Before my hiatus I was posting “samplers” via You Tube of tracks that I did not have the time to write about but I reckoned they needed a listen. To be honest hardly anyone listened to them which is a shame as there was plenty of good tracks on them. So I am going to try again via Spotify this time. So here is the first ten compiled on a cold and grey Autumn day. As ever, enjoy!

Band & Track links

Egotism – Melbourne
The Muldoons – Hours & Hours
Ducks Ltd. – Grim Symmetry
The Virginia Planes – Kiss In The Morning
Pale Blue Eyes – How Long Is Now
Joyful Forfeit – Pale In Comaprison
Relay Tapes – Violets
Grundeis – Distance Far Gone
93MillionMilesFromThe Sun – Sleep
Bathe Alone – The Avenues

Wait, what!? I thought you were done with Spotify.

Bit of a dilemma this.

Since I deleted my Spotify account I have tried a number of other services such as Deezer, You Tube, Qobuz and lately Tidal. Alongside the availability of music I have also considered the UI, integration with hosted wordpress.com platform and most importantly how much each platform pays the artists. Of course Spotify is poor in this respect but to my surprise is not the worst in 2024.

I have also considered that independent and self releasing artists are still making their music available via Spotify despite the low return on their streams. I presume that this is a combination of the current market model due to the popularity of the platform and how it integrates across other websites and devices meaning their music may well be heard. For example I have been enjoying Music League of late. So I have bitten the bullet and signed up for a free account for now. Hopefully in some small, and naive way, streams could possibly be increased via these samplers.

So for now Spotify seems the best bet for integration and users.

Who know? Maybe Bandcamp will enable playlists on their website like they have done with their app (well only those tracks you have purchased) so I can use those with WordPress instead.

But let’s not forget who the owners of Bandcamp are, they are not Robin Hood’s of the audio world. Yet it is a successful model and Artists are paid from sales of digital and physical merchandise with Bandcamp taking a cut of course. There are also payments for streams. And, to my surprise, Bandcamp Fridays are still here.

Happy to hear (read) your thoughts. Oh, this is a good read too.