The next challenge, which might involve a bit of programming, is how to manage those lists longer term as I shuffle music on and off the USB stick. Which artists aren’t in any of the playlists? Which playlists have missing tracks? For now though, let the music roll…