Making a playlist? Visit our new resources page!

Our new resources page is full of free materials to help you at each stage of your playlist journey, whether you’re making a playlist for yourself or helping someone to make theirs. 

The page is split into four sections: Getting started, Help finding tunes, How to listen and Making the most of your music.  If you’re new to making playlists, simply start at the top of the page and work your way through the steps to identify what resources will be helpful for you, or if you have a specific question, you can pin-point the resource that will be most helpful. 

Read on to find out more… 

Getting started 

In this section we give you advice on what music is perfect for your playlist and printer-friendly resources so you can start writing down your music and memories. You’ll learn about the ‘memory bump’ and how the tunes you heard growing up play a key part in the soundtrack of your life. Use our ‘Conversation starters’ to start making notes for your own playlist, or to chat with someone you want to build a playlist for, then record your memories in more detail in the ‘Personal music journal’. 

Help finding tunes 

We have great resources to help you find even more tunes for your playlist. Our ‘100 Years: A Century of Song’ book lists the top 100 popular songs in the UK from 1915–2015 and is available to download for free as a PDF. You can look for songs from your memory bump, or if you’re making a playlist for someone else, this is a great resource for suggestions you might not have thought of otherwise. You’ll find a link to our Spotify page where the lists of songs in the 100 Years book have been made into playlists for you to browse and listen to, alongside over 200 playlists containing tunes based on cultural heritage, faith, hobbies and interests. Another fantastic music-finding tool is the BBC Music Memories website, which is very easy to use and will play you 30 second clips of popular and classical music, and much-loved TV & radio theme tunes. Though it won’t play the full songs for you, you can write down the tunes that have a memory for you and add those tunes to your ever-growing playlist! 

How to listen  

In this section you will find advice and instructional videos on what kind of equipment you can use to listen to your playlist and tips on choosing headphones or speakers. You’ll also find information on streaming and making playlists online (using Spotify or YouTube Music). If you are looking to put your playlist onto a portable device, our ‘Choosing a music player’ guide recommends 3 of the easiest–to–use MP3 players available today and we provide advice on downloading music to help you get your music on your music player. 

Making the most of your music  

And most importantly, in this section, you can find out more about the power of playlists to help people affected by dementia. Here you’ll find tips about using playlists as part of daily life and information about using music safely.  

We hope you find these resources helpful! Please feel free to share our resources page with family, friends and colleagues: https://www.playlistforlife.org.uk/resources/ 

We constantly strive to improve our information and services to meet the needs of our community, so please get in touch if you have any feedback on our resources.