[RANT] Finding My Algorhythm

Today I’m happy to report that, somehow in the midst of a global fucking pandemic that I’ve managed to find myself in probably the best mental health state of my life. As much as quarantine has been a nuisance because of being so isolated, it has really allowed me to thoughtfully reflect on things I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to address. Throughout this period of healing, I’ve really come to treasure how my whacky, overworked brain, and big ass heart both truly eat, sleep, and breathe music every second of my day.

I'm not sure how many people who write about music can also say they have not only worked in music but that they’ve worn as many hats as I have while working in music. Since moving to NYC I’ve worked in music publishing and at labels (in both marketing and radio). I’ve been an artist manager. I’ve even been a tour manager. In addition to working in music, I’ve also had the opportunity to work in advertising with Fortune 500 brands doing social media. I am realizing more and more that my unique perspective gained from all of these experiences is probably a lot more useful than I had initially thought.

As I float around the internet I observe a lot. For example, I make it a point to take note in which bands cluster together. I also do really nerdy, data driven things like cross-reference number of streams, monthly listeners, and social media following in order to gauge where in their career an artist is likely at, based on my personal experiences with monitoring those numbers for the artists I worked with. While it’s not entirely how I decide who gets covered in this space, it certainly helps me navigate the complexities of attempting to lend the level of support any particular artist may need.

In the past few months, a data point that I have found myself increasingly more fixated on is the impact of the playlists that listeners are discovering these artists through. Furthermore, who is behind these playlists that are helping to drive the larger numbers. 

Are you surprised to hear that normally if 5 out of 5 of the displayed playlists are all owned by Spotify, that their monthly listeners, followers, and streams  are often exponentially larger?

Didn't think so lol. 

As someone who quite often romanticizes The Algorithm™ but keeps a watchful eye on Spotify, in the past few years I’ve become more aware of their editorial playlisting and its increasingly alarming impact on music, specifically from a community standpoint. I genuinely don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but Especially In the midst of a pandemic, observing bands of all shapes and sizes tripping over themselves to laud streaming platforms (but let’s be honest it’s mostly Spotify) for chucking one of their songs on a playlist so as to stay in their good graces is just…. well, it’s just as weird as it is just really fucking depressing. 

This is all while knowing full well that touring off the table for the foreseeable future. Thus it  makes sense that everyone is collectively scrambling to stay afloat. That said, something about witnessing this just makes the future look so…. bleak. I know these kinds of shoutouts are fairly standard for the industry for other formats. For example, it definitely makes more sense to shout out a radio DJ. The space on the airwaves is limited and there’s a lot of vetting that is involved to take a chance playing an artist on the radio. Something like this I think a DJ is more than entitled to being acknowledged for their efforts. 

But with playlists, especially with how limitless they seem to be, are they really generating enough value? It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that I’ve made a fuckload of playlists in my time on this planet so far. I can tell you that once you get the hang of how you want them to flow that they can be assembled fairly quickly and easily. For these platforms to do this it is not a lot of *work* to throw a metaphorical bone to a band by chucking a track into one of the probably thousands of editorial playlists that exist. To be sure, I am not discounting the overall taste or attentiveness to details of making a good mix, I just know that in-tools like Truffle Pig exist (which I imagine by now they have integrated into the tool they use for playlisting submissions). I am saying that there is no scarcity to the number of playlists in the way that there is obvious scarcity in the example of an artist attempting to get radio play. 

The thing that is concerning me the most these days is - what happens after that song hits a playlist? With the sheer volume of genres and mood-related playlists that Spotify’s editorial team can crank out all while knowing that there are algorithms at play tweaking a good number of these to keep you on the platform consuming and accumulate more data for either them to monetize like they apparently do with data on our moods (ps labels have been using Spotify to gather data on us, too). If I give Apple Music shit for being more concerned with being in the device business and Google the data business instead of solely the music business, then I really  simply can’t ignore the very blatant move on Spotify’s part to be more in the audio streaming business than the music business. I know there are a lot of factors at play here and I’m not tryna have a heated debate right now about streaming royalties because FUCK ME that all is so messy, political and honestly out of my jurisdiction (not to mention Mark Mulligan already has some meaningful thoughts on all that anyway).

