song of the day

in early december i was chatting with a friend online about music. i sent a song to them and expressed how much i liked this track i had recently discovered. they sent me a track in response and that’s when the idea sparked -perhaps we should email each other songs, one per day, and see how long we can keep it up?

okay i’m in!

before we discussed the ‘song of the day’ concept, i had been planning to send a second song over in response to my friend’s song. but after that conversation occurred i queued song #2 as a draft email and made a mental note to send it the next day . hence ‘song of the day’ was born. on the third day i sent another favorite of mine, and the fourth day dug a little bit deeper to find a song that could live up to #1, #2 and #3. and the cycle started. in fact, just about every day since that early december conversation i’ve sent a song.

now let me clarify, i’m not sending just any song here. that is far too easy. heck, my current itunes library has 26,000+ songs so technically i can send a song each day for the next 71 years with no need to download anything new.

but i’ll be the first to admit that of my 26,000+ songs, about half should be deleted, and of that half only a small fraction would i consider ‘good’ songs. a ‘song of the day’ needs to be a special song. it needs to be bangin’, or it has to touch you, something about the song must stand out, these are special songs. if it was so easy to find a true ‘song of the day’, then more people/places/things would be doing it.

since then ‘song of the day has evolved into somewhat of a game better yet a challenge for myself to keep up this once-a-day song share. there’s a slight pressure i put on myself to deliver a good song each day to my friend’s inbox. the songs don’t have to be new, they have to be good. there’s also negative points (self inflicted) if my friend knows the song, or worse yet has the song. this is about music sharing, expanding each other’s music collection, and sharing something between two people who have a common interest.

to date i’ve sent over 40 songs, and i’m proud of every single one. i haven’t received as many in return, but this wasn’t a 1 to 1 agreement, it was a ‘let’s see how long each of us can keep it up’. it’s also understood that we’re sharing only quality and quantity isn’t even on the table. we both would prefer no song in our inbox instead of a mediocre, or dare i say a bad one.


as i’ve been sending these songs i’ve thought about one song per day from another person’s perspective. i’ve tried to imagine how many people do i know would have the time, dedication, and interest in consuming one song each day? it takes much more than you initially think. i know people who would love to do this, but don’t have the time and would ultimately end up with a ‘song of the day’ pile up in their inbox. i know people who have the time on their hands to consume one song per day, but constantly being introduced to new music is somewhat numbing after the novelty quickly wears off. the person also needs to have a deep passion for new music already somewhat established.

then i did some self-reflection, i know that i am able to consume a song a day, i already do. there’s a handful of music blogs who post daily, which i frequent. keeping up with them is not easy it takes dedication and effort (sometimes i rely on the ‘song of the day’ motivation to fuel my new music listening efforts). but i may sift through 3-5 songs one day, and then 60 the next. of course new albums are coming out weekly, singles are leaked, and of course i can’t discount the infinite amount of music that i have yet to discover which has already been released. when i’m not catching up with blog posts there’s a few other portals i’ll visit where unimaginable amounts of music are readily accessible.

i don’t know if ‘song of the day’ will ever be more than an email/day from me to a friend. i’m not sure how long it will last. but i have kept a playlist of each song sent (in order to track but also detect possible duplicates). so i guess we’ll just have to wait and see what shows up tomorrow, like the ‘song of the day’.