My first response was to say, “Playlists.” But I don’t actually use playlists.
I rarely stream from the Cloud. Instead, I use SD cards or USB drives in my tablets, phones, and car systems to store songs (and videos). Storage is cheap enough that I can simply create folders of songs/videos with a theme. For example, I might have a folder called “60s Doo-Wop” or one called “12” Saturday Night” (80’s hits). I then use the shuffle function to play the folder contents. Of course, songs/videos may appear in many different folders, but storage is cheap.
I do this, rather than use playlists, mostly because I started out years ago with the primitive network media players that didn’t always create or recognize standard playlist formats. It was just easier to use folders. Now I have a large collection of themed folders on my server that I drag on to the portable media as I choose.
I don’t do much driving these days since we live in a city center withing walking distance of just about everything we need. So music listening is at home.
I don’t usually run a preprogrammed mix. If I think of a song I’m in the mood to hear, I just find it on YouTube.
Let me see, so you use your computer, your phone, Sirius, internet radio, CDs and vinyl. You might not be keen on streaming, but you might understand why someone would be, given that it replaces all of these.
I have vinyl for aesthetics. But I stream everything these days vis Spotify.
The only issue with some players is how they order files.
There was a period when Tags were assigned to music. The artist, genre, name of the track.
Some Players used tags to organize music. Play Merle Haggard or Blake Shelton for example.
Todays players usually will play a folder of music. Or use a playlist.
People that ripped their own music might have been very meticulous in creating tags. I never had the patience. There must be some players that still use Tags. That’s useful for music libraries organized by Tags.
Players that use folders or play lists ignores Tags. They’ll play any music regardless of how it was originally organized.
Not sure I understand why you’re quoting me. Is there a question? I was only outlining what I do based on the original posters query. However since you appear interested, I primarily listen to CD’s, second would be listening to internet radio (not Sirius) from computer to stereo. Seldom cast from phone - as mentioned, only when traveling. Seldom use phone for that matter.
If people want to stream 100% of their music, that’s their business.
My 2020 car has a CD player, and there’s a “mix CD” in there all of the time. When I’m in the mood for something else, I also have an iPod – with playlists – connected via Bluetooth.
(I mostly listen to satellite radio, but the CD player and iPod address the mix-tape-replacement topic.)
I still have my amazon prime sub (yes, you may boo me if you like) so I have Amazon’s free version of “unlimited” but it’s been so enshittified I don’t use it for long drives, just for about the house music. For longer drives, I’ve built a custom playlist (you can have a few) on Amazon that will stick on subject, but mostly I have 20ish Gigs of MP3’s on my phone that I stream.
Of course, this is as of August 2025 - when I got the new car, until then, I damn straight still had a CD player in the 2007 (and before that 200) I was driving, and generally burned a new “mix” CD every year or so, based on themes, best of’s, or whatever I felt like. I did also use a Radio Adaptor dongle to play music from my phone to the 2002, and later the 2007 had an “aux” port, which I used with a bluetooth dongle for car-play options.
For really long drives (2+) times a year, I go with audiobooks though. Nothing new, but something that lasts for the 10ish hour drive seems to work better.
BTW, a +1 for getting a spare external CD or CD/DVD drive as future proofing. I have two, and one is even set up to work up without a computer attached with dedicated physical buttons. You can plug it into an old component tv, or a stand alone set of speakers if you’re travelling, or visiting friends/family with out of date tech, or (most recently) helping when transitioning someone with an old windows laptop to a new windows 11 laptop without a CD but a bunch of legacy software/drivers they want to keep.
On the road I listen to SiriusXM either in my truck or on my phone with earbuds.
At home, I have several hundred Seeburg 1000 records and a couple of the machines. I have ripped them all to mp3 and have rigged one machine up with a Raspberry Pi inside that plays my full collection exactly as intended (full record sides, shuffled).
I suspect there is nobody else out there who does this. Definitely nerd territory.
