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8 ways to make awesome Spotify playlists

Now that you've settled into Spotify, it's time to master its most important feature: playlists. Follow this guide to learn the more advanced tricks that will help you discover, build, and share your Spotify playlists.

Sharon Profis Vice President of Content, CNET Studios
As the Vice President of CNET Studios, Sharon leads the video, social, editorial design, and branded content teams. Before this role, Sharon led content development and launched new verticals for CNET, including Wellness, Money, and How To. A tech expert herself, she's reviewed and covered countless products, hosted hundreds of videos, and appeared on shows like Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and the Today Show. An industry expert, Sharon is a recurring Best of Beauty Awards judge for Allure. Sharon is an avid chef and hosts the cooking segment 'Farm to Fork' on PBS nationwide. She's developed and published hundreds of recipes.
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Sharon Profis
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If you were lucky enough to get an invite to the newly arrived Spotify, you'll notice that the streaming-music service is centered around playlists. Once you know the basics--creating, editing, and sharing--it's time to learn the more advanced tricks and tips for Spotify playlists.

Discover new music

Use search operators. In the Spotify search bar, use advanced search syntax. For example, searching "year:1970-1980" will give you a list of popular songs from that decade. Or, search "genre:rap year 1994" for rap music from 1994. For a full list of search operators, go here.

Find related artists. For any song listed, click the artist's name to get related artists. It's not nearly as good as Pandora, but it's a useful tool for discovering new music.

Tweak playlist options

Make playlists private. When you create a new playlist, Spotify automatically makes it available for anyone to subscribe to. To undo this, right-click a playlist and uncheck "Publish."

Collaborative playlists. If you want to make a playlist with friends, right-click any of your playlists and select "Collaborative playlist." Anyone who you share it with will be able to subscribe to it, and add/remove songs from the playlist.

Use folders. If you have a huge mess of playlists, organize them into folders. Go to File > New playlist folder. Give it a name, then drag playlists into the folder.

Find Spotify playlists online

Use a playlist generator. Go to Spotibot.com and click "More options" under the search bar. Enter the name of an artist or multiple artists with "Add another." Then select the number of tracks you want in the playlist and hit "Generate Playlist." You'll get an automated playlist of songs similar to the song or artist you entered. Finally, drag and drop the playlist into Spotify.

Find premade playlists online. head to ShareMyPlaylists.com to find the biggest selection of playlists made by everyday Spotify users. Once you find a playlist you want, click "Play" and it'll launch in Spotify. Just don't forget to subscribe.

Convert playlists into Spotify format. What if you already made playlists in YouTube, SoundCloud, Grooveshark, and other music services? Go to Playlistify.org and click "Bake your own playlist." Then seelect which service you want to get your playlist from and follow the instructions.