L.A. Garnett – Author

I listen to a lot of music—while washing dishes, writing, driving, walking the dog—and I feel like over the years I’ve developed a solid musical taste. It isn’t for everyone; just ask my husband! Metal and hard rock aren’t two genres I typically pull out for the whole car to listen to during a long drive.

In recent months, though, I just haven’t been pleased with my library.

Like most people, I became a Spotify convert in the mid 2010s. I was totally sold on the ability to have millions of songs at my fingertips, for a relatively low cost, and generated in playlists to match my preferences. The more I liked, the more it would learn—you know, like any algorithm. But, like every algorithm, I’ve run into a bit of a problem. I don’t really like what’s being generated for my ears.

I have a few bands I’ll drop everything to listen to—Halestorm, Unleash the Archers, and Heilung (which I highly, highly recommend for the perfect backdrop to some truly epic writing sessions). There are other songs that sometimes creep into my top 5, which I’m consistently surprised by in my annual Spotify Wrapped, but otherwise I am pretty consistently listening to these bands. Which is why I get so frustrated when I’m looking for something new and I go to a song’s radio, and the whole playlist is just variations of my current liked songs. If I wanted to listen to those, I’d put it on shuffle. No—I want something NEW. Something that fits these vibes, but that I’ve never heard before. I know they’re out there—I’ve found killer new music before. But somehow in the last couple of years, this fuction doesn’t work as well. I’m stuck in a cycical playlist, and I’m tired of it.

I’ve experienced this with the tv and movies too. Streaming is, at its core, temporary. Shows and music can be removed, often due to the platform making the executive decision to kill it off, despite its popularity or potential, and I’m realizing that when I pay for something digital that doesn’t mean I actually own it in the way that matters. I’m not alone in this either—maybe its just my corner of the internet, but people seem to be frustrated, and frustrated people find other ways to get what they want.

I know this isn’t my normal sort of post, but I wanted to be real with you. Art is art, whether its music, film, or literature, and it feels like we’re right at the edge of a change. I hope we end up in a place where creators can get their work directly to their fans in a way that is satisfying to everyone—I’m not going to pretend I know exactly what that looks like. I just know that I write books, and I listen to music and watch movies, and the way we’re able to access all that is getting a little wibbly-wobbly. In my heart I think that the solution is going to involve sites like this—individual people finding their audience together, creating a community. Back to basics, if you will. I’m glad you’re here, and I hope you stick around, because I’ve got plenty of stories coming your way that I’d love to show you.