The loss of mix media is really sad. It was an art form in itself. A list is a list no matter what medium it’s on, but the tangibility of a tape or even a CD added another dimension the act of sharing. The media has a financial cost (tiny, but real), some investment of effort, and some potential degree of creativity in the act of packaging and sharing.
The successor in the streaming era is obviously playlists, but to my mind they’re an unsatisfactory alternative. When someone gives me a Spotify playlist it feels less like a gift and more like a homework assignment, or a trinket you picked up at a gas station because you forgot your friend’s birthday.
We have definitely lost something with playlists versus the mixtape. The playlist is more convenient – they are quicker and cheaper to create, I can add and remove songs at will, they’re more portable, and I can share with as many people as I want.
But as you say, all that convenience diminishes their meaning. Knowing that the music was fixed once I recorded the tape or burn the CD, I had to put a lot more thought into what went in it. The time spent creating it is an investment you made for yourself or for someone else. The ease of sharing results in it losing the meaning it used to have.
I was explaining this to my kids the other day: how when you made a mix tape, you actually had to sit there with the music and sit through it while you were recording it to the other tape (or use high-speed dub at some loss of quality and a little more difficulty timing just right.) And how you had to time each side so you could fit the music in without cutting it off. And how much thought was put into the ordering of songs (which I suppose you still do today, but you have to think of side 1 and side 2). Also, the decorative elements for the cover (I often made a collage of stuff cut out from magazines, but some people drew their own artwork.) Stuff like that to make it more personal and more thought out than just “oh, here’s 15 songs I love.” And I’m sure there’s more stuff I’m forgetting. Oh, yeah, stuff like finding random snippets of audio and that type of “found sound” into the mix, if you were into that sort of thing.
Mix CDs didn’t quite have the same feeling, but their larger cover did afford for bigger artwork. And you didn’t have to think in terms of Side A and Side B. And you didn’t have to sit through all the songs, so a little of the magic was lost there.
I was feeling quite “unc,” as the kids say, regaling my tales of mix tapes.
I have 2 dedicated Sony music players, loaded to the gills with all of my top cuts (FLAC’s ripped from my CD collection), use for both my frequent drives and my workouts. I’d loathe it if I was streaming but went out of contact with the nearest cell tower (which happens with regularity if I am on an isolated highway like the Blue Ridge Parkway), and missing just one of my top songs is a total no-go zone for any online service (I am a top cut oriented person and rarely play full albums anymore, going to full random shuffle of playlists-some themed, some more generic).
While I may break down and get into Spotify for their free month just to sample some new stuff, I doubt it will be of much use, as their mindless algorithms are almost certainly not going to grasp why my top cuts are my top cuts, as most of them transcend their genres and have a lot more in common with each other than with the more generic works from their putative core genres. For example, several of my top acts are progressive rock, but turns out I loathe most prog.
AFAIK cars still use traditional wired speakers? Perhaps with a custom install of amp or bass speaker in the trunk.
I haven’t invested in a custom car audio system since the 90’s. The standard factory audio is good enough now.
I use JBL bluetooth speakers at home.
I still have my old stereo with cd cartridge changer and bookshelf speakers. It hasn’t been turned on in several years.
I occasionally treat myself to music with traditional headphones. The headphones plug into my laptop. I sometimes notice little things in the music that are cool. A little piano riff or something the stringed instruments are playing deep in the mix.
I typically play music on the laptop with Bluetooth. It’s easier. Wired headphones are too restricting.
Bluetooth loses some of the fine details in music. Most of the time it doesn’t matter. Bluetooth is good enough.
OK, I’ve tried the Spotify option. So far it seems like it might work. The funny thing is, it’s because I was ‘forced’ to listen whatever I was given that I discovered a bunch of new music that I now want on a ‘mix tape’/playlist. So there’s something to be said their algo-rhythms in that regard. FTR, it’s outlaw country, which up until now meant Willie and Waylon, but now includes Cody Jinx, Jackson Taylor, The Drive-by Truckers, Casey Donahew, Sturgill Simpson, like that.
I got most of that from Pandora. I usually listen to it in my car (Bluetooth) or at home while making breakfast on my earbuds.
in the trunk.