For this moment I’d mostly just like to pose the following questions:

Is essentially ⚡️being paid in exposure⚡️ from Spotify’s editorial team actually impactful enough for musicians?

Especially right now, is scrapping for a shot at their reach actually worth it in terms of fan conversion? How does quality vs. quantity come into play here? Additionally, in the wake of how clear it’s become that the music community as a whole has some major cleaning up to do to be a truly inclusive and safe space - are we sure this approach to artist discovery is being mindful enough of that?

Look, I know it’s not the job of the massive industry gatekeepers to both exhaustively investigate and nudge every artist they’ve ever given the time of day to a certain level of success every single step of the way. I also know obviously that individual fans should be doing their own level of due diligence as both consumers and community members upon discovering a new favorite artist. But here’s another question to ask - are the majority of Spotify’s users aware of things like the massive housecleaning of sexual predators underway in the industry right now? If so - where are they learning about this and is it always after the fact and not an opportunity to dodge a predatory bullet? 

Meanwhile, it’s no secret that the state of music journalism is just as disheartening to be a part of. Even before the pandemic hit we all helplessly witnessed massive layoffs at a plethora of publications, including but not limited to music. In addition to the majority of the sites that were crucial for discovery during the Music Blogging Boom drying up, we’re now watching some of the most brilliant critical minds in our community pivoting to personal newsletters while they’re unemployed as a means to contribute to the community while also maintaining credibility. As much as I find this to be deeply admirable, I’m just as concerned with how this will play out in the long term as I am with the gap that I feel is widening between an artist’s initial exposure and career longevity.

So….

….. why the fuck am I saying all of this? 🤔

Well for one, I feel like if I didn’t air the above concerns that I wouldn’t be true to myself or to the community I have loved and lived to serve for the majority of my life. More importantly, and it makes me really uncomfortable to be this vulnerable, I’d like to use this opportunity while I have your attention to acknowledge that for the past few years I’ve struggled a lot with knowing how best to contribute to an industry that honestly has made me feel like I was no longer needed while simultaneously having a slew of strangers begging me to devour an onslaught of music both inside and out of my blogger inbox, form quality rapid-fire reviews,  promote, and maintain relationships with either publicists or artists directly.

Y’all, it’s really fucking hard being essentially an editorial staff of one, especially when your standards for artist coverage goes beyond mostly regurgitating the contents of a press release.  Furthermore, it has become increasingly difficult to not let my frustrations of not being respected as such get in the way of wanting to do right by the artists that come into my life in the variety of serendipitous ways they do. I mean fuck, within the confines of my inbox specifically, I am expected to respond to pitches from folks who either have clearly never even looked on my website based on what they send alongside the (let’s be honest) an unnecessary number of frantic follow up emails I get from familiar faces in hopes of coverage. A reminder that, although I am often presumptively pressured to deliver the same output that this specific editorial staff of one is not doing this full time nor am I being compensated for this work. It has taken me literally everything in my being not to rage quit altogether. To be clear, THIS IS ME ✨NOT✨ RAGE QUITTING. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

I guess this is all to say, if not for the sheer fact that I derive so much joy in sharing music, that I would have stopped throwing money at GoDaddy and Squarespace a long time ago. In my lifetime I’ve found sharing music to be the thing that has allowed me to best articulate my inner world to other people as a means to connect. Even before SKOA, the deep connections I made through music were personally transformative. Still, being afforded this platform has brought people into my life that mean so much to me that I’m in tears at the thought of a life without them. This is my way of making sure it’s known that I intend to continue to honor what music has done for me by doing the work and figuring out in real-time alongside all of you how to best foster a rich community of people who intend to help elevate and champion stories of musicians from various walks of life. I hope to fill in the gaps between that first dopamine hit from a song that grabs you to the second we get back to shows, whenever that may be. With (ugh) no end in sight to quarantine I really have nothing to lose here other than maybe money that could have been spent on records instead of overheard site costs. That said,  If you’re up to indulge me in this endeavor and show support, I’ve created a Patreon which I am open to tweaking to make sure the energy exchange is sufficient. In the meantime, as I find my algorhythm here, please know that I am open to feedback to what you think would be helpful or cool to be a part of.

In the meantime, because it wouldn’t be an update from me without music, please enjoy a collection of a fraction of the songs that helped me get to where we are now.