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LAST “SHUFFLE UP'd 8” UPDATE: 16JUN2023

When you have a music blog, there is often a built-in expectation that you will do some kind of ‘end of year’ list. And, these days, it also seems like there’s an expectation to do ‘half way through the year’ lists. I swear, I’ve even seen ‘1/4 of the way thru’ lists (I may have even thought of doing them / done them myself over the years because content).

And this is something that used to stress me out, but not this year—or any year after whatever year it was that I first wrote this sentence—because now I just keep an ongoing playlist that features everything I liked throughout the calendar year (only rule is an artist can only be featured once — unless someone pulls a ‘Big Thief 2019’ and releases 2 great albums in the same year + artists being involved in multiple projects/collaborations can be featured more than once).

So, if you ever find yourself wondering what new releases have been catching HI54 headphones during whatever point in whatever calendar year we’re currently in, just wander over here for a gander…

And if your ears are liking what they’re hearing in the above playlist, it’d probably be a good idea to like/follow over on Spotify so you can continue to 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’ albums from this year that my headphones have been enjoying (in fact, at the halfway point of 2023, you might even say that these are some of my faves from the year so far):

LATEST SHUFFLE UP’D 8

But they’re not the only tracks you could go from discovering on a streaming service that pays artists fractions of pennies to directly supporting on a site like Bandcamp, which is one of the many reasons why I keep a Buy Music Club list going for all the ‘available on Bandcamp’ tracks that get added to my ongoing yearly tracker playlist (at the time of me checking) — so go check that 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 handy on Bandcamp Fridays fyi):

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Because the Corporate Streamers® of the world (and the technology they are built-on) 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 (trust me, I was born the year before 1984), but the way creators are paid out with streaming is just not very good / very fair at all (and it doesn’t need to be that way) —ESPECIALLY in comparison to what some are making off of providing access to other people’s art (it’s kinda like how a lot of industries are unfairly structured to enrich & empower the few at the top in a ‘profits over everything, infinite growth’ society) .

Ideally, smart artist/human-minded people will start making some more momentum towards coming up with a better/fairer streaming model (here’s a September 2020 contribution to the dialogue from me, if interested), BUT, for now, us appreciators of creativity/good things need to start doing a better job of being more mindful of making sure we’re continuing to show direct support to the creation of good things. And Bandcamp is still one of the best online places going for intentionally & directly supporting the makers of the art you appreciate with something tangible like money to help cover the costs of doing work that often gets done without a paycheque (and then you get to carry around your music collection in your pocket, so everybody wins).

But, also, money isn’t the only way to contribute support directly to the work that others do regardless because the work is needed to be done (and anything beyond passive consumption is always a notch in the good column… and there are plenty of ways to support others once you start clicking around to investigate the maker/s of the thing you found yourself connecting to). So go forth and “heart” something.

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And then, at the end of the year, I make a big ‘20 x YEAR’ playlist out of all the nice tunes I kept track of (ie. 20x23 will net a 460 songs/artists playlist at the end of 2023) and then this ‘EVERYTHING LIKED’ master playlist will go back to 0 and I start keeping track of everything nice that comes out the next year…

…because nice music comes out EVERY year. Forever and ever… for ever.

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And while we’re listing interconnected things…

[a part of my "shuffle update" process is trying to remember to see if any of the newly added tracks to a playlist, like the one above, have accompanying music videos to add to HI54's ongoing FM/TV rotation]

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Anyways, I HOPE YOU HEAR/D A FEW THINGS YOU LIKE ENOUGH TO GO INVEST MORE TIME WITH BACK IN YOUR PERSONAL ORBIT, BUT IF YOU FIND YOU’RE ACTuALLY IN THE MOOD FOR A DIFFERENT MOUN.TOWN/FM SOUNDTRACK THAN THE ONE ABOVE, have a flick thru this carousel of HI54 MIX CD programming & give a listen to whatever catches your fancy:

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OR SEARCH “MOUN.TOWN/FM” ON SPOTIFY TO BROWSE THE FULL COLLECTION OF #MOUNTOWNFM PLAYLISTS (BECAUSE THERE’S MORE THAN WHAT THE ABOVE CAROUSEL CAN HANDLE — AND EVERY ACCOMPANYING BLOG POST COMES WITH AVAILABLE-ON-BANDCAMP EMBEDS/ARCHIVES)

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

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JEREMY / @HI54LOFI

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