Category: Blog

Spotify errs again, being that they’re again late for the party. Last year they announced that they were going to penalize artists that got their streams from bad actors. But they were complicit in those fake streams, because Spotify was monetizing those fake streams. And there was no way artists could identify those bad actors.

Well Spotify is finally putting a bandage on that despicable oversight. They announced a half-assed solution. Instead of creating processes to weed out spam user accounts, they slap up a web page where artists can report bad actors.

I suppose this is a better solution than not doing anything at all; like they’ve done for the past year. But they probably don’t have a procedure to actually do something about the reports they’re about to receive. The bottom line is Spotify is benefiting financially from the current fucked up mess they’ve created.

Kinda late announcing this, I have a relaxation/meditation tune called, in part, “Bells #70”. It’s out on SoundCloud and most major DSPs like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime. Links to some platforms are at Https://linktr.ee/jaypeach53. And no, there are no vocals, especially explicit ones.

Ho-hum, I know I’ve been in a creative desert with the latest electronica album. For one thing, it has no name, but more troubling is the inability to get the sound I’m looking for. Trying to make it a DAW-less creation has been a major logjam.

In the DAW, I have access to dozens and dozens of plugins to craft the sound, whereas I only have 15-20 effects pedals to choose from. Though those pedals cover a large portion of treatments to the sound I’m trying to make.

If I choose new gear, I want it to interface with my existing gear. That means the interface would be either an XLR connection or a 1/4” jack. 1/8” inch means an adaptor which would potentially degrade the signal or worse.

I’ve been playing with the Mother-32 and Mavis. Dug out the manuals and will go digging on YouTube to see if there’s any useful videos there. The Mother-32 manual has presets in the back of the manual for a start if your’re stuck as a beginner, but they’re a bit lame.

The one thing about the Moog gear, when there’s a firmware update, you need to remember if your gear has it installed, as there’s no way to check which version is installed. I supposed you can review the manual addendum to see if the added features exist on your gear, but, for the money you pay for the Moog name, there should have been a more user-friendly system in place. And with the Mother-32, the update process id a bit convoluted.

Anybody else have problems getting refunds from Temu? I ordered a set of art supplies on November 1, and Temu charged my credit card. Temu notified me that the order would not be fulfilled November 7. It took Temu until November 13 to issue a refund and of yet I have not seen the refund. Is Temu running a scam?

Edit: well it turns out if you purchase from Temu through Klarna, when your purchases don’t get fulfilled, it’s only a couple of days until you get a refund. So my recommendation is to not purchase directly through your credit card, but purchase through Klarna.

Well, instead of using my hardware synths, I decided to crank up the soft synth UVI Falcon thru Ableton Live. I think Falcon is considered a digital recreation. And it has so many settings, it could blow your mind. Anyway, I had a blast fooling around with the controls, and I saved some of them as presets.

I’m thinking that I should break out Pigments by Arturia, which is another soft synth and Serum, another deep and satisfying soft synth.

Maybe I need to take a longer break from using only hardware to make my music, since I seem to be stuck trying to wrap up the album which I had hoped would be a DAW-less creation. It’s proved to be more difficult to pull off than I originally had thought.

On October 21, DistroKid placed 37 employees, roughly 25% of its staff, on administrative leave, pending layoffs. These workers were all members of the DistroKid union, which had won its election in April with strong numbers. The affected employees make up 47% of the union, including 5 of the 7 bargaining committee members. They were given notice of this 1 hour before the union bargaining committee was set to resume negotiations with DistroKid over their first contract.

Sign the petition: Musicians stand with DistroKid workers! Tell DistroKid to stop union busting.

I have a new tune out (soon). It’s already out on SoundCloud, and dropping October 14 on all platform served by DistroKid. It’s called “Brazilian UK Bass Beat” See my linktree at https://linktr.ee/jaypeach53 for details.