At least once a year I write a playlist to write to during NaNoWroMo, and there’s a whole logic around my choices which amounts to a few key rules:
- Music that matches my story, (Starfuckers, Inc just doesn’t put you in the right place for a tender love scene)
- Has reasonable pacing, (I will write in time to the music, that can have interesting effects on my writing),
- Is not distracting, (if you have to stop and pay attention to the music in the background that’s bad, it’s a loss of momentum)
Now this year I had this whole plan around have three playlists, so I could better match the music that I’m listening to to the parts of the story I’m writing. One of the playlists would be entirely general music, the other softer more sad or romance inclined, and the last one would be frenetic and angry and gory to inspire a bit of carnage in my writing.
It’s a really good plan, however, I’ve also chosen to change my cloud music provider. Previously I’d been using Amazon music, (£22 a year), and have had no real regrets, especially since their desktop player really took off – but there’s no streaming to ChromeCast, and while the tracks themselves can be picked up by other apps, the playlists can’t.
So I’ve settled on Google Play Music, which confused the hell out of me because I thought it was £10 a month, (£120 a year!), but that’s just if you want a more Spotify like service. I don’t, I have lots of music, of which I add to occasionally, Google will let me upload up to 25,000 tracks gratis. And I can do all the fun stuff like stream through ChromeCast, and stuff.
I did consider going back to Spotify, but I prefer the limited ownership that mp3 has, compared with no ownership offered by streaming only services.
Unfortunately, as Amazon Music playlists aren’t sharable, I’ve had to spend time recreating my major playlists, and rather than spending ages recreating three more, I’ve just done one playlist for NaNoWriMo 2014. I’ll have to wait until my next project to play around with the multiple playlists idea, and single playlists have always worked well enough in the past.
Beneath the cut is this year’s playlist, it’s not in any particular order as I’ll keep skipping the music as I write.
NaNoWriMo 2014 Playlist
# | NAME | ARTIST |
1 | Hallelujah | Rufus Wainwright |
2 | Carmen | Lana Del Rey |
3 | Ride [Explicit] | Lana Del Rey |
4 | Video Games | Lana Del Rey |
5 | The Outsider | Marina And The Diamonds |
6 | Save Me | Muse |
7 | Push It | Garbage |
8 | Paradise Circus | Massive Attack |
9 | Love Somebody | Robbie Williams |
10 | I Am Not A Robot | Marina And The Diamonds |
11 | Blue Jeans | Lana Del Rey |
12 | Us | Regina Spektor |
13 | Bel Air | Lana Del Rey |
14 | Carmina Burana | Apocalyptica |
15 | Katie Cruel | Karen Dalton |
16 | 1812 Overture Op.49 – Finale | Tchaikovsky |
17 | Air On a G-String | The Fucking Champs |
18 | The 2nd Law – Isolated System | Muse |
19 | 40 Days | Meat Loaf |
20 | Animals | Muse |
21 | The Apparition | Iron Maiden |
22 | Beethoven’s 5th Symphony | Trans-Siberian Orchestra |
23 | Big Freeze | Muse |
24 | Blue Sky / Mad Mad World | Meat Loaf |
25 | Body Electric | Lana Del Rey |
26 | A Wish For Something More | Amy MacDonald |
27 | Afraid To Shoot Strangers | Iron Maiden |
28 | Agitated | Muse |
29 | Ain’t We Famous (From ‘Automatic for the People’) | Bear McCreary |
30 | All Of Me | Meat Loaf |
31 | An Ordinary Life | Amy MacDonald |
32 | Apocalypse Please | Muse |
33 | Butterflies and Hurricanes | Muse |
34 | Carmen | Lana Del Rey |
35 | Carry On My Wayward Son | Kansas |
36 | Cola [Explicit] | Lana Del Rey |
37 | Dark Shines | Muse |
38 | Fear Of The Dark | Iron Maiden |
39 | Dark Paradise | Lana Del Rey |
40 | Down In The Park | Foo Fighters |
41 | Easily | Muse |
42 | Eternally Missed | Muse |
43 | What Is Eternal | Trans-Siberian Orchestra |
44 | Exo-Politics | Muse |
45 | Futurism | Muse |
46 | I Belong To You [+Mon Coeur S’Ouvre A Ta Voix] | Muse |
47 | In Your World | Muse |
48 | Invincible | Muse |
49 | Land Of Hope And Glory | Madness |
50 | Land of Hope and Glory | Barry Wordsworth, BBC Concert Orchestra & The Royal Choral Society |
51 | Lucky Ones | Lana Del Rey |
52 | Megalomania | Muse |
53 | Moskau | Rammstein |
54 | National Anthem | Lana Del Rey |
55 | Neutron Star Collision | Muse |
56 | New Born | Muse |
57 | Panic Station | Muse |
58 | Pruit Igoe & Prophecies | Philip Glass Ensemble |
59 | Samson and Delilah (From ‘Samson and Delilah’) | Bear McCreary |
60 | Starlight | Muse |
61 | Supremacy | Muse |
62 | Survival | Muse |
63 | Fuseijitsu Na Michi No Ue De No Survival | Hellsing |
64 | Too Much | Kylie Minogue |
65 | United States Of Eurasia [+Collateral Damage] | Muse |
66 | Uprising | Muse |
67 | Rainbow Demon | Uriah Heep |
68 | Wizards In Winter | Trans-Siberian Orchestra |
Any suggestions are always welcomed