07: No Money // No Problems
Hey friends & family,
Every spring, I swear an oath that next year, I’ll be more strategic in planning my life and commitments. And every year when the days get longer, the trees leaf out, and the temperatures warm up, I find myself in the proverbial headless chicken situation. This year is no different; it feels like our calendar is piling up to a ridiculous degree in June. Jos graduates from preschool and enters her final summer before kindergarten. We bought a house (!) in North Portland, and we are moving in June (after both girls are out of preschool, natch). At the end of June, we are taking a week to spend time with friends in Seaside, OR. We have a half dozen concert tickets between now and then, and at least as many little birthday parties to attend.
At Freeform, this week is our annual donor drive. We have a goal of raising $20k to fund the station’s operations for the next year, and I can’t believe that a community radio station staffed by 100% volunteers that operates 24/7/365 can continue on such a thrifty budget. If you feel so inclined, you can help out via https://www.freeformportland.org/donate/ or you can check out our BRAND SPANKING NEW web store at https://shop.freeformportland.org. Please be aware that our items in the web store are priced using the PBS model, i.e. $100 for a t-shirt as a gift for your donation. All of the stuff in our shop was designed by KFFP volunteers, which is pretty cool. You might consider signing up to be a Friend of Freeform and donating $5 a month, which would go a long way towards helping keep us on the air and expand our terrestrial radio signal to cover more of Portland proper.
Our new t-shirt design for the spring 2018 fundraiser
For my show tonight, for the first time ever, my pal DJ Muntz will join me on the air to co-host our donor drive show. We are very likely gonna tell you lot of goofy stories about Freeform, and play some music. Please tune in!
DJ Muntz, in a rare musical moment
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My show last week wasn’t recorded by the station’s archives, so I can’t send you a link to listen to the program. Against my better judgement, I made a playlist of the songs I played in both Tidal and in Spotify. I’ll admit, I’m a little loathe to do this. If you’ll allow me a digression, I’ll tell you why.
My thinking on streaming platforms and their effects on smaller artists and labels has largely been shaped by articles written by Damon Krukowski (formerly of Galaxie 500, currently of Damon & Naomi) about how little his bands receive from streaming revenue, how to be a responsible music fan in the age of streaming, and an interesting interview regarding his book The New Analog. Also, a really excellent and chilling piece by Jenn Pelly in the Baffler about the central importance of company-curated playlists on streaming platforms. I tried Daytrotter, Spotify, and Apple Music before finally settling on Tidal. Daytrotter was a pretty cool model–they did live in-studio sessions with lots of great indie musicians (my favorites were Talkdemonic, Magical Electric Co., and Danny Brown), and for awhile, you could sign up for their service and stream/download anything you wanted from their archive. I really liked Spotify’s social features (sharing with friends, collaborative playlists), but the more I learned about their business practices, the more guilt accumulated for using their platform. Ronda got pretty exasperated with me switching from service to service, taking advantage of free promotional months for joining.
There were definitely a few things that made Tidal stand out for me. 1) They offered a free download of Rihanna’s album ANTI- in 2016 with signing up, which was totally sweet and still stands up. 2) Tidal was the exclusive streaming home of Prince’s catalog at the time he died. 3) When Beyoncé’s Lemonade album was released, it was a Tidal exclusive. And while Kanye, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, et al., are not exactly hurting for money, they do give a higher percentage of streaming royalties to artists and labels than other platforms.
I really, really love Bandcamp. The fact that revenues go so directly to artists and labels is just such a no-brainer to me. It seems to me that Bandcamp is second only to going to a show and buying a record or merch straight from the band. I also like the cassette model that lots of up-and-coming bands have moved towards, where they will release a cassette with a download code, thus providing the physical object with the accessible music listening. I’ve talked to my friends that make music and sell it through Bandcamp, and to a one they all have praise for it. More than one person has mentioned to me that a dwindling bank account was suddenly buoyed by a few folks that bought their album that same day. Above all, to me, musicians should be compensated for their work and should be able to make a living with their art much more easily that our current model.
I find with the streaming services, I am listening to a greater variety of music than I had before, and I probably end up buying more albums now than I did before I regularly began streaming five or so years ago. My checkbook register and sagging record shelves definitely attest to that. I’m trying hard to find the balance between navigating the ever-quickening new music treadmill and learning to slowly appreciate or love a record.
So, yeah, I’m one of the few streaming weirdos that prefers Tidal. It makes me a little sad when friends and folks on social media make a rad-looking playlist on Spotify, definitely feels like I’m missing out in some way. I’ve thought about making playlists to share with listeners and friends (for the backyard BBQ, the ubiquitous whatever-and-chill), so if you liked being able to listen to playlists, let me know and I may put a bit more effort into it.
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I do still have one show to send out that you haven’t heard–my show from two weeks ago (May 9th) was recorded in our studio (yay backups!) so I have a few different ways I can send that to you. I have normal MP3 links for streaming or download, the only difference is that I had to upload them to my Google Drive, and your mileage may vary with the in-browser music player. I’m pretty sure you can still download the MP3s if you so desire. I also uploaded the show to a website called Mixcloud that I have used infrequently since I started at Freeform. You can stream the show from Mixcloud, which is awesome, but you can’t rewind/fast-forward.
FIRST HOUR
SECOND HOUR
MIXCLOUD
PLAYLIST
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We had the pleasure of seeing the bands La Luz and (PDX band) Sávila at the Aladdin Theater in Milwaukie last weekend with a dear friend from Bellingham that we hadn’t seen since we left town. I am deeply locked in to the new La Luz album Floating Features–their combination of rad surf-style guitar sounds, gorgeous close vocal harmonies, and technical prowess is definitely hitting the sweet spot for me right now.
I know I’ve been banging the drum a ton for Fountaine lately, but I’m gonna bang it one more time here in this newsletter, and it won’t be the last time I do so. I’ve gotten to know Mikey over the last few months after I approached him this winter to write a blog piece about his music for the radio station. The more I talk with him and listen to his music, the more I admire him as a person and enjoy his artistry. He’s in a rough patch with his health and could use positive energy. If you’re up for it (damn, I’m about to hit you up for dough twice in the same newsletter) this would be a great time for you to buy his record from last summer, H.F.I.L. (Hell For Infinite Losers). To me, it stood along with The Last Artful, Dodgr & Neill Von Tally’s Bone Music as twin paragons of the excellent, underappreciated Portland R&B and Hip-Hop music scene, and those releases were indicative of the quality, thought, and ass-shaking that is happening right here in my new burg. Anyhow, if you have a Bandcamp account and you are interested, I’d be happy to buy this album as a gift for you, to help Mikey out a bit and to pass on a really good record.
Fountaine, as shot by @madennai
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And now, for the stars of our show, the little ladies
Holy cow, I love Jos’ friend Ruby’s expression in this shot.
“I have whiskers”
Thanks,
Andy // DJ Mr. Mom
May 23, 2018
North Portland, OR