How to organise an online music library. Part 2: Philip Sherburne

A look into how some of my favorite Substack music writers organise (or don't organise) their music.

For part 2 of this series I chatted to Philip Sherburne, arguably the best working electronic music journalist we have! Philip hardly needs an introduction, but if you don’t know who he is, just open Pitchfork and you’ll be sure to come across one of his reviews. Then there’s his newsletter, Futurism Restated, where he shares new releases (and sometimes not-so-new releases) that he hasn’t gotten to write about elsewhere. He also shares interviews and mixes and I suggest that if you don’t already subscribe, you stop reading this right now and do so. Done? Good. One of my favorite bits of info about Philip is that he coined the term Microhouse, which I would honestly not shut up about if it were me. Philip was extremely generous with my back and forth questions about his music keeping habits and there’s lots to think about here, from someone who is listening to more music in a day than most people do in a week. To me, a lot of what he says is a reminder that sometimes a great way to sort out our music collections is by actually owning what we listen to. We also chatted about listening for pleasure vs listening for work, streaming and what his family can all agree to listen to!