been trying to get an album up on streaming platforms. the EP i made that was inspired by a series of videos that liam wong shot. it’s been up on bandcamp for weeks. i usually use cdbaby as my digital distro. they blocked the release bc of an artwork issue.

this is the original artwork. cdbaby’s concern was that liam’s name is on the cover but he didn’t write the music. the music was ‘inspired by’ work he sent me, so i considered him as much a part, but i get it. i tried to explain this, but no luck.

they asked me to make his name ‘much smaller’ on the cover or remove it. then they flat out told me he can’t be on the cover at all. i contacted liam and told him what was up and he was super gracious about it. so i removed his name, which honestly feels super dumb.

i re-submitted the album for distribution and about an hour later i got a new email for cdbaby:

which brings us to where i’m currently at: why the fuck are streaming platforms and digital middle people gatekeeping access on the basis of how the artwork is designed?

spotify’s cool club 2020 rewind PR campaign is great. even in the best case, spotify pays me $0.00437 per stream. daniel ek is worth 4.6B as of 2020. he made a great platform. it’s successful. ek doesn’t make music. or design artwork.

spotify did however radically change how music is found and consumed. it did radically devalue music to the marketplace and to consumers.

it’s perplexing as a musician to brush up against the extreme power wielded by streaming companies.

a few months ago we published a music video for ‘algorithm,’ which was suppressed on several social media platforms primarily because of content. i learned a lot thru that process. you allegedly catch a shadowban if you use the word ‘algorithm’ on tik tok.

it was exasperating to recognize that you really are cornered a bit if you don’t play by the platform rules. it sort of takes the shine off of the process of creating something. and it feels like decay. /end