Episode 98

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck with your host, Mark Bradbourne.

What is up friends? Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. My name is Mark and every week I am right here listening to hundreds and hundreds of newly released songs, most of which are not worth the digital storage they sit on, but I’m hoping to find a few that I feel are worthy of your ears. And hey, speaking of ears, I wanna thank you for lending me yours. If this is your first time listening, thank you so much for giving the podcast a try. If you’re a long time listener, you know that I love you more than I can express. Thank you for continuing to support the podcast. Now, before we get into this week’s music, I’ve got more insights from the music industry that I wanna share with you. And this one shocked me a little bit. This is all about the value of global music copyright. Now, this is coming out of a new report that was published by Spotify’s chief economist, his name is Will Page, and it hit a record high in 2023. In fact, it was so high that it overtook the value of the cinema box office for the first time ever. It hit $45.5 billion. Now, compared to 2022, that is 11% growth. And if you go back to 2021, it is up 26%. So pretty amazing. Now, Page says that when he first calculated this value in 2014, it was about 25 billion. So by the time this report comes out for 2024, it’s pretty likely that it will have doubled in the time that he has been tracking this. Now, the important question for me is what does this mean for the artists? Because ultimately I feel like the artists are the ones who need to be seeing the bulk of this cash, right? So he broke it down. 63% is going to artists and labels, and then 37% is going to songwriters, publishers, and CMOs or collective management organizations. So in comparison, the pie got bigger, but the shares are identical to what was reported for 2022. To dig into some details, label income growth was 12%, and that was driven mainly by streaming, which was up 10.4%. And physical media was no longer what they referred to as a rounding error. It actually outpaced streaming growth in percentage terms. It was up 13.4%. Vinyl, you know me, I love my vinyl, that rose by 15.4%. And there’s no sign of a slowdown either. In the US alone, vinyl will gross labels about a billion dollars by the end of 2024. Some other interesting notes, the value of digital streaming collections for CMOs now exceeds that of broadcast radio. That used to be the traditional core of revenue streams. And for context, the report pointed out that a decade ago, digital made up around 5% of collections and broadcast made up half. So it’s completely flipped. Now, I talked about cinema, right? The cinema market has been recovering since COVID, right? Which it forced a lot of movie theaters to shut down, obviously. And that recovery has not been as rapid as the cinema industry would like, obviously, but obviously it puts out some shitty movies, so you can’t really blame it too much. 2023 box office spend was about 33.2 billion and it was up 29% from 2022, but still 8.7 billion below the 2019 peak. So still some ground to gain. Now, the growth of the music industry on the surface feels like great news. I am a huge music fan, so I like seeing things that I enjoy thrive. But the pessimist in me sees the negative side and it kind of sits in the back of my head waiting for the other shoe to fall. And for me, that shoe is the continued rise of what I will start to refer to as fake music. This is music generated and aided by artificial intelligence. And because of the growth, you’re seeing people trying to take advantage of the potential profits. So they’re going to inundate platforms with this shitty fake music. So we, the songs that don’t suck army, we have to remain vigilant and we have to protect and support the artists that we love. The people who are the creatives, the ones not pushing buttons like fake producers kind of trying to get these viral hits. So for that reason, and not the only reason, but the podcast rolls on.

Now, let’s get into the new music this week. And there’s a little bit of a theme. I forgot last year this time, Thanksgiving weekend in the United States from a musical perspective, while we are all stuffing our faces with all kinds of foods, musically it’s famine. When I did kind of comparison numbers between songs that were available on playlists, they were about cut in half from what normally is there. So some playlists that have, you know, 100 to 120 songs generally were at like 30 or 40. So it was rough trying to find songs for this week. So I did what I always do when I hit these moments. I panicked. But after that bit of panic, I started to find some new playlists, some things that I hadn’t discovered before, which on the whole is great for me and the podcast. I’m always looking for new avenues to find new music. But this week, it was interesting because all the new music that I found was from singer-songwriters. And some of them are kind of old favorites of the podcast, so you’ll recognize some names. And there are some new friends as well. And if there’s one thing that you should know about me if you don’t already, I love a great singer-songwriter. I can listen to a great singer-songwriter for hours on end. So here we go. Let’s get into the new music.

The first song this week is Pages from Nina Nessbit. Now, back in episode 82 of this season, I had a song from Nina called “Anger,” which I absolutely love. And the one thing I really loved about it was the way that it built, kind of from beginning to end, you know, in dynamics and feel. It was just a really cool ride. This one kind of takes that up a little bit. The beginning is much more sparse and it kind of builds as it goes. After the first chorus, we get this really nice music bed with piano, bass, drums, guitar, and her voice. I love her voice. It’s so smooth, yet there are moments where she has this beautiful rasp, especially when she kind of gets into what I’ll describe as her belting voice, like when she’s really pushing it vocally. It’s so tasty, I love it. And you know, lyrically, I’m older than her, right? She’s talking about being two years from 30. The hit lyric hits me even at two years from 50. But you know, you have a lot of the same thoughts or at least kind of the same themes. Like you’re always questioning things in life. I’m convinced that you’re never really become an adult. Like you’re always trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. And you know, relationships are always, you know, challenging, there’s ups and downs, but the best ones you work through and your partners, and that’s just how it works. And I don’t know, I think the key to a great song is relatability a lot of times, and the best songs really make us reflect. So here’s a little bit of pages from Nina Nesbitt.

