I originally wrote these posts about Radiohead on Puddlegum.net, in October, 2007. The first piece was written the morning of October 10th, the day In Rainbows was released, pointing out the abundance of tens surrounding the album. I suggested The Binary Theory, as it came to be known, that the album was somehow connected with OK Computer. The post became immensely popular after hitting the front page of Digg. Ten days later on October 20th, I followed it with second piece where I proposed the 01 and 10 playlist. This article became even more popular with Radiohead fans, drawing more than 10,0 ..read more

Spotify Stations app Spotify Stations is a Pandora-like app that allows you to create stations based on multiple artists, genres, or moods. Where an artist station on the Spotify app gives you little control, Stations allows you more fine-tuned control. Stations is one of Spotify’s best-kept secrets. The beauty of Stations is that it’s simple. The regular Spotify app is feature heavy and easy to get lost in. In Stations, you see a list of stations you’ve created, along with stations made for you (Discover Weekly, Favorites, and Release Radar). The only other controls are a thumbs up, thumbs do ..read more

Why start a music blog? Starting a music blog is a time-intensive undertaking. You’ll spend hours every day searching for music, turning to reliable sources and listening to music people send you. You’ll write articles that will likely be overlooked at first. Keeping your site running will cost out of pocket, and it may take twelve months before your site begins to gain traction. To be a music blogger, you need to have a reliable taste for music. You also need to have an interest in writing… a lot. The more you write, the easier it becomes, but expect to spend hours on your blog every time you ..read more

On May 22, it will be one month since Puddlegum relaunched. This is the third time we’ve developed Puddlegum, and we’re excited to see where this goes. Puddlegum v1 was launched in 1997, before Google existed (and before “blogs” were a thing). We called it an “ezine”, but it was one of the first music blogs on the web. Puddlegum v2 was launched in 2005 as an Mp3 blog, and at its peak it drew 10,000 visits an hour. We realize it will take time for Puddlegum.blog (v3) to fully develop, but it’s coming along a lot faster than we anticipated. In 27 days, we’ve posted 11 Mix Reviews, 7 Conversation ..read more

Over the last month there have been so many singles and projects I have wanted to cover, yet was unable to. My time has been split recently on some projects I’m excited about. And while I can’t explain in full (yet), I thought I would catch you up on some unseen progress. I have been mixing and mastering for a few projects, something I want to expand further. This has pushed me to take some steps that I have been considering, which is the process of forming a company for Puddlegum (not just working under my own name). The company isn’t official yet, but it won’t be long. My goals for this comp ..read more

Since I began writing about music twenty-three years ago, I’ve seen the music landscape change dramatically. The MP3 was not yet an industry standard, and YouTube didn’t exist (neither did Google). Sharing music online meant posting a massive WAV file, the raw audio format, which people could download over their dialup modems. This was so impractical that I remember seeing it happen once in 1997 (it was a Jeremy Enigk song from Return of the Frog Queen). Return of the Frog Queen (2018 Reissue) by Jeremy Enigk Music discovery relied heavily on word-of-mouth, effective record label marketing, l ..read more

If you’ve ever planned a tour, you know how time-consuming it can be. You’ll spend time looking at venues, creating lists, and checking to see who plays there. Even before you start emailing or calling people, you need to do your homework. But what if you could accomplish all this in a matter of minutes? I have been experimenting with ChatGPT, creating fictitious tour itineraries. I tested various scenarios and things a band might want while they set up an itinerary, seeing how well AI handles the requests. In all honesty, the results have been quite impressive… mind-blowing when you consider ..read more

GPT-4 is here. But what it is and should I care as a musician or recording engineer? Just four months ago in December, 2022 we began experimenting with OpenAI‘s GPT-3.5 chat tool. It shocked us by how well it could write essays, articles, and provide answers to questions. And then Microsoft integrated it with Bing… to mixed reviews. On March 14, OpenAI released GPT-4, providing an astonishing improvement in AI chat functionality. It is able to handle more complex questions or prompts, the responses are better, and it’s a huge step forward in these early stages of artificial intelligence. GPT-4 ..read more

Years ago I embarked on a journey that became my most foundational exercise for gaining a better understanding of modern music genres. I realized I lacked knowledge on swaths of genres, and there were many classic artists I wasn’t personally familiar with. So one year, I decided to change that. I decided to spend a week or two in each decade of recorded music history. When I felt like I had a good basis for that time period, I moved to the next decade. My goal was to experience music genres and artists in context of their times and what preceded them. Reflections on this experience I started w ..read more

The music industry is constantly adjusting to technological changes that are beyond its control. It is quite fascinating how the industry has shifted between 2001 and 2021. This article speculates at ways blockchain could revolutionize the recording industry, for the consumer, for the artist, and everyone involved. These ideas and concepts are meant to inspire thought, imagination, and discussion. The ever changing music industry The concept of owning or accessing music has changed over the past century. The transition for music ownership began to shift in 1877 when Edison invested the phonog ..read more