Liner Notes (July 26th, 2019)

This week’s newsletter has thoughts on new songs from Blink-182 and The 1975, early impressions of The Faim’s new album, and some random thoughts about other music I’ve been enjoying this week. Then there’s my weekly media diet rundown which including a spoiler-filled rant about the new Veronica Mars. I was frustrated. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I loved this week and a little recap about the current health of this very website. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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Liner Notes (July 19th, 2019)

This week’s newsletter contains first impressions on the new Noah Gundersen album, lengthier thoughts on the new album from Sum 41, some brief views on the new album from Oso Oso, and random commentary about a bunch more music. There’s also my weekly media diet rundown, a playlist of ten songs I loved this week, and news and forum recaps. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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Liner Notes (July 15th, 2019)

Well, this one ended up being quite long.

In this week’s newsletter, I share some thoughts on new music from Frank Turner, Shura, Good Riddance, Sum 41, and quite a bit more. I share a love letter to Stranger Things and go through the rest of my media diet from the past week. There’s a playlist of ten songs I loved, some thoughts about Lil Wayne and Blink-182 and the drama of last night, and some random thoughts about what I worked on (and failed at) on the website this week. Plus, I share a couple of iPhone wallpapers I like. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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The Podcast Worm: Inside Star Wars

Inside-Star-Wars

I started The Podcast Worm with the intention of keeping it up regularly. The first one went live around 9 months ago now, so clearly, that didn’t happen. However, much like Halloween Unmasked, Inside Star Wars was a podcast that really caught my attention.

Mark Ramsey is the host, who has teamed up with Wondery for multiple series that dive into certain movies like Jaws and Psycho. I haven’t listened to those just yet (but I have plans to). With Inside Star Wars, I was able to learn things about the cast that I didn’t know before.

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Liner Notes (July 5th, 2019)

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by fireworks and scared pets.

In this week’s newsletter, I write about the new music sharing pages I created, talk a little about the Taylor Swift/masters thing, share some thoughts on new music out this week, and go through my usual media diet rundown. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I loved this week. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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The Best Albums of 2019 (So Far)

The Best of 2019 - So Far

It’s crazy to think another mid-year list is in the books – the first six months of 2019 have flown by. Thankfully, there has been plenty of music for us to discuss, debate, love, and share. Once again, the Chorus.fm is an unique list – a diverse one that beautifully shows off the collective, eclectic taste of our staff and contributors. So without further ado here is our favorite twenty albums of 2019 thus far – we’re excited to see what the next six months have to offer.

Note: You can share your own lists in the forums and clicking the artist name and album title will take you to the album’s streaming page featuring quick links for all streaming services.

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A Simple Streaming Music Sharing Page for Chorus

Share Music

The music streaming service revolution has been one of the biggest, and most exciting, developments to the music and technology world in my lifetime. We went from driving to a store to buy music, often without ever hearing it beforehand, to having countless hours of music in our pockets with virtually no limits to what we could discover and listen to with the mere press of a button.

As someone that runs a music website, and now a weekly newsletter, that often includes recommendations about new music, I’ve long struggled with just how to share those recommendations with the most people. On this website, I often link to the YouTube video in the post itself for instant listening and then will link to Apple Music and Spotify when appropriate (or if the song isn’t on YouTube yet) since those are the two biggest streaming platforms. I like those short URLS that a lot of labels and PR people are using these days that aggregate all of the streaming platforms into one place for easy sharing; however, what I really wanted was something that I had a little more control over. What if I use a service like this and then it goes under, and all my links die? All of a sudden hours of meticulously linking music recommendations on this website or my newsletter could end up having dead links. So, after coming across the excellent Song.Link service and their API, I decided I would be best served in creating something for myself. That way I could easily create a place to share a song or album, and I wouldn’t have to worry about the URL going away in a few years or it not being updated as streaming services come and go.

The end result is a page that includes links to all the big streaming services, as well as a YouTube video for quick streaming if it exists, and links to purchase the music as well. For example:

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Interview: Tanya Batt of BATTS

BATTS

Tanya Batt is many things. First off, she’s a proud Gecko mum. Then, she’s a musician, an actress, she nannies, and she even works in a theatre. You wouldn’t know it by glancing at our table in the busy Melbourne café, The Hub, but Tanya Batt – who performs under the musical moniker BATTS – played a show in a packed Hamer Hall just a week earlier. Hamer Hall is one of Melbourne’s most beautiful venues, a room Tanya never thought she’d play in. Following a string of concerts as a special guest for Sharon Van Etten (“Sharon is the best. She watched my sets from the side of the stage”), Friday night saw Batt end her album launch shows with a special hometown performance.

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Liner Notes (June 28th, 2019)

This week’s newsletter is brought to you with a massive craving for pizza.

In this week’s newsletter, I share a new fun productivity tip I started using this week, talk a little about the current project I’m working on, and share thoughts on music, movies, and TV shows I enjoyed this week. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I loved and a rant about political debates. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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Liner Notes (June 21st, 2019)

Palm Trees

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by the immortal phrase, “I wish it were longer.”

A whole lot of music stuff to write about this week, including thoughts on the new Blink-182 single, the three-album drop from Dashboard Confessional, a bunch of new music, and my first impression of the new Banks album. Plus, I go through my regular media diet rundown, share a playlist of ten songs I loved last week, and write about some other stuff. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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Liner Notes (June 14th, 2019)

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by those newly formed habits you never thought’d have.

In this week’s Liner Notes, I write about new features in the forums, share some apps I really like, and offer thoughts on a whole bunch of new music that’s been coming out these past few weeks. There’s also my regular media diet rundown and a playlist of ten songs I loved this week. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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Liner Notes (June 7th, 2019)

Beer

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by a belly full of funfetti cupcakes.

In this week’s newsletter, I write about Apple’s WWDC keynote and announcements, share thoughts on new (and old) music I listened to this week, and do my usual media diet rundown. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I loved this week and some Chorus wallpapers. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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Limited Edition Pride Logo Version of Chorus.fm Merch

Chorus.fm Pride Merch

Today I’m excited to launch a special limited edition collection of Chorus.fm Pride Merch. I’ve created a new LGBTQ+ pride rainbow version of the Chorus.fm logo and it’s up on a variety of t-shirts, tanks