【Deborah Sullavan Archives】

This post is Deborah Sullavan Archivespart of Mashable's Spring Cleaning Week. Just a little something to distract you from the eternal dread of constantly wiping all those fingerprints off your screen. 

It's really easy for your Spotify account to become one helluva cluster.

Sometimes you're really feeling particularly rowdy and you need to bump the latest stylings of Cardi B while hitting the milly rock during your mid-morning commute. Sometimes you need to turn your grocery run into an adventure by moonwalking down an aisle while listening to Bruno Mars. Sometimes, you really just need to ugly cry into your palms while listening to a Jessie Reyez and Daniel Caesar collaboration.

Sometimes, you just want to listen to bad music.

SEE ALSO: Why Spotify decided to go public now

All that being so, it's real easy for your Spotify account to become a minefield of erroneous playlists, haphazardly added local files and poorly organized libraries. All of which don't really go together and eventually build up to such a mess that it's way too daunting to try and fix.

But don't fret (HAH, see what I did there), there are actually a handful of really easy ways to fix things up. Here are a few, simple ways to clean up your Spotify account to make it a more wholesome, seamless listening experience.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Have a "pocket" playlist

Make sure to always have a playlist in which you can save songs you think you'll want to listen to later, but aren't entirely familiar with — in other words, a "pocket" playlist. A playlist like this is perfect for all of you out there who love to listen to radio mixes or Spotify's curated playlists. It'll give you a space to test and listen to new music, which you can then move to your more established playlists once you realize that that one song you heard while walking through Starbucks is indeed a banger.

Get collaborative

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Open playlists can actually work really well in a similar way if you have a friend who has a similar taste in music. Click on the playlist you'd like to make collaborative, hit the three dot icon and click "Collaborative Playlist." Then, share it with a friend and encourage them to find and share good music on it. If you like it, take it and move it onto one of your personal playlists. If not, delete it. Encourage your friend to do the same.

Playlist groups

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Have a ton of playlists? Tired of scrolling through them all? Cut that number down by creating Playlist Folders. Go to File then hit New Playlist Folder. That way you can throw similar types of playlists together, whether it be a group of gym playlists or party playlists. You can even nest folders by creating a folder within another folder.

Sort and filter

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

If you've got a very large playlist, or if you're sifting through your own library, make sure that you're making use of Spotify's sort and filter tools. To sort, hit the carrot next to the Artist or Album tabs to list each of those categories in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order. Hit the Calendar icon at the end to sort songs by date added. If you want your songs to go back to the original order they were in just keep clicking the carrot until it goes away.

If you want a bit more control in finding songs within a playlist or your library, you can filter through all of them by using the search bar just above your playlist. Just type in what you're looking for and it'll turn up all things related to that term.

Use that queue

Instead of creating new playlists with just three or four songs that you're into at that point in time, use Spotify's Add to Queue feature. You can't loop the tracks on there like it were a playlist, but if you're looking to listen to a few songs in a row, as opposed to say, a whole album, add them to your queue to keep the clutter off your playlists.

Create a local files folder

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Every so often you may notice ridiculous, random files you have saved on your computer popping up in your searches as local files. That's because Spotify automatically uploads any .mp3 or .m4p files on your computer's My Music, Downloads, and iTunes folders into your library. To clean it up, sift through your hard drive for all the music you want to be on Spotify and put it in one folder. Then in the Settings menu, hit the Add A Source button under the Local Files menu, and navigate to that folder. Flip off all other sources, and your library should be cleared up.

Stop the gap

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

If you want to listen to all your music *efficiently* — that is without any time inserted in between tracks — go back into your Settings tab, scroll down, and hit Show Advanced Settings. Under Playback, turn on Crossfade Songs. You can keep the mixing time at the default (5 seconds) if you want to make it feel like a party mix, but you can also set it to 0 to make it so that songs play seamlessly right after one another.

---

Featured Video For You

---

---

Topics Social Media