Category: Technology

“I understand that Gmail is trying to make the product more user friendly, but I think it’s making some questionable decisions without the user’s knowledge. And unlike some email clients that allow users to choose whether to include contact names when sending, Gmail enforces this behavior with no setting to disable it.”

Maybe you wanna check your CONTACT NAMES in Gmail. Yikes. Read more here.

LISTENING WITHOUT A STREAMING SERVICE

Since cancelling my YouTube Premium subscription, I’ve had to find alternative ways to listen to my ambient music for work and sleep. Thankfully Focus Soundscapes isn’t just on YouTube, but they’re also on Bandcamp.

I don’t have a membership to Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music now either, so last night’s run on the treadmill was a challenge. Thankfully the Bandcamp app did the trick, and I was able to pull up the albums I’ve purchased over the years and continue running.

Now I need to find a straight MP3 player app for my iPhone, or maybe look into a dedicated MP3 player that isn’t tied to the Apple iOS ecosystem. Man, I just want to plug things in and move files around, you know?

1,000 DISPLAY ADS

We’re in 2025 and websites are still jamming as many ads as possible onto every nook and cranny. There are eight display ads on this one page, every three paragraphs.

Absolutely boggles the mind that this is the best we’ve come up with, the only way we can make it work.

Consider 1,000 true fans? Fuck no, how about 1,000 display ads? That’s all this is.

SCREEN TIMES

The last three days I’ve been putting my phone away. Out of site. Going for walks without. Reading a book while making coffee. Checking for anything urgent when I get home from the gym or grocery shopping.

My average for the week us under an hour, a definate improvement from the week prior of five hours per day. It all adds up, watching YouTube clips while eating lunch, checking emails while on a walk, or getting off the treadmill, or getting in the car from the gym, or then checking again when I get home. Too. Much. Input.

I’ve been sleeping like a champ, and I think lower the level of inputs has been good for recovery from my runs. I ran over 5 miles on the treadmill the last two nights, when in the previous few runs I could barely muster 3. I was just wiped out.

All that to say – put your phone away. Delete stupid apps. Stop checking for emails. Read a book while waiting for your water to boil.

INDIE ARTISTS NEED SPOTIFY

From Queen Kwong in ‘Why Quitting Spotify Won’t Help Indie Musicians,”

“indie artists like​ me can’t afford​ tо ignore and abandon Spotify,​ nо matter how much​ we despise it.​ If​ I want​ tо book​ a live gig,​ a promoter will check​ my streams first.​ If​ I want​ tо get label interest, A&R will glance​ at​ my numbers before deciding​ іf I’m relevant enough​ tо even respond to.”

This is also true for social media – some media outlets won’t feature you if you don’t have a big enough social media following. See, they think when they publish your feature, then you’ll share it with your big social media audience.

Which is fun, since we all know barely 5% of anyone’s audience will see that feature from the band’s social media feed.

But then, with Spotify numbers – they can be fudged, right? You can artificially boost those numbers. Make a song called “lofi-beats playlist” and hope for the best.

I wrote this a few years ago:

Right now Spotify is for the masses. Easy to consume. It’s a never ending buffet, and while your music is on the menu, you’ll never make enough to buy groceries for the week.

TALKING ABOUT THE WORK

“Talking about the work is just as important as making it“

Lots of truth in this statement, not just in a big “PR SALES!” sense, but even in how we talk about what we do with friends, and other people in our creative orbit.

Many artists would love for the “art to speak for itself,” but that’s not the world we live in anymore. There is simply too much art, music, news, drama – EVERYTHING – for things to speak for themselves.

Everything has its volume cranked to 11, and it never ends, and there’s more being added every minute, every hour, every day.

We get better at talking about the work by talking about it, not by trying to scream just as loud as everyone else.

Posting on social media can be like screaming, since we all have to scream to get attention on those platforms. We have to dance, or use the right trending audio, or hashtags.

Talking, though, is a lost art. How many people do you know that don’t even like talking on the phone with friends? Let alone creative directors, or booking people, or potential clients?

Talking is a lost fucking art, but it’s exactly what we need to get back to.

COMPUTERS ARE BORING

I’ve been reading Apple / Mac blogs since like 2003. Started with MacRumors, and of course found the almight Daring Fireball, and have been checking those at least once a day for over… 20 years.

But I think I’m done.

Everything now just wants to have some AI element, or an even thinner iPad… my new MacBook Pro M3 is fucking FANTASTIC. Such a great computer. I love it so much.

But I think I’m good. I just need a solid laptop and… that’s it.