The Playlist Grand Tour
If you didn't know I make playlists... now you do. Here's an FAQ, a link dump, a directory, a reference, a bookmarkable cheat sheet. Whatever you want to call it, it's a ton of new music in one place.
If there’s one thing I’m going to worry about, it’s being too annoying, repetitive, or pushy.
I hate feeling like I’m selling you something. I hate asking you to buy things, mash more buttons, sign up for extra stuff — especially when you already know about it.
But then I sent out a survey asking how I could make my playlists better, and it turns out 33% of you didn’t even know they existed.
Whoopsie.
Yes, I have playlists!
More than 40 of them, actually. Half of them free and regularly updated1.
Let this post be your guided tour of:
My free playlists
My paid playlists
Where the playlists live
How to transfer them to a different streaming service
The New Bands for Old Heads Directory
1. WHAT PLAYLISTS YA GOT?
The Basics (all free):
These are the foundation of New Bands for Old Heads — the playlists that precede the newsletter. All of them include new music that sounds like whatever era the playlist name references.
These get updated routinely.
The Niche (also free):
Highly specific, occasionally updated.
The Witchy Disco - Wispy, spacey, spooky, ethereal dance music for the fall.
Egg Punk! - If chain punk is for serious, hardcore anti-establishment aggros, then egg punk is for weird little nerds who like experimenting with gadgets in their bedrooms.
Moto Motor Motorik - (Mostly) new music with a motorik beat.
Won’t someone think of the men? - Somebody left me a comment once saying that I feature way too many female artists. So I made a playlist of (new) female-fronted bands to piss them off.
The Series (still free!):
Known Unknowns - (Quarterly? Ish?) community-generated playlists featuring your favorite unknown & underrated artist picks. No updates because I make a brand new one in the series when the time is right.
Annual Best-Of Lists - These are where I dump my favorite tracks throughout the year as I hear them. 2025’s is still growing, the others are time capsules.
The (Sorta) Paid Playlists:
Paid playlists generally accompany a newsletter post. I always provide a generous preview (seriously — sometimes more than a dozen songs with detailed explanations) for free, then paywall the full list.
Examples include:
If you like [X], then you’ll like [Y] - with genre- and decade- specific spinoffs.
Monthly Best-Ofs - if you want to stay super current and yearly lists won’t cut it.
New Music DNA Mixtapes - ultra-personal playlists for very cool people.
Other assorted hyper-niche topics - a non-exhaustive assortment of other paid playlists.
2. WHERE ARE THE PLAYLISTS?
You can find them on:
Spotify (I know, I know)
Qobuz (access via directory, below)
I’m phasing out Tidal and Amazon for anything new, but you can still see existing playlists there.
A note on Bandcamp:
I want to use Bandcamp and stop supporting Spotify, too. But Bandcamp only allows you to include songs you actually own, which isn’t realistic for somebody curating thousands of tracks.
When I’m independently wealthy, I promise I will put my playlists on Bandcamp. In the meantime, when something I recommend resonates with you, buy it on Bandcamp Friday and make your own.
But I use [obscure service!]
I know, I’m the worst!
To the five of you who said you’d unsubscribe if I stopped offering playlists on Tidal, I bid you a fond farewell and godspeed.
To everyone else…
3. HOW DO I TRANSFER PLAYLISTS?
Many services offer free or very low cost playlist transfers to/from any streaming service you want. Here are some options:
Soundiiz (This is what I use)
4. THE NEW BANDS FOR OLD HEADS DIRECTORY
This post is already kind of a bear to navigate, and it’s not an exhaustive list of every single playlist I’ve made. That’s why I created a directory.
In it, you’ll find every artist I’ve ever recommended and every playlist I’ve ever made.
(It’s only for paid subscribers, though — forgive me?)
The directory may not be pretty, perhaps, but it is definitely functional.
And I very much hope it’s useful. You let me know, though.
Enjoy!
xo
Gabbie
“Regularly” is nice and vague on purpose, but I do try!
Thanks for all the playlists, I didn't realise there were so many!
I'm actually one of the tidal users who filled out the survey, and did not say I would unsubscribe if you stopped adding there. I realise it must be a pain to keep the playlists across multiple services.
I've actually just made a script for syncing your playlists from Spotify across to my tidal account. I'll run this regularly to keep up to date. For the tidal users that were going to unsubscribe, and any others that want to use, my tidal account is @markg
I had a friend message me the other day on instagram sharing a whole clickbait reel thing saying that there's too much music but not enough is good, and nobody listens or cares anymore about music anyway and blah blah blah and I was like, you havent met my friend Gabbie with a kajillion old head subscribers who are passionate about discovering new music and connecting with new artists.
Obviously I sent him your page, after I told him to STFU.