So in preparation for the start of my campaign I've started compiling a bunch of music for throughout. I've got a nice varied collection there. I'm going to have it playing from either my phone or tablet through a Bluetooth speaker, the songs stored on whichever device I decide to go with. I also feel doing it from local storage will avoid things like ads playing as well as filtering the choices to things I've prepicked/"screened".

I'm just looking for suggestions on what 'categories' would be useful to help me find a suitable track quickly rather than be sat for 10 minutes looking for "the perfect track, I've almost found it, just another minute".

So far I could only think of 'shop', 'tavern', 'town',  'stealth', 'combat (minor)', 'combat (major)' and 'silly' for those songs that serve the purpose of just being silly.

I could just do with a few more useful categories to put things into. Every time I think of one it's either too specific to the point where only one or two tracks may even fit into it OR so vague that tons of tracks fit into it that really shouldn't be put together. There's a couple I know should be categorised together but I just can't think of a word for it. I just want to (example) see a list of songs under 'town' and know that I could select pretty much any track in that category and it will fit a town setting.

I had sounds for that were particular to the races, terrain, Bazaar, Port, Church, travel, and Throne Room

I LOVE playing music when I DM!

I use spotify (I pay for it so no adds), and have the following playlists: Tavern (quiet, lively), city (day, night, market, small, large, castle), wilderness (nice, rainy, snow, forest, mountain, sea, storm), dungeon, combat, epic.

To clarify, the ones in parentheses are individual playlists.
Epic is for when I do my summaries or during important scenes.

I mean, obviously you need to do what makes the most sense at your table, but since you asked, I thought I'd just share what I currently have. :)

Akacen >>

 

I mean, obviously you need to do what makes the most sense at your table, but since you asked, I thought I'd just share what I currently have. :)

 
Everything so far will work fine for my table! Anything that will help me further sort and find suitable songs quick and easy is good.

Might have to split into a few individual playlists myself since some town, tavern or city music isn't fitting for all times of day.

You know the website rollforfantasy? The creator of that website makes awesome music. It fits for most themes, and chances are you will find what you need.

The way I set up my playlists, it was all based on atmosphere/mood when outside of combat. So instead of trying to find a song that matches a setting, I just found songs that match whatever tone I think the scene should have or already has. So my songs were split up as quiet, journeying, dark, haunted, restful, sad, rowdy, etc.

If you're a gamer, life has never been better since most games on PC now come with the soundtrack free or cheap as DLC. The Witcher 3 has a fantastic soundtrack that is perfect for D&D and comes free with the game on Steam or GoG (and it's a fantastic game).

Soundtrack can really boost the players' immersion in the game, especially when the music really fits the current scene or mood.

The ambient Skyrim soundtracks are brilliant, especially for taverns. 

I also like to use celtic forest ambient music lately for when the players are on the road between adventures, it gives time for reflection and character development.