Some New Year, Same Old Us
(Highlights Edition)
Hi Folks!
Welcome back to our regularly irregular newsletter—albeit, one that’s been a bit more silent than usual these past few months. Don’t worry though. We’ll be coming to you a LOT more regularly in the coming year, fresh with all kinds of exciting new Money 4 Nothing…content. To give you a sense of what that might look like, we’re gonna do a quick tour of some of the highlights since we last wrote.
BUT FIRST— We are planning to start off 2022 with our very first mailbag episode, and we want to hear from YOU, dear reader. Questions? Topics? Hot Takes? Complaints? Fun Facts? Email them to Money4nothingpodcast@gmail.com.
Not only will we answer as many as we possibly can—but everyone who writes in with a question will receive their very own Money 4 Nothing NFT personal thank you email.
In our LATEST episode, we go to the movies and dig into wild and woolly world of Sparks. A perpetual cult band of total workaholic weirdos (our favorite kind, honestly), their almost-always-on-the-cusp-of-stardom story provides a platform to explore all sorts of music industry weirdness. Like—when did “cult band” become a thing? Why become British? How many sounds are on a record? And…what does “making it” even mean in the first place?
You can listen to that here (Itunes), here (Spotify), or here (podbean)
Prior to that, we jumped into the year-end fun by exploring the dismal panopticon of Spotify Wrapped. Why do we want data about ourselves? How does listening (in public) create identity? And…if the whole things is just advertising…isn’t that everything anyway?
You can listen to that here (Itunes), here (Spotify), or here (podbean)
SOME OTHER FUN.
We explored Universal Music’s IPO, trying to place the return of the major labels into our broader understanding of the post-Napster music industry—and to figure out what these resurgent corporations are planning next.
We examined the hydra-headed threat of the Digital Dark Ages—and thought through the ways that streaming shapes the historical record.
We mourned the death of dub innovator Lee “Scratch” Perry by using his career to reconstruct the last half century of Jamaican musical history.
We spoke with David Turner (of Penny Fractions, natch) about what it might mean for the UK to take music monopolies seriously.
We hung with the brilliant Jesse Jarnow to explore the political economy of the Grateful Dead—and how that band presaged the modern music industry.
Liked any or all of that? Then stay tuned…we’ve got a lot more exciting stuff coming up. Didn’t like it? Tell us why in an email—we’ll talk through your complaints, in all their glory, during the mailbag episode.
Stay Safe Out There Everybody,
Saxon & Sam