Spotify very likely does not pay their marketing department enough because they continuously find new ways to distract the public from being… kind of a prick company honestly. Whether it’s Spotify being one of the worst paying streaming services, the doofus comments by CEO Daniel Eck, like that time he told artists if they wanted to make more money, they needed to write more music or laying off nearly 20% of their staff in 2023.
Despite all of that every December we flock to Spotify to look at our much anticipated Spotify Wrapped to share it across social media. Artists take time out from complaining about making .003 cents per stream to thank all of their listeners for their support over the year, while giving some free advertising to Spotify themselves. I don’t share my wrapped but you better be damn sure I look as if I haven’t had the same top 5 artists in varying order for the last 5 years.
Now we have Daylists. The subject for one of the first memes of 2024; Don’t tell me your resolutions show my your Spotify Daylist Title. Don’t tell me your astrological sign show my your Spotify Daylist Title. I was intrigued as Spotify doesn’t really have a great record with playlisting as far as I’m concerned. Look I get it, MGK has a large fanbase so he has to put on the Rock On playlist. I have always felt there should be avenues for lesser known artists to be on these curated playlists. So you could imagine my surprise when I tracked down my Daylist, hit shuffle & found bands with 1000, 100, or even 50 monthly listeners. I quickly became obsessed with what was going to be next.
Today I am going to share some of my favourite findings with you. Check this out….
Wild & free chaotic Thursday afternoon, paranormal dark cabaret afternoon, Nervous ocean thursday morning or Doom Metal Monday Night which had my band, Lost Arts single “Dead Eyes” has the first song. These are some examples of the interesting titles Spotify creates for our Daylists. Now, I’m not convinced that Spotify understands what Doom Metal is, because Lost Arts is 90’s Pop Country if you asked a Doom Metal aficionado. However I feel reinvigorated in my music discovery. The Daylists updates 3 different times throughout the day, with fresh names & fresh music. Streaming has not necessarily made music discovery easy. It’s actually really hard to stumble onto anything. You share your habits with your platform & they spit it back out, often times it’s the same 6 artists for you to listen to. As I mentioned earlier Spotify playlists are honestly very weak as music discovery goes but that isn’t really what they are for. Spotify is creating playlists for people to use their platform and artists with huge listener bases make the most sense. Today I have 8 songs, that I have found in a few variations of my Daylists. First up I have “You Know What It Is” By The Pistolwhips & Song of The Morning by Imperial Tunfisch. I cannot find much information about The Pistolwhips, they seem to now be defunct, with their last release being In 2018. They do have 2 albums & boast 5200 Monthly listeners however. Imperial Tunfisch are a psychedelic indie rock band from Belgium. They released 2 ep’s & the single that I am about to play for you in 2022, rocking only 64 monthly listeners. Here is our first song “Song of The Morning”
What actually got me to take to this Daylist concept was that when I was going to some of these bands profiles, they had such low monthly listeners. As I said, Imperial Tunfisch only has 64 monthly listeners. In fact everything that will be played today from now on has under 1000 monthly listeners & most under 500. Why am I harping on this quote unquote low monthly listener count? Because this is the type of music I want to discover & I’m bit of annoying bitch in the sense that back in high school to discover an unheard band, they still very likely had to be signed or have something go viral. Lost Arts is sitting around 40 monthly listeners right now. I like the idea that we could be graced by the algorithm & placed in someone’s Daylist titled like Desert Shirt Buffalo Afternoon & we get that ever desired like & personal playlist add. The internet is a magically horrendous place where sometimes your dreams come true…. damn that is lame…. Next I have two songs I really enjoyed & fall under the quake label for the show. First I have The Shirts & Shoes from Boston with their song “Toothache” followed by Queen Chiefs, I could not find where they are from but their song “Space Funeral” is tripping somewhere in the desert.
I am bad for listening to the same music, which isn’t conducive to a long term podcast/ radio show. There is so much great shit out there but I can’t keep playing Dead Poet Society on the show. They’re a great band, new album “Fissions” out now. I am grabbing these songs from a playlists that I have made, that is essentially a dumping ground for my favourite finds from my Daylist, titled “Fuck Yeah- Discovery”. I cuss a lot because I didn’t rebel has a teenage & frankly I’m an idiot. But not when it comes to music, you should listen to me. I will never lead you down a path that doesn’t either rip or quake. Here’s a band from somewhere in the USA, You would think more people would have where they are from in their socials. Kid Pastel with their newest release “Cracks & Breaks” followed by the UK’s Bison Face with his ripper “Wishkah”.
Finally I am going to take you out of the desert but not the sand. We’re on the road to the beach maybe? I don’t know man. Bad Mothers - “I Hate the Road”. Bad Mothers are from Albany New York & I really dig this guys voice. If I could sing like anyone it would be Chris Cornell but this would be a close second. It drips with natural emotion. I actually gave Craig their album for You Should Jam, a segment on my main pod, We Should Jam Sometime. I haven’t even listened to it yet, but if it is half as good as this song, it will be perfect. Finally for today we have Okay Dane from Melbourne Victoria with “You’re Sick”. I’ve been obsessed with song. It’s giving me a Wavves meets Modern Baseball vibe. Like maybe if Modern Baseball grew up in LA or maybe fucking Australia. This is a really fun track that takes the mental health subject matter & makes you dance to it.
Shiny Side Up