Get Off the Sauce Called Spotify
How did it get to be July? Where does the time go? Perhaps wherever our broken democracy is draining off to.
If you'd like a ferociously actionable Voice on that subject, please check out what Carsie Blanton is up to. She's one of the few people keeping me from checking out entirely.
Another is Pamela Samuelson. Her most recent writing is a balm to my very soul. Read her gentle, revolutionary, action-based and somatically oriented words here.
Also keeping me present - insert shocked face here - is music. (I highly recommend Carsie's AFTER THE REVOLUTION album.) I also recommend that you listen to it on Bandcamp.com. In case you didn't know, Spotify has never paid artists properly - and by “properly” I mean “essentially at all” - and the owner, Daniel Ek, has recently invested $700 million in military AI. If this makes you feel Small and Helpless and like nothing matters against giants like we've got right now, let me tell you: I hear you.
BUTTTTTTTTTT.
And this butt has two cheeks.
Cheek #1: You can't Fix It Cause You can't Do It All. Well - you can do what you can do. My darlings, now is the time to DO THAT. (Don’t know what to do? See Pam’s writing, again. And see below.)
Cheek #2: You can't Fix It. You can't Do It All. But we? We can do a whole lot more than any one of us. I’m talking about the Gloriously Potent Aggregate.
This isn't news to you. It's why voting works (or could). It's why harmony touches us deeply (ineffable muchness). It's why cooking is so amazing (watermelon is a holy gift, but add lime juice and salt and it's a revelation). A bucket fills with drops. You have an impact. And if you find yourself saying "naww - nothing I do matters" I'm here to tell you with all of the kindness in my heart: honey, have a poo cause yer full of it. Let this ponderous, poisonous idea go and you’ll feel relieved. You matter. Your choices matter. (Let W. Kamau Bell tell you so, too.) The Soul likes to live as if one's life matters. It is of the utmost importance right now that we feel whole and right with ourselves; we’ll be much less willing targets for fuckery and fear. So decide to let your choices matter. However forgettable you may think you are, the cumulative choices you make over the aggregate minutes and years that make your life add the fuck up.
Don’t believe me? Don’t take your trash out for a month - pile all of it in your own bed and see what you make of your cumulative choices. The good trash collectors of Philly know this. They are refusing to take the trash out until they are met with the dignity they rightly deserve.
We add up.
Which is why you'll no longer find Paul’s and my music on Spotify. And why I ask you to join me in leaving. (Artist, listener, or both.) Inconvenient? Yep. Exposure is useful? Sure. You like your playlists? Yeah, I like playlists, too. I also like having nothing to do with fascism, so I'm taking our work elsewhere. It actually matters enough to me to change my behaviour, to trade my convenience for something I care more about. This, to me, is one of the most basic components of allyship/accomplicehood - sacrificing an article of privilege on the altar of the possibility of justice and equity. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable - in fact, it probably will be - but the allyship is in prioritizing the justice over my comfort. In this instance, I choose to be inconvenienced by picking a new listening platform and trusting fans to buy my music elsewhere rather than have my neighbors disappear from our communities. Which, to be quite clear, is the kind of militarized violence Spotify’s owner is investing in. I'm getting in touch with artists I love and following them on Patreon, buying their music directly, and writing to them to say "I'll follow you anywhere, so know that if you leave this platform you won't lose me."
I’m asking them: “what do you need?”
It's never been more important. And it's entirely within our power to do.
To the artisst who feels it’s not in your power to do: I hear you. You might be with a label who won’t let you get off this sauce. There’s still ways to leverage what you’ve got to make a fuss. If the safety of your basic needs is your concern, make whatever kind of fuss that you can reasonably make and stay safe. Make a fuss to your fans, to your label, to your audiences - make a fuss to the other artists on your label and MAKE A FUSS TOGETHER. Ask bigger artists on your label to make a fuss and help keep you safe. Set up a Patreon if you haven't, yet. Ask for the help that you need so that you can thrive and keep making beauty.
Well, I sat down to invite you to Paul's and my house concert in Rockport, MA on August 3.
But evidently I had a few things to say.
Willa Mamet + Paul Miller
August 3 House Concert
Rockport, MA
3pm
--> Email info@whalecove.org for reservations
→ sug. don. $20 (more if you can, less if you can’t)
→ Potluck dessert + appetizers
→ Access: No ASL Interpretation. Show is outside on grass, over some small terrain. If it rains, we'll move inside, where there are 3 steps. No ADA bathroom.
→ please STAY HOME if even a little bit sick, or exposed to anyone who is
As always a portion of our take goes to neighbors doing the beautiful work of being neighborly. In this case that’s Trans Asylum Seekers, Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Project, the Foundation for Middle East Peace, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
May all of our music, together, uplift one another.
With shaking hands and unshakeable love,
Willa