A challenge to fellow music writers: save your best of lists for when the year is actually over.

'Did you write your best music of 2014 list yet?"
"No, becasue 2014 isn't over."
"Good."

I know this is an annual complaint of mine, but music "best of" lists should really wait until after year's end to go up.* A few years ago websites started to go into defensive mode and publish their lists earlier and earlier in order to garner the most buzz for their selections. That approach was a dumb exercise in preemptive striking, and it's been made even more so over the last few years, for a number of reasons.

Best of lists have turned alarmingly homogenized. In a time when such a massive amount of material is out there and folks have the power to discover bands not held back by gatekeepers this feels counterintuitive. Leading me to believe most lists are based on a combination combining publicist relationships along with the wish to reinforce readers' believe that their tastes as really awesome. Why rush to release a list that looks like everyone else's?

Artists are increasingly releasing music weeks (or months) after these lists come out. I'm sorry, if you publish your list in November you can't put Beyoncé's December release from last year on a 2014 list. And who just dropped an album at midnight last night? And possibly one of the most anticipated albums since My Bloody Valentine's follow-up to Loveless? D'Angelo. And this trend is only going to grow more popular. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we saw one or two more high profile surprises drop before Dec. 31, 2014.

How can you call a "best [insert name] of 2014" list before the end of 2014? I mean, aside from my previous two points, this one seems the most glaringly indefensible from the standpoint of people that have already published lists?

This whole practice is sadly outdated, and honestly it's built on a practice that did make sense in the past—most music writers had music through the end of December delivered to them well before December even began so these lists could be built ahead of time. But that practice was rooted in print limitations and those limitations have quickly eroded into pointless habits over the last few years.

It's time for my fellow entertainment writers to get with the times, accept they ain't just a 'changin' but have long changed, and adjust this whole "best of" exercise to actually reflect reality.

I guarantee if you take more time with your lists and don't just cobble them together in hopes of getting them out the door first you'll a) make more selections you won't be embarrassed by in 3 months and b) you identify more unexpected selections that might actually give your readers the pleasure of discovering something new instead of jumping on the bandwagon everyone else already signed up to ride.

*I originally framed this piece to include all entertainment "best of" lists but in some arenas—specifically film, TV and literature—the physical product is still largely limited by mead times music is no longer held back by, so I can see how it's still possible to construct a list for some other sources of entertainment ahead of time in good conscience.