I Built an Obsidian for My Spotify Library

The Moment It Clicked

If you use Obsidian, you know the frustration of traditional folder systems. Before Obsidian, I had notes scattered across folders like "Work," "Personal," "Ideas"—and nothing connected. Then I discovered linking, backlinks, and tags. Suddenly my notes became a living network of ideas.

One day I was listening to music and thought: why doesn't my Spotify library work like this?

I have 5,000+ songs. They're trapped in rigid playlists: "Workout," "Chill," "Focus." But music doesn't fit into single categories any more than thoughts do. That song that's perfect for late-night coding? It's also great for rainy Sunday mornings. And maybe it's also a 5-star track I want to surface when I'm showing friends new music.

Playlists are folders. I needed something more like Obsidian.

So I built it.

The Problem with Playlists (Sound Familiar?)

Spotify's organization system has the same fundamental flaw as traditional note-taking: forced hierarchy.

A song can only live in one playlist (unless you manually duplicate it everywhere). There's no way to say "this track is chill AND electronic AND 5-stars AND perfect for focus work." You have to pick one box and drop it in.

If you've ever created an Obsidian vault, you've experienced the freedom of escaping this. A note about "morning routines" can link to notes on productivity, habits, and health—all simultaneously. No forced hierarchy. Just connections.

I wanted that for my music.

How I Actually Use It (My Tag System)

Here's my current setup—feel free to steal it:

• Mood tags: Chill, Energetic, Melancholic, Uplifting, Dark, Dreamy
• Context tags: Morning, Late Night, Focus, Social, Solo
• Activity tags: Workout, Cooking, Commute, Reading
• Quality: 1-5 stars (I only bother tagging 3+ star songs)

The magic happens in the combinations. When I want music for a dinner party, I filter: "Chill + Social + 4+ stars." When I need deep work music: "Focus + Low Energy + Instrumental tag."

It took me about a week of tagging-as-I-listened to reach critical mass. Now I rarely think about organization—I just tag when something stands out, and my smart playlists handle the rest.

Why PKM People Will Get This Immediately

If you use a Zettelkasten or any PKM system, you already understand:

• Emergence over planning: You don't need to design the perfect system upfront. Tag what feels right, and patterns reveal themselves.
• Multiple contexts are natural: A song can serve many purposes, just like a note can connect to many topics.
• The network is the value: Individual tags are fine, but the power comes from combinations and relationships.
• Local-first matters: Tagify stores everything locally. Your tags are yours, not in some company's cloud.

Getting Started (2 Minutes)

1. You need Spotify's desktop app (not the web player)
2. Install Spicetify—a framework for Spotify extensions
3. Install Tagify from the Spicetify Marketplace (or GitHub)
4. Start with 5-10 basic tags. Resist the urge to over-engineer.

The best advice I can give: don't try to tag your whole library at once. Just tag songs as you listen. Let your system grow organically—exactly like building a Zettelkasten.

The Bigger Picture

There's something beautiful about applying PKM principles beyond notes. Music organization, recipe collections, bookmarks, project files—these all suffer from the same folder-vs-network problem.

Obsidian showed us that knowledge doesn't fit in boxes. Neither does music.

If you try Tagify, I'd love to hear how you structure your tags. Drop by the Discord or GitHub Discussions—the community has some fascinating systems.