Welcome to The Slow Music Movement Newsletter.

Who is The Slow Music Movement? My thoughts on the past, present & future of the project. Finally you can avoid the algorithms & get the music recommendations direct to your inbox or phone.

Welcome to the newly minted TSMM newsletter, something I’ve long known made sense but have been putting off due to time constraints. It also seems like the right time to discuss the past, present and future of The Slow Music Movement.

So why a newsletter? Primarily it’s about taking control. We’re all currently at the mercy of various social media giants, who invited everyone to a free party only to steal all our personal belongings and usher us over to the paying bar once inside. The average post on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter’s remains, reaches between 0.5 - 5% of people that follow TSMM. If I wanted each music tip to connect with all of TSMM’s “social” media followers then I’d be paying some of the world’s richest companies, who don’t differentiate between passion and profit projects, €1000+ a month to advertise my music tips to you. If that wasn’t bad enough recent Google updates are decimating the niche blogging world, my traffic has certainly plummeted in the last three months. Enough is enough.

So why should you subscribe? Maybe you’re just in tune with TSMM’s generally laid back, eclectic, independent and alternative vibe? You could be looking for an escape from streaming’s algorithmic echo chamber? Perhaps you struggle sifting through the 100,000+ tracks that are released every day? To make sense of that much music you need some filters - I have a ton of them. I’m currently following 7354 artists on Tidal, 5231 artists, labels and fans on Bandcamp, 654 artists and labels on Soundcloud, 148 blogs/online mags, some well curated playlists, a host of music nuts on social media and I listen to the record release lists from several of my favourite record shops every week.

Then there is the incoming music. I receive 5 - 15 tracks a day on Submithub - a platform that for a small fee connects artists looking for exposure with curators, which I have to write feedback on. I’ve discovered some great artists via the platform, many of which I’ve playlisted, some I’ve written about and a couple I’ve even signed to the TSMM label. It also generates a welcome income, which at least helps to cover some of my curator costs: streaming subscriptions, music purchases for video content, design work, website hosting, cloud storage and email services. Furthermore it supports the TSMM record label, which being as it focusses on lesser known alternative artists who don’t have to recoup their release costs, increasingly needs all the help it can get. There is even a tiny amount left over which I save in a TSMM piggy bank for when headphones need replacing and which goes a small way to justifying the time I spend in front of a computer searching for, writing about and sharing my music discoveries. Oh, I almost forgot, I also receive 30+ emails a day and numerous social media approaches from music PR companies, artists and record labels with new releases that they want publicising. All are read and most listened to.

After diligently sifting through all these sources, I then add my favourite singles to twenty regularly updated playlists which I synchronise to free and subscription services: Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube, Youtube Music, Soundcloud and Spotify (if you must). That’s 1000 tracks at any one time of some of the best music released in the previous 3 or 4 months. Since starting the playlists I’ve playlisted 8051 amazing songs from lesser known, independent, mostly alternative artists. Let’s face it, playlisting is the best thing to happen to music since the Hammond organ.

The great, less generic, “all killer no filler” albums - which seem to be getting harder and harder to find, make it to the blog and social media channels - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter’s remains, Threads, Mastodon and most recently Bluesky. You get the general idea, I put in some serious hours to find the good stuff and effort to make it available on a multitude of platforms. I don’t know the exact figure, but I estimate I’ve recommended around 2600 wonderful, often overlooked albums so far.

This is partly why TSMM is more of a recommendation site than a long form blog, I spend so much time sifting through loads of fairly average, largely generic music to find those hidden gems. I’ll also be the first to admit I struggle with writing. It takes me forever to cobble together long form content, and even my tip of the day takes me an age, as I ponder how to condense the creativity, musical expression and soul of my chosen artists into a pithy paragraph, in the hope it will give the artists a helping hand through the unforgiving, utterly corrupted modern music landscape. Or at the very least give them some encouragement and recognition so that they don’t collapse in a dejected heap by the wayside, wondering why they bothered.

The short but sweet tips are also personal preference. After all these years I’ve pretty much given up reading reviews of new music, preferring to skip the journalistic endeavour/press release/paid coverage (you’d be surprised); press play, close my eyes and make up my own mind - something I encourage (sorry journos). A wise man once said that reading about new music is a bit like looking at pictures of food - not nearly half as much fun as getting involved. Trust your ears, not opinion, ads or bias.

So who the hell am I you might ask? I have to admit to being a bit shy in this age of data scraping and online profiling, but over the last 35 years I’ve variously DJed, organised parties, promoted small jazz gigs, worked in a Soho record store, ran a mixtape stall on Camden Market, gone to untold gigs and festivals, seen my fair share of sunrises after sweaty nights on a dance floor, dug for records like a demon, had a song written about me by a psychobilly group, distributed hip hop mixtapes, was there in ‘92, presented radio shows, compiled CDs for lifestyle shops, saw the light at Glastonbury, wrote blogs and provided background music for outdoor clothes shops. Although there is still a twinkle in my eye I’ve finally mellowed with age, rarely visit a dance floor anymore and TSMM is certainly a reflection of my slower pace of life.

