This playlist gets refreshed with different tracks from artists coming out of the ‘central europe’ region on a somewhat regular basis, with new additions added near the top & older tracks removed from the bottom to keep the total count at a nice, even 95. Which means you can also find this playlist in the daily programming options for the ‘pretend, for real’ mountain town DIY radio station MountownFM that HI54 collaborates on with mountown internet cousin 95EH.CA (hence the 95 total tracks).

But, also:

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I’m currently in the process of looking into moving my #HI54MIXCDS operation from Spotify over to Tidal (because Tidal pays artists more per stream). I shared some thoughts over on Insta / Twitter, and will share more thoughts the more time I spend figuring out Tidal and thinking about why/how I still music blahg over the next month or so — but, for now, I’ve already got a 90-day trial going on Tidal so I’ve gone ahead & setup my CENTRAL EUROPE RADIO playlist over there:

At the same time, I also know that not everybody can or wants to leave Spotify right now (some artists say they NEED/DEPEND on it), or some people can’t even get Tidal in their country (I also have a smart phone that is too old to be able to use the Tidal app, so that ain’t ideal for me either & I’m sure I’m not the only one rocking an iPhone 6 still, right? Right?!).

So, while I’m trial-ing out a 90-day Tidal trial, and also because I had a thorough music blogging organizing/sorting/discovery system setup on Spotify over the years and Tidal definitely does not seem better equipped for that stuff (but I also don’t think it’s logical to keep doing my ‘music blogging operation’ in the same way going forward anyways, as it obviously isn’t working in an ‘earn myself food/rent’ or ‘help creators earn their food/rent’ way), I still need to figure out what that transition/exit strategy will look like, so I’m still updating my CENTRAL EUROPE RADIO playlist on Spotify too:

(at the same same time, I’m also looking into using Resonate as a listener/blogger, and if you make and/or listen to music and are interested in supporting people who are trying to offer better artist-minded streaming solutions (but need support), built from the ground up, on a solid ethical foundation, you should check them out too)

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ANYWAYS, if your ears are liking what they’re hearing in the above digital mix cds, it would probably be a good idea to like/follow/listen over on Tidal or Spotify so you can get future updates auto-magically appearing on your listening device throughout the year. And, as always, when you hear something you like, do the universe some good and support/check those artists out further (every little bit helps).

Speaking of which, here’s a few ‘available-on-Bandcamp’ gems that have been recently featured in this ongoing playlist:

Latest SHUFFLE UP’D 8:

But they’re not the only tracks you could go from discovering on a corporate Streamer™ to directly supporting on Bandcamp, so this seems like a good time to either remind or inform you that Hype Machine made a handy online tool that’ll try and find the Bandcamp links for all the tracks in any given Spotify playlist — so just grab the link for any Spotify playlist that you’d like to see which artists you can directly support on Bandcamp, and then pop that link into the Merch Table.

Unfortunately, not all the tracks from a Spotify playlist will be available on Bandcamp, as some artists/labels still don’t have their music available on Bandcamp (for… reasons? 🤷‍♂️) + the Merch Table search is not 100% perfect in its searching (and it also only works for Spotify playlists). So, if Hype Machine’s tool didn’t find a track on Bandcamp that you were really keen on supporting in ways that an artist can feel more, always remember that “Artist Name Track Name Bandcamp” is a pretty fast & reliable online detective too.

Because the corporate Streamers™ of the world are great for discovering and keeping track of music + streaming tools allow us to easily choose better soundtracks throughout the day than what corporate FM radio stations used to drill us into submission with before the internet arrived in everyone’s pocket, but the way creators are paid out with streaming is just not very good/fair at all —ESPECIALLY in comparison to what some are making off of providing access to other people’s art.

Ideally, smart artist/human-minded people will start making some more momentum towards coming up with a better/fairer streaming model (here’s my contribution to the dialogue), but, for now, us appreciators of creativity/good things need to start doing a better job of being a bit more mindful of making sure we’re continuing to show direct support to the creation of good things. And Bandcamp is still the best online place going for intentionally & directly supporting the makers of the music you like, in an exchange that benefits both sides (ie. because you’re also getting music to go along with that good feeling of passing on something appreciated to someone you appreciate). Who knows, maybe you’ve even got a poetic #Fandcamp review in you for an album out there?

Which is one of the many reasons why I keep a Buy Music Club list going for all the tracks that get added to my CENTRAL EUROPE RADIO playlist that are also available on Bandcamp (at the time of me checking) — so go check that list of headphone treats out whenever you find yourself wanting to reward your ears while also sending out support to those who help keep our lives nicely soundtracked (comes in especially handy on Bandcamp Fridays fyi):

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And here’s hoping this year we’ll be better than the last \m/

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JEREMY / @HI54LOFI