One of the greatest things about social media, for me at least, is the fact you can know about 3 people in the beginning, then gradually find more and more interesting and entertaining people by word of mouth (or text), until you eventually reach a comfortable critical mass whereby the number of new people you are meeting slows down to match the number of people who are unfriending you because you mentioned off-hand how much you hate Twilight.

Coupled with this, we’ve seen a rapid increase over the past five years or so in the number of ways to link, share and recommend new media. Without needing to buy a music magazine or TV guide, I’ve discovered far more excellent music, film and shows since I joined Facebook and Twitter than I ever did when I was reading hard press.

Now, thanks to a combination of individual recommendation, Last.fm and Spotify, I can connect instantly to music I like. Even better, I can be connected to music that I will probably like, purely based on my listening habits, or by giving me a selection of artists similar to one I specify.

This is brilliant. If things continue in this way, never again will I buy music that I haven’t already listened to, in full, more than once and at my leisure. Every CD and digital download I have bought in the past couple of years has been meticulously vetted, not vaguely recalled from a 2-minute sample fished out from betwixt ten-minute commercial segments and the latest Pussycat Girls ‘joint’.

About two months ago I was inspired by fellow music-lovers (notably Robyn, example here) and decided to start compiling playlists on Spotify. The intention was to have music I already know and love, and mix it in with stuff that I’d learned about in the preceding weeks and months. I didn’t want to restrict it to any one genre, nor did I want to alienate people by ignoring others. Hopefully I’d be finding new music for myself while spreading awareness of lesser-known, yet awesome, acts.

I’m aiming to post these playlists on Mondays, once a fortnight. The most recent one can be found by following the link below, and I’ll be posting backdated links to the previous ones. I hope you find at least something new that you enjoy, and if you think they’re worth sharing, please do so!

Spotify playlist for w/c 14/09/2009