Time saved: manual vs automated playlist creation
How long does it actually take to create a Spotify playlist from a tracklist?
Time saved: manual vs automated playlist creation
How long does it actually take to create a Spotify playlist from a tracklist? I timed myself doing it manually, then compared it to using makelist.co.
The test
I used an NTS Radio show tracklist with 24 tracks. A typical length for a 2-hour show. Nothing unusual about the formatting - standard "Artist - Track" format throughout.
Manual method: 26 minutes 40 seconds
Here's what manual playlist creation involves:
For 24 tracks, that's a lot of tab switching, copying, pasting, and clicking.
The experience
The first few tracks are fine. You're engaged, checking the matches, making sure you're getting the right versions.
By track 10, you're on autopilot. Copy, paste, click, copy, paste, click.
By track 15, mistakes start creeping in. I accidentally added a radio edit instead of the original, and grabbed a cover version instead of the actual artist. Didn't notice until later.
By track 20, you just want it to be over. The music discovery that inspired you to create the playlist in the first place has been replaced by tedious data entry.
Total time: 26 minutes 40 secondsmakelist.co: 47 seconds
The comparison
| Method | Time | Accuracy |
| Manual | 26 min 40 sec | 92% (2 wrong tracks) |
| makelist.co | 47 sec | 100% of available tracks* |
*2 tracks weren't on Spotify - these weren't matching errors, just unavailable tracks.
Time saved: 25 minutes 53 seconds
That's a 97% reduction in time spent.
What about longer tracklists?
The time savings scale linearly with tracklist length. Manual playlist creation takes roughly the same amount of time per track (about 1 minute). makelist.co takes roughly the same total time regardless of tracklist length (the extraction and matching happens in parallel).
| Tracklist length | Manual time | makelist.co time | Time saved |
| 10 tracks | ~10 min | ~45 sec | 9 min |
| 20 tracks | ~20 min | ~50 sec | 19 min |
| 30 tracks | ~30 min | ~55 sec | 29 min |
| 50 tracks | ~50 min | ~60 sec | 49 min |
For a 50-track tracklist (a long DJ mix or a festival lineup), you're saving nearly an hour.
The real value
The time saved is significant, but there's something more important.
When playlist creation takes 30 minutes, you only bother for content you really love. You hear a good NTS show, think "I should turn that into a playlist", remember how tedious it is, and decide to do it later. Later never comes.
When playlist creation takes 47 seconds, you just do it. Curious about a show? Convert it. Heard a good mix? Convert it. Interesting festival lineup? Convert it.
The barrier drops, so you explore more.
In the month after building makelist.co, I created more playlists than I had in the entire previous year. Not because I suddenly had more time, but because the friction disappeared.
The hidden cost of manual work
There's another factor: mental energy.
26 minutes of copy-paste-click isn't just 26 minutes of time. It's 26 minutes of context switching, low-level frustration, and mind-numbing repetition. After creating a playlist manually, I never felt like I'd accomplished something meaningful. I felt drained.
After creating a playlist with makelist.co, I feel like I've just unlocked new music to explore. The emotional outcome is completely different.
Try it yourself
If you've ever thought "I should turn this tracklist into a playlist" and then didn't because it seemed like too much work, give makelist.co a try.
Paste a URL. Get a playlist. Keep discovering.