Remember the days when you’d spend hours curating the perfect list of songs for your crush on a mixtape? Requesting songs on the radio and recording them; picking your favourite scented gel pen to write the tracklist; scouring drawers for those heart-shaped stickers.

Hardly anyone listens to tapes now, let alone owns a cassette player, but you can still put together a digital playlist that your match can stream. When done with thought and intention, it can deliver just as much affection and excitement as a tangible gift. Here’s how to choose songs that your match will love and appreciate, as well as some tips on how to step up your dating game with music.

Songs that mean something to you 

If you’re still getting to know your match, let them into your world a little more and choose some songs that you really love, or that say something about your personality and interests. If you’re a runner, add the anthem that gets you in the zone when pounding the pavements. To get more personal, you could add a track from the first album you ever bought, or a favourite song from childhood. 

Songs that remind you of them

Have you ever heard a song come on the radio and it instantly reminds you of your match? Maybe it mentions their eye or hair colour, maybe it’s from their favourite genre, or maybe it just articulates exactly how you feel about them. Your crush will be touched to know that they’ve been on your mind and communicating this through music can be the ultimate romantic gesture. 

Songs that you know your match loves

As music is so important in all our lives, your match may have already disclosed some of their top songs or artists. Add the track they love the most, or the one that you’d love to dance to with them. A playlist you can both listen to and enjoy together will make it even more special. If you’re not sure what their favourite bops are, pull a song from the soundtrack of their favourite film instead, or even the theme tune of their most-watched TV show. 

Playlist dating

Music and dating go hand-in-hand, with 52% using music as a topic to spark conversation when getting to know someone.* This makes it the perfect opportunity to play a music-based game with your match over Bumble chat. The game is as follows: you both have to select ten songs each from one genre (e.g. rock, pop) and then grade each other’s choices from 1-10. The top five of each selection will make it to a final playlist that you can listen to together on your next date! (Karaoke, anyone?)

If it’s a new connection and you’re looking to make the first move, try sending them a lyric from one of your favourite well-known songs, and see if they reply with the next line! It’s a tuneful way to break the ice.

Make your Bumble Profile musical

We know how important music is when getting to know someone, and on Bumble you can add the Music Interest Badge to your profile to show potential matches your favourite genre. Simply go to “Edit profile” in the app, scroll down to “My interests” and choose a music genre as one of your badges. According to recent data from Bumble, the most popular music genre badges displayed in the UK are Rock, R&B, and Indie.**

To further integrate music into your Bumble profile, you can connect your Spotify account to show potential matches your top artists. To do this, simply head into “Edit profile” in the Bumble app, scroll down to “Connected accounts”, and click the green circle in the top right corner of the Spotify box. 

Have a guilty pleasure you’re not sure you want to disclose yet? No worries! You can hide any of your top artists that you don’t want people to see—just click on the eye-shaped icon to the top right of the artist’s photo to toggle it on or off.

Whether your mixtape is IRL or digital, creating a playlist just for your crush is as romantic and nostalgic as it gets, and is a surefire way to set the tone for your connection.

* Research was conducted by Censuswide between 12th-17th January 2022 with a sample of 1,001 people from the UK.

** Data collected by Bumble in November and December 2021.