How To Create The Perfect Travel Playlist

[creativ_alertbox icon=”” colour=”yellow” custom_colour=””]This is a guest post from a very talented music guru and fellow traveller, Sara Borghi. Sa is Italian and has been living in Sydney for the past 3 years where she works as a digital consultant. [/creativ_alertbox]

Travelling – per se – is pretty amazing. However, travelling with a great soundtrack makes it even more special.

I don’t know about you, but there’s a very unique chemistry between hitting the road and matching it with a great song. Music can help better connect with a specific place, could calm in moments of stress and discomfort and is also an awesome way to calm down children during a long journey.

Most of my music choices depend on:

• Whether I’m travelling alone or with friend
• The mood of the trip (is it a city weekender, an hike, a relaxing/pampering week, a romantic day out)
• The length of the trip
• The destination/s
• The purpose of the trip

That said, what are the steps to create the perfect soundtrack for your travels?

The discovery phase

This is quite possibly the best part of the whole process. Here are some ideas:

• Browse your music collection. We all have it, in some form. However, it can be very disorganised. I recommend going through your CDs (probably covered in dust…) and pick a few that you can’t wait to listen to again
• Ask your friends. Each of us has some friends that share the same music taste as us (I hope!). Call them, text them, email them and ask if they recommend some good travelling albums
• Google “best road trip music” or “best travel soundtracks” and similar phrases. You can find some really great inspiration on there. Like this article (http://www.skyscanner.net/news/100-greatest-travel-tunes-skyscanner-presents-best-travel-songs) , or this one (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/10/travel/great-travel-songs/ )…and this one (http://www.wyep.org/top500 ).
• iTunes. If you don’t have an account, I strongly recommend creating one. It takes nothing, and you have access (legally 😉 to the best music of every genre you’re passionate about
• Local music stores. Yep, they’re still here and are a great place to find hidden gems
• YouTube videos. Start browsing some videos of your favourite artists and then see where that leads you
• Apps for your smartphone.  Here is a good list: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/11/15/mobile-music/
• Music streaming services (Pandora, Spotify, Rdio) are also amazing to discover new music and playlists

Make a choice

Once you’ve gathered hundreds of tunes and before you decide to start a career as a music critic you will need to make a selection. How can you do that?

• Create playlists in iTunes. Here some the instructions on how to do it: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-song-playlists-in-itunes1.html
• Buy CDs/ songs
• Create playlist on online music streaming services. You can find a good tutorial for Spotify here:  http://mashable.com/2013/10/17/spotify-beginners-guide/

Get the technology and hardware before hitting the road

• Invest in a spacious CD case for car. Here are some ideas: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Automotive-CD-Storage-Cases/zgbs/automotive/318294011
• If the car audio system has an external / aux input or a Bluetooth function then you can get something like this: to stream your music from your smartphone http://www.amazon.com/FlexSMART-Transmitter-Hands-Free-Blackberry-Smartphones/dp/B003PPGOC0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374767453&sr=8-1&keywords=fm+transmitter
• Services such as Spotify, Pandora and Rdio stream from the Internet and stored on our computers or iPhones/Android devices. To access this music from your car you require to combine smartphone and Bluetooth wireless technology. You might want to check whether your car model includes this capability. Many of the services such as Spotify and Rdio offer a paying option to play offline (for those times when there is no internet connection)
• Another Spotify feature that I’m particularly excited about is called ‘Spotify Connect’. Thanks to this, you can play all this music on your speakers, and control it wirelessly from your mobile. You can find more here >  https://www.spotify.com/au/connect/
• Finally, Apple has recently announced a product called CarPlay, which is aimed at integrating the iPhone, Apple maps and Siri into the car dashboard. CarPlay a more advanced way to connect an iPhone to a car’s entertainment and information systems, allowing access to multiple phone’s functions including music, messaging and navigation.

I hope I have been able to inspire you to add musical joy to your amazing travels. 

Have the time of your life!

– Sara (follow me on Instagram @saraboargs)

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