Category: Music

LET YOUR FANS KNOW THEY CAN BUY YOUR MUSIC

Last week’s Spotify garbage announcements led to a lot of artists and bands and musicians speaking out in anger.

I get it, I really do, but also 90% of those same artists have multiple links to Spotify in their bio, on their feeds, on their websites (if they have a website)…

“Weird. I only link to Spotify on all my social media platforms and website posts, and yet no one buys any of the music from my Bandcamp because I never link to it or mention it, shhh it’s a secret I guess. So frustrating!”

Yes, I get it… making a $1 on Spotify is hard. But… I make music that sounds like a running dishwasher mixed with a 10 year old AC unit, and…

Like, I am not a full time musician by any means. Most of my friends don’t give a crap about the music I make. But like… my music isn’t available on any streaming service, and I made $30 last month, which is good for some groceries.

Yes, it’d be great if Spotify would pay more, and it’d also be great if people bought CDs like they did in 1998. But that’s NEVER coming back.

Some people value music, and will pay you for it. A lot of people won’t.

Don’t fall for the, “well, everyone just streams music.”

You’re not making music for everyone. None of us are.

So at the bare minimum let your fans know that they can support you by purchasing your music.

SPOTIFY’S STREAM ON MUSIC IS HORRIBLE

Imagine being one of the biggest music companies in the world, host of some of the most amazing music in modern history, and… this (the second one down) is the track you’re using for your big roll out:

It’s not just me, I swear:

Like… HOW is that the sound bed to your big new feature roll out?

Oh, that’s right – when your mission as a company is to replace all human-made music with AI bullshit so you don’t have to pay out to actual humans, this is what you get.

Look – Spotify as an app, a service, all that – yeah, it’s great.

But it’s also the worst.

BUILDING ON YOUTUBE

It’s been fun uploading my mixes to Mixcloud over the years, and I finally got around to building a Goodnight, Metal Friend website. Now I finally got around to uploading my mixes to YouTube, and it’s been fun.

Check out Goodnight, Metal Friend on YouTube.

People search for specific things on YouTube, like “dark ambient mix” or “background music,” so it’s been fun seeing some of these mixes getting 50+ views. And almost 23 hours watched in the last 28 days, which blows my mind!

BANDCAMP FRIDAY IS WONDERFUL

Bandcamp Friday is magical if you allow yourself to believe in magic.

“#BandcampFriday is a day of being overwhelmed by the power of creativity! Wow, there’s just so much choice out there!! Where do we begin?”

Penelope Trappes

Do I get a lot of emails? Sure.
Do I see a lot of Tweet threads from 100 people about music to check out? Yes.

Somehow this is a bad thing.

Without social media (at the moment), there is no source or curation for this. Music sites don’t do much around this probably (definitely) because a post about some band farting out a Nirvana cover gets more clicks.

So yeah… lots of people are throwing lots of links around to a lot of music, and it’s absolutely impossible to keep up with it all.

The best way to handle all of it?

Shut your mouth, click a link, and just buy something. The end.

THE RICH RUIN EVERYTHING

The corporations bought up the blog thing and fucked it up (I was there when AOL was filling up the search engines, churning out websites, buying HuffPost, Seed).

The corporations bought up podcasts, and things ain’t working out, so now we’re gonna hear how “Podcasts lose their edge.”

No. Cheap podcasts that are profitable and also reach 1,000,000 per episode, and make lots of money for dude bros in suits are dead. RIP.

Now Spotify has a new AI DJ. Fuck off.

We had a thriving internet community with message boards, and email lists, and music blogs and websites, but then we relented. We all fell for the shiny objects called Facebook and Twitter and streaming music.

“That’s where everyone is,” is the biggest lie the devil ever told.

Not everyone is on Twitter.
Not everyone streams.

If you’re looking for the Superbowl Audience, sure, you better play your cards right and make the music that millions wanna hear.

But there are still record stores. Go shop at ’em.
Local music stores exist. Go buy some strings.
Bandcamp exists. Go buy a digital album, or a shirt.

Yes, the biggest players make the biggest noise, but the dam is breaking.

Layoffs, mismanagement. The consolidation of power isn’t natural.

Start your website, your email list, own your music, and talk to people and build your communities.

LOVE JON MAKES BEATS

I have zero idea how he does anything with that Octatrack MKII, but it sure looks cool, and Jon’s delivery is my viiiiibe, man. Give me laid back and chill over all the glitzy, in your face, over the top music stuff any day. A true wizard at work.

I love how he talks about using presets, which goes nicely along with this video of Andrew Scheps talking about using less things instead of more. Just because you have 1500 snare sounds doesn’t mean you should take a month searching for the right one, when you can just focus on writing a great song instead.

Jon Makes Beats: YouTube / Patreon / Twitch

BANDCAMP ROULETTE FOR VALENTINES DAY

Tired of everyone crying about Rihanna playing the Super Bowl? Or “overpriced” merch from Gojira? Then just go to Bandcamp, click on three random items that just sold on Bandcamp, and see if you can’t find a new favorite artist.

Glitchy, speedy electronic music. It’s tagged “psytrance” and it’s from Norway. Whatever, this is fun.

Selenoplexia present six songs of “Blackened Death in Chicago.” Good stuff!

Released today on Valentines Day, K, Le Maestro put out this remix, I think. Pretty groovy.

NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THEY’RE DOING

From ‘Forty Years In, Yo La Tengo Are Still Making It Up as They Go‘ over at Pitchfork.

When Yo La Tengo invited Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley to sit in with them for the entirety of their second-night set, the drummer pleaded, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” “You don’t have to,” Kaplan told him, adding, “We don’t know what we’re doing.” He only hopes that Yo La Tengo’s faith in their collaborators will spark “something interesting.”