Okay, second song this week is “God Needs the Devil” from Jonah Kagan. Now, back in episode 80, I shared Jonah Kagan’s song “Matches With You.” Fantastic song. This one has a little bit more of a stomp and holler vibe. Lyrically, this one’s a little interesting. I’m interpreting it as like this feeling of intoxication that comes over you when you meet your partner or someone you’re interested in and that person is no good for you. But there’s this strength in that whole opposites attract thing and it’s really strong. And sometimes it unlocks things deep within us that we don’t like to acknowledge exist, but we all have, you know, vices and, you know, things that we don’t let bubble to the surface a whole lot, but when we have those moments with those people, there’s good times and bad times at the same time. And a lot of times you’ll be alone at night and you’ll reflect on those. And you’re like, man, I’m lucky to be alive. Anyway, here is a little taste of “God Needs the Devil” from Jonah Kagan.

The third song this week is “I’d Miss the Birds” from Joy Oladokun. Now Joy is a four-timer here on the podcast. I simply love her. Everything about her, music, personality, just, she’s fantastic. But this is the first time I have had her on the podcast. This season. Since last season she put out a new album and I resisted sharing it. I wasn’t gatekeeping, but I was kind of like, I’ve had her on so much. I don’t wanna like beat the dead horse. I like to bring new things to the surface. But the truth is when the song doesn’t suck, it belongs here. So this week it’s “I’d Miss the Birds.” As always, she just has this beautiful voice. I love it. And the composition of the track is absolutely perfect. Like there’s just these little nuances that are fantastic. And it’s important to note that it is self-produced. So not only is she musically gifted, she’s also a gifted producer. She knows exactly how to structure a great recording and not really overproduce it. If you haven’t listened to the new album, go and do it. But for now, here is a little bit of “I’d Miss the Birds” from Joy Oladoken.

The fourth song this week is “Pushing Daisies” from Ashe and it features Suki Waterhouse. Now, I’ve been flirting with this song for an extended period of time since its release. I’ve had it on my review playlist, probably three or four times where I’m like, “Oh, I really want to share this song.” And then just things bubble to the top and maybe it’s my mood, I don’t know. This song has a really cool retro vibe that’s kind of sprinkled throughout the song. Probably in the pre-chorus, you’ll hear it the most. But the chorus is great too. It’s retro, but it’s new. It’s interesting to say the least. Vocally, it’s fantastic. Their two voices work really well together. And for a fun note, if you don’t know “Suki Waterhouse”‘s fantastic solo career, you might know her from her part in “Daisy Jones” and “The Six.” Yeah, little closure on that whole loop of fake bands and whatnot from last episode. Was that last episode? I don’t even remember. Anyway, this is a fun little song. It’s a little bit sexy. There’s some really clever lyrics in this one. So check it out. This is “Pushing Daisies” from Ashe with Suki Waterhouse.

The fifth song this week is “Massachusetts” from Jensen McRae. Now, this weekend being Thanksgiving, my oldest was home from college. And as we were doing some running around for Aaron’s, she was like, “Hey, I have to play this album for you. D’Mya and I are obsessed.” Now, D’Mya is her roommate. So I’m gonna say hi to D’Mya ’cause I hear that she is a fan of the podcast. So a little shout out for you. Now, the album that she played me was from 2022. The album’s called “Are You Happy Now?” Massachusetts is the latest single that was not on the album. This came out over the summer. The album is fantastic. Like, absolutely loved it. Highly recommended. So go check that out. Overall, she has a fantastic voice and an amazing range. Like on that first album, some of the low notes she hits, it’s really impressive. And then, you know, obviously gets into her higher register and it’s pretty amazing. It’s a really impressive musical weapon, if you will. She’s a great storyteller from a songwriting perspective. She has an innate ability to push feelings through her delivery. Like, I’ve talked about this before when songwriters really write from a place of vulnerability you can tell. And she does that and she does it magnificently. This song kind of reflects on what I’m reading as a past love that left a bit of an indelible mark on her heart. And thinking about it, it’s pretty remarkable how someone can leave a very strong imprint on you without you realizing it. And it’s the little things that she’s sharing in this song that, you know, you’re like, “Oh yeah, I picked this up from that person.” So you might have a reflective moment as you’re listening to it. So here is a taste of Massachusetts from Jensen McRae.

And that, my friends, is it. So let’s run it down. Please like, review, subscribe to the podcast on whatever podcast platform you listen to me on. All of that stuff really helps from an algorithm standpoint so other people can experience the podcast as well. Social media, I am on threads, Instagram, Facebook, and Blue Sky, you can find me in all of those places. I would love to interact with you there. If you are a Discord person, I fired up a Discord so you can find the link to the Discord on the website, songsthatdontsuck.net. We can build a little community there and talk about all kinds of music. Speaking of the website, songsthatdon’tsuck.net, you can go there and find links to all of these songs. Basically what I’ve done is I built a little widget that goes to the seven major streaming platforms and it produces a search and it will bring up the song so that you can add it to your playlist very easily. Also on the website, you can send me feedback and recommendations. You can also email me mark@songsthatdontsuck.net. I will answer all the emails I get. There is also on the website a spot to subscribe to a newsletter that I’m trying to work up. That’s probably gonna start during season three. And there’s merch on the website. If you want a songs that don’t suck t-shirt, you can get one now. I’ve been asked and I have delivered. So with all of the administrator out of the way, I wanna say thanks again for listening. And as always, go out and support these artists. – Thanks for listening and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.