Welcome to Bonsai Radio, a playlist management tool built by me, Jon Washington!
Bonsai is about using extreme attention and deliberation in order to achieve the effect of natural beauty. Through careful training and pruning, a small tree can mimic the shape and scale of a full-sized tree. Bonsai Radio takes the same concept and applies it to music curation: by visualizing your listening habits, you can prune your playlists down to your stone-cold favorites.
Yes, but only sort of! When you stream music, you either have to know exactly what you want to hear, or let the service serve up recommendations based on your previous history. Often, it feels like you’re having your own preferences thrown back at you, or find yourself forever haunted by that brief Human League phase you went through but Spotify doesn’t know you’re way way past. Knowledge is power, and by using Bonsai Radio to trim your skipped tracks, the power is back in your hands.
Good question!
• If you don’t already, first I’d recommend setting up a last.fm account, and then linking your Spotify account to track your listens (they call them scrobbles!).
• From there, I’d recommend making a fresh playlist, or “station”. 100 tracks is a pretty good sweet spot; the playlist will be short enough to manage, but long enough that you aren’t hearing repeats throughout the day. Dump some tracks in there. Go nuts. They could be some old favorites, some of today’s hits, maybe even a full album you’ve been meaning to get around to. Hear something catchy at the supermarket? Throw it on the station. Take chances! Get messy!
• Here’s the fun part: shuffle that playlist. Treat it like the radio; just put it on whenever. Get to know it.
• Skip with prejudice. This system works best if you only listen to what you want, when you want.
• Now bring up your playlist in Bonsai Radio. Marvel at all your statistics! You can sort by your top and bottom plays, as well as narrow your results in four-week, two-week, and one-week ranges.
• Using Bonsai Radio, you can figure which tracks are still sparking your fancy, and which ones are slipping down the charts. Toss the duds, even consider double-adding the songs you’re gravitating towards.
• Lather, rinse, repeat. Everyone’s tastes change, it’s about time the tech kept up!
