TILT turns one today
A year ago today I was inspired to start a little experiment called Today I Listen To, or TILT, on Instagram.
So many songs, so many albums have accompanied me for the best part of my life, I wanted to find a way to share some of those in a manner that would be fun for me, easy for the listeners, and would allow me to thank the artists who have been with me for so long.
So every day since August 15, 2023 I’ve been sharing an album and a single from that album on Social Networks. The choice of album and song for the day comes with the inspiration in the moment, usually starting with the song itself, or with a feeling that comes with the song. Then again, I always have a forward log of about 20 candidates.
Of course some days are special and deserve a specific song, among which are:
- Sept 20, my birthday, celebrated in 2023 with Concrete Blonde’s Happy Birthday
- Dec 25, Christmas, celebrated in 2023 with Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Il est né le divin enfant
- May 18, Ian Curtis’ passing day, celebrated in 2024 with Joy Division’s Atmosphere on the 24 Hour Party People Soundtrack
- July 26, opening of the Paris 2024 Olympics, celebrated with Ludwig Von 88’s 110m haies
- Today, Aug 15, TILT’s first birthday, celebrated with The Housemartins’ The Light Is Always Green. It’s the same band that opened TILT a year ago, and the name of today’s album is the title of the first ever song played on TILT. Very little is left to chance :)
Visual first
Since Social Networks are visual first, the albums covers are aesthetically ordered by color and/or by design so they look great next to one another, like they are part of a global movement and creating special connections from their sleeves.
I started ordering covers this way on 31 January, 2024, with Garbage’s Version 2.0 flashy orange sleeve and it’s been much more satisfying to scroll the Instagram tiles since then than it was before, when it was a bit too random for my eyes.
I started to publish first on Instagram. Album covers have the perfect format for Instagram square posts, and it’s easy to add songs to play along with the pictures. Every new post is used as stories for both the TILT Instagram account, and my own private account. It’s also shared as Facebook posts and stories on my personal account.
I created two playlists on Spotify, one with the full albums, and one with only the singles of the day. Both lists evolve daily with the selection for that day.
In January 2024 I added TikTok with a format I really like and haven’t seen anywhere else, where the album cover is split over two separate images to try to recreate that impression of browsing records in an old-fashioned record store.
I also created a YouTube playlist for some of those music videos or live performances are so great and cool to watch again. The YouTube playlist matches the full TILT list except for one or two songs for copyright reasons.
Very recently I added Twitter/X because why not…
Structure
The posts on each network are very similar, yet try to get the best of each platform’s features.
The picture is always the cover of the album of the day.
With each post comes a text that follows the same pattern: Name of the artist/band, name of the album, name of the single, year it was released.
Then a thank you note @ the artist/band and a collection of hashtags for cross-références.
I’m not adding any personal detail about my choices. I’m sharing my music, not my stories. For that you would have to talk to me ;)
After one year, 45 singles are in French, most of the others are in English. Genres range from Brit Pop to Rock, to New Wave/Post Punk and New Romantic to Techno and Electro. Lots of guitars and bass guitars, drums, keyboards, synthesizers, and sometimes a single violin or a full symphonic orchestra.
Take outs
Analytics (Thank you Spotify API):
- Days missed: 0
- Number of different albums: 366
- Number of different artists/bands: 236
- Instagram followers: 102
- TikTok followers: 51
- Most liked song on Instagram: Les Rita Mitsouko, C’est comme ça, 9 May 24 (18)
- Most viewed song on TikTok: OMD, Enola Gay, 31 March 24 (2162)
- Longest playtime on TikTok: Dead Or Alive, You Spin Me Round (Like a Record), 23 April 24 (2:12:25)
Distribution by decade:
- 60s: 1
- 70s: 17
- 80s: 140
- 90s: 81
- 00s: 60
- 10s: 46
- 20s: 21
Most played, top 3:
1. Étienne Daho (11)
2. Pet Shop Boys (10)
3. The Smiths (7)
3. Morrissey (7)
3. New Order (7)
3. OMD (7)
Total songs by or from The Smiths, Morrissey, Marr, Pet Shop Boys, Tennant, New Order, Sumner, Hook, Morris, Gilbert, production, collaboration, covers by, covers of: 60, so a bit more than one per week
Fun facts/insights:
- Can’t beat the rush when one of your favorite artists likes your post (hello Moby, Wendy James, Peter Hook, among others)
- Makes me so happy to see longtime friends and new ones like songs — for the songs and not because we’re friends
- Carefully listening to albums I’ve known for 40+ years for some is a really joyful ride in time to bring them forward into today
- Along the same lines, my listening diversity and curiosity have become much healthier. “So many songs [I] forgot to play” (yes, from Alphaville’s Forever Young lyrics ;)
- Didn’t think it would eat so much time to curate and publish a piece of content each day (I’d say between 30 and 40 minutes each)
- Can and will go for at least another year for sure
- Haven’t cracked any Social Network for ways to dramatically increase the number of subscribers/viewers/likes/shares/etc. It’s not the goal but of course I’m looking at the numbers and interactions
- On every Social Network the TILT profile picture is the same, a portion of the iconic New Order’s Blue Monday sleeve by Peter Saville
- At least two of my favorite albums are missing from Spotify (Wendy James — Now Ain’t the Time for Your Tears, and Revenge — One True Passion). That’s 2 out of 368, it’s really not insignificant when you’re usually told that the Internet gives you access to anything ever produced
The music goes on
I hope you are as passionate about some forms of art as I am about my kinds of music, and you find your own ways to share it with people you love, and with perfect strangers.
And one last thing, I found TILT to be the perfect opener to start a conversation with any new friend!