During these years I also wanted to take a peek at what was outside my rather grey home town in England, and have lived in nine countries. There’s been good years and bad. Winters in ski resorts, summers hitchhiking and sleeping rough around Europe, half a year traveling overland through Asia, mad times in some of the world’s best cities, days sleeping in a hammock on the deck of a goods vessel sailing up the Amazon river, hikes in the Himalayas and full moon parties in Thailand. It hasn’t all been plain sailing and there were wilderness periods in call centres, odd jobs a plenty and long hours in the food industry, but mostly I’ve leapt out of bed every day to do something I love or see something new.

Adventures rarely come cheap though. A career never materialised, business ventures came and went, month to month living is second nature and rent is not getting cheaper. When dinner party talk turns to pensions and capital gains I daydream of eliminating old age expenses by renovating a cheap rundown cottage with a water source, installing solar panels and growing vegetables.

I’m currently hunkered down in the north of Portugal, not far from Galicia. Not so long ago I was wandering solo, searching for a rural idyll to take things easier, start the vegetable growing, dabble with fermenting things and spend more time communing with and marvelling at nature. But to my surprise and delight love has given me a second chance, and better late than never my first child will be born in July. So for now, a tiny city where a majestic river meets the Atlantic Ocean is home, and just as I was catching my breath and starting to take things easy, life is about to get crazy in all sorts of surprising new ways, and I can’t wait.

Impending fatherhood certainly seems like a good time to take stock, reassess my priorities and maybe google “time management”, before the feeding and nappy changing starts. Knowing how much time I spend on TSMM, and having experienced how just the preparations for parenthood - finding and moving to a bigger place, medical appointments and general preparations have impacted the radio show, blog posts and playlist update frequency, I must say I’m a little concerned. As I fully intend to be a present father in the all too little time I have left with my daughter and partner, something will inevitably have to give. Ideally I’d like it to be my online day job or at least part of it, instead of my musical passion.

Plans are afoot to leverage TSMM, maybe develop some merchandise and perhaps work with some sustainable, conscious brands who might need some musical advice, but it looks like it will take time to find genuine synergy and right thinking business people. Previously when I’ve made some decent money from music, it’s always entailed shifting towards more mainstream music, but these days I’m in no mood to compromise. TSMM’s standing has been built recommending independent, lesser known artists and more alternative music, that’s what I enjoy and so its ethos shall remain even in the business realm, although it will inevitably make my life more difficult.

From bitter experience of losing a job and having to sell some of my record collection to pay the bills in the pandemic, I’m now inclined to stick my thumbs in various pies as a social safety net, especially with my partner and soon a daughter looking at me hopefully for support. So somewhat against my self reliant and rather reserved English ways it’s social experiment time. I’m going to stick my toe in the crowd funding waters.

I can already hear groans at the back, but fear not the music tips will continue free for all, it’s just that I will be offering some subscription options for those who value the recommendations, playlists and podcast enough that they wish to support the project, help secure TSMM’s future and maybe even aid its development? My mind and friends say I should dangle a carrot and reserve some benefits behind a paywall to encourage subscriptions, but my heart and inner hippy says no. It’s not all Mr. Nice Guy though, I will be depriving social media followers of some of the new content in an effort to encourage them to jump on the newsletter bus. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Paying supporters will be subsidising those that enjoy the TSMM tips and don’t wish to pay, but importantly also those that value my curating but can’t contribute. Not very capitalistic I know, but personally I’m maxed out with recurring subscriptions and would feel uncomfortable if parts of TSMM were the sole reserve of the wealthy first world. If one thing is certain we need more altruistic systemic models. Caring capitalism anyone? If at some stage TSMM starts to falter due to family and work commitments or financial stress then I might reconsider this stance, but for now I’m just intrigued to discover if TSMM has value and explore human nature.

Substack is a great platform, I especially like the way subscribers can choose between an email or app notifications for new content, as well as its phone friendliness. My main concern is its €5 minimum monthly payment, which let’s face it if you subscribe to a few newsletters - some of which I’ll be recommending, soon adds up. So I’ve set up a Ko-Fi donation account, which I will remind people of once a month in case anyone wants to donate less (or more), when they can or just when they feel that they received real musical benefits. If you’re looking for another way to be supportive you can always give TSMM an online shout out or some old fashioned word of mouth. It all helps and I’m eternally grateful.

So let me dream a little. If this social experiment works and I can generate enough income to beat my self-employed, rather unstable wages - which won’t actually be too hard, it might allow me to reduce the hours of my daily grind or even ditch the day job entirely and go all out on TSMM, which means you guessed it - more music.

There are so many great, overlooked EPs that deserve shouting about, I could start dabbling with artist and label interviews, dust off my DJ equipment to augment the podcast, maybe keep subscribers informed of interesting music industry developments or news. The playlists will be updated more regularly, the podcast will appear consistently, maybe I could commission articles from professional journalists, share a few personal thoughts on a few things and offer Portuguese wine tips? I’d also love to have time and a marketing budget to work on reaching the unaware and increase TSMM’s effectiveness as a force for alternative music good.

I can’t help thinking the reality will be slightly less grand. I’m under no illusions about people’s financial limits and largess, not to mention the time pressures that fathering a new born child will bring, but I’m hoping there will be enough support to at least justify the current level of effort, push through the sleep deprivation, juggle the family commitments and continue TSMM in a meaningful manner. I’ll keep you posted.

Over to you.