The Tastemakers of Tomorrow: The Rise and Grind of Independent Music Curators
People have been making and sharing playlists since the invention of the cassette in the mid-sixties. From mixtapes to burned CDs to the modern Spotify and Apple Music playlists, people have been curating unique blends of songs to complement every mood, every experience, every relationship, and every other little moment in life for ages.
Until fairly recently, the creation and sharing of these mixes have been (almost) purely for pleasure. Considering that analog mixtapes were largely bootlegged and therefore illegal, the idea that you could create a career out of the curation and distribution of themed playlists was unheard of until extremely recently - until the rise of the streaming service - until the rise of social media.
Over the past few years, there have been a select few individuals with an extra-exquisite music taste that have been able to take their playlist making to a new, unprecedented level. These music curators have traversed to the forefront of music discovery. They have been the first to break artists to the general audience. Playlist curators have become the new tastemakers.
I’ve taken the time to sit down with a few of the leading playlist makers to see just how they got their start, how they discover new music, how they support themselves as well as the artists they share, as well as what advice they have to give to those who aspire to follow in their footsteps. Before we dive in, here’s a brief introduction to each curator who contributed.
Kelsie Herzog is a photographer and underground folk, dream-pop, shoegaze, midwest-emo folk connoisseur hailing from Wisconsin. She has several playlists that dive deep into the history of each genre, featuring the best from back in the day and the brightest of the new wave of music makers. Kelsie has been discussing and curating music since the Tumblr era, eventually shifting her platform to Youtube in 2016, and now TikTok.
Sam Weisband is the leader on all things EDM and Alternative. She organizes music by color, each hue representing a different sound and emotion. The more general sounds and emotions fit within the colors of the rainbow. But the more niche genres, the more specific emotions get their own secondary colors such as teal, burgundy, silver, etc.
Carly Bogie is a STEM student by day and superstar playlist creator by night. She specializes in indie pop and folk with favorite artists such as Samia and Phoebe Bridgers. Carly got her start making playlists for herself and her friends. She bases most of her playlists on mood and color. Carly also has a rare condition called misophonia where she has strong emotional reactions to various sounds, so music has been a way to calm herself down and avoid the more unpleasant sound of day to day life.
Kasey Geromino is a total music industry girlboss. She has over 100 playlists featuring the best and brightest of the indie rock and pop scene. She came up in the game writing for indie music publications and now works full-time curating playlists and working A&R at Nettwerk Music Group in NYC.
Annabelle Kleine graduated from University of Oregon with a degree in Environmental Science back in 2020. Now, she has her own music curation company called That Good Sh*t, has thousands of followers on her hip hop and RnB playlists, and even throws local shows in both the Los Angeles and New York City areas to show off the various artists featured in her playlists. That Good Sh*t has risen to the forefront of tastemaking within the Hip Hop community and the launch point for countless emerging artists.
Now, surprisingly, not a single one of the playlists curators I spoke with actively play or write music. Kelsie Herzog noted that she played the trumpet in high school, but has failed to keep up with it. Her love of music, as well as that of the others, is rooted in the listening experience. The atmosphere and emotion that music creates and the excitement of discovering a new artist are what inspire them.
Each also has very similar processes of discovering new music. Kasey and Sam have used playlist push to accept submissions. Through playlist push, independent artists and labels can submit music directly to playlist curators for a small fee. Curators can either include the track in one of the playlists or leave a short review explaining why they chose not to include the track. Carly is also a big advocate of DropTrack, which is linked through her Instagram profile. Kelsie noted that used to frequently hop on TikTok live to talk to her community, ask them for recommendations and share her own. Sam is a big fan of Shazam, using it in public and at shows. She’ll also look at the “similar artists'' section of her favorite artists’s spotify profile. Annabelle prefers to use a google sheet, giving artists a cost-free way to submit music. Their revenue streams primarily run through social media promotion, or, in the case of Annabelle and That Good Sh*t, merch and events.
Each curator also relies on the more traditional and casual forms of music discover. All regularly ask their friends and family what they’re listening to. Furthermore, thanks to each of their growing social media following, they are able to ask their own online community for recommendations.
Now, at present, playlist curation suffices only as supplementary income. All curators I spoke to have other hustles and/or a day job to pay the bills. Carly is a student and uses DropTrack submissions as pocket money. Kelsie has a blossoming photography business and only curates personal playlists using Patreon. Kasey works as an A&R at Nettwerk Music Group. Sam is a writer at Dancing Astronaut, an EDM publication. And Annabelle uses her curation company for other ventures such as PR, events, and now music journalism.
However, each, through their music curation, has opened countless doors to opportunities in the music industry. Furthermore, each has made a significant impact on the artists that they love. Although they can see from their own follower count and analytics the number of people listening to their playlists, only a few were able to truly grasp the power their playlists have had on the careers of their favorite artists.
Carly, in her interview, noted that she discovered indie-pop artists Maude Latour and Ella Jane early on in their career and has seen them skyrocket across the following months. Kelsie mentioned that she tries to make playlists with only small artists for almost this exact reasons - the big artists are great but they don’t need her help. Once being a small creator herself, she wants to help support her community.
Kasey Geromino, thanks to her job as an A&R, was able to have a look at the back-end analytics of one of the artists she playlisted. She told me how “I randomly featured one of the artists we work with at Nettwerk, their name is Collie, in a video about a week and a half ago. Because we have access to their backend on Spotify, I went in and saw that their daily streams had doubled in that short span, the followers had gone up. They went from about 10,000 followers to about 13,000 followers in under a day. It was crazy stuff.”
Annabelle Kleine was recently featured in Forbes Magazine for her company That Good Sh*T. The article highlights Annabelle’s ability to create community and help artists grow through the creation of personalized and independently curated playlists.
Playlist curators are making serious waves in the industry, pathing new paths for aspiring artists to achieve their dreams. They put their passion into action - using their love of music to support the work of the artists they love.
Before I let everyone go their merry way, I asked a few curators for a piece of advice for anyone who was interested in becoming a playlist curator. Here’s what they each had to say:
Kasey: My greatest is advice is literally just to do it. The hardest part is actually taking the time to commit. Once you’re ready to put the time in and work hard, the people will come.
Annabelle: It’s very vulnerable to put your music taste out there. When making a playlist, you have to make it for yourself and then put it out there. When making a public playlist, it’s easy to think “what is everyone going to want to see on this playlist?” But when you do that, you’re making a playlist from another perspective instead of your own. Make the playlist for you.
Sam: Listen intentionally and creatively. Listen for yourself.