Category: Music

“I think it’s part of why I love running. It removes me from the internet for a bit. I listen to music. I can just think about the music for a while and have experiences with that. I can focus on one thing so it is not so fractured. I think it goes back to slowing things down. Slowing things down is a way to spend more time with stuff.”

Brandon Stosuy

MUSIC IS A BATTLEFIELD

So this happened today.

“Condé Nast is merging Pitchfork, the digital music publication it bought in 2015, with men’s magazine GQ — a move that will result in layoffs at Pitchfork, including the exit of editor-in-chief Puja Patel.”

As Ted Gioia wrote in response, “Put faith in the music, not the business.”

In the early 2000s we had music blogs, today we’ve got AI generated playlists.

Not sure how this gets any better.

ALSO:

“In 2017 Vulture called Spotify’s RapCaviar playlist “the most influential playlist in music.” Among other things, it’s credited for launching the career of Cardi B.

But as Ashley Carman reported at Bloomberg this month, even RapCaviar’s influence is now on the wane. The reason, of course, is artificial intelligence.”

From “How platforms killed Pitchfork‘

BURN IT ALL DOWN

Music blogs in the mid-2000s were a power (I was there). A good review could help sell a ton of albums.

After that, we ditched our iPods and piled onto social media and streaming playlists.

It’s all burning down.

I’m surprised how anyone is upset at this. Unlike popular DJs that would make radio shows, the people making these playlists were somewhat “hidden.” Yeah, sure, we knew who some of them were, but it’s not like the big prominent names and faces that we see in the world of radio, you know?

So how then are we surprised that they just replaced everyone with computers anyways?

None of these companies want to actually pay money for editorial discernment. If they did they’d have a full staff of amazing writers, like how Bandcamp used to operate.

Email lists and vinyl records will outlast social media, and I’m adding DSPs to that list now, too.

(via, Bloomberg)

QUITTING SPOTIFY

Great post from Olivia Rafferty about quitting and deleting Spotify:

My final reason was this: I wanted to own my music again. I wanted to press ‘shuffle’ on my entire catalog and have it surprise me with my own taste. Spotify lets you ‘like’ albums, and save songs to playlists, but you’ll never get a full idea of what songs you have in your catalogue. And what if some artists pulled their work from the platform? I constantly reach for Joni Mitchell’s Turbulent Indigo and it’s not there. Owning your music means that you will never lose it at the whim of someone else’s business decision. And it will be a catalogue that exists in its entirety. All together, in one place.

She details how she’ll listen to music moving forward, too. Great read.

Read it here: …So I Finally Quit Spotify

JOBBER SUMMERSLAM

Found this via a music blog – rcmndedlisten! In 2023!

I was listening casually, then came across this part:

Guitarist and vocalist Kate Meizner, drummer Mike Falcone, guitarist Michael Julius, and bassist Miles Toth aren’t just indie rock sports entertainers who can channel Helmet, Hum, and ‘99 era Macho Man in one fell swoop.

Then I was like, oh shit! It all clicked, and fuck, I love this song.

I GET PAID THE MOST

Neat interview with guitarist Steve Vai, on how he skipped making 0.25 cents per record to recoup and instead went and made $4 per record by going direct to the distributors.

And now, in 2023, artists are out here promoting the fuck out of DSPs so they can get 0.003 cents per stream on platforms that limit their ability to engage with 70% of their fans.

What the fuck are we doing?

IT DOESN’T MATTER IF IT DOESN’T TRANSLATE

Trying to catalog more of the things I come across on the internet, so I don’t forget about them. I could add to albums to my Bandcamp wishlist, or tuck away links in my notes app, but I think putting them here in the open is much more enjoyable.

“During lockdown I started playing a lot more games and becoming more interested in them as an art form, each song is its own little role-playing game. In my head, at least! It doesn’t matter if that doesn’t translate.”

From The Wire Magazine interview with Jayne Dent, talking about her latest album RPG.

SATISFIED, CALM, COOL, COLLECTED

I’ve known Sarah Saturday for well over a decade or more, dating back to my very first music blog. We finally got to meet in 2013 in Nashville for coffee, and have chatted on and off over the years.

Sarah recently released ‘Like You,’ and the opening line caught me off guard, in a good way:

Satisfied, calm, cool, collected

My mom used to say she was “calm, cool, and collected,” which made me and my sister laugh out loud, because she was definitely not calm, cool, and collected.

This is a sweet little reminder to put everything and anything you want out into the world because you just never know where it will land, or how it’ll be received.