My Hypocritical Spotify Playlist

It took me years to get on board the Spotify train . It was really only Bandcamp donations and physical orders that kept my bands barely afloat so forgive me for not clicking my heels together in a joyous dance at the thought of 0.00000004 per play. I think my main issue with Spotify was a feeling of unease that their reality and promises never added up. So the story goes that, allegedly, with exposure of your songs on Spotify , this will encourage people to buy your music. In reality, people who buy physical music tend not to be into corporate streaming monoliths and secondly, people who love the app very rarely stray from the site because it is very good at what it does.

The algorithm is scarily accurate at predicting what we are all going to enjoy so it has thrown up a few gems I had never heard of before and reacquainted me with some classics I had almost forgotten about.

Also when I follow an artist then it’s release radar tool will update me as soon as that happens unlike the Facebook tactic of making artists pay for ads in order to reach just some of their fans. I like thta when I follow an artist , I get updates. My follow or my like should mean that I get to hear about the music I love and Spotify does just that.

Another reason Spotify is doing so well is timing more than anything. As peoples internet habits moved from desktop and laptop to mobile phones then millions of companies were targeting people to download their apps. Most people don’t have the memory to save whole record collections so Spotify filled that gap perfectly. And they know it. So I do not believe that they expect people to buy the music , they expect, and hope, that people will just pay for Spotify premium and also delighted if artists just take it on the chin so they can make profits off other peoples art.

In short, it gives users an experience that leaves the rest of it’s competition in it’s wake. I dislike the disingenuous nature of their sales pitch and despise the pitiful royalty but it’s hear to stay and my one man boycott of not putting my music up there before recently definitely harmed me more than the company.

You can follow and listen to my music here and here but this post is not about me but about how You Call That Radio can help underground artists get heard while also supplying me with a banging playlist should long journeys to festivals ever become a thing again . I tried to do one last year but never promoted it which kind of defeated the point but I can assure you that every Friday I will add new acts to the YCTR recommends playlist . It could be a local hero, an unknown act from the north pole or a well known box office superstar. If I like it then it goes into the melting pot regardless of genre or level of fame.

Please follow the playlist here and also feel free to share it when appropriate.

I hope this will gain some new bands some new followers and for all it’s faults I do believe that Spotify has the power to encourage people to buy tickets for gigs. How long before they want a cut of that? maybe that question is for another time.

I hope you enjoy some of the excellent tunes I have discovered so far in 2021. You can expect a bit of everything there including Minerva Wakes, Billy NoMates, Nigel Clark, Truemendous, UNKLE, Glasvegas, Kool Keith, Mickey 9s, Josephine Sillars, Arab Strap, Stanley Odd, Steg G, Morphamish, Nick Cave, Bad Fractals, Blue Nicotine , The Vanities, Stereolab and much, much more.

Cheers

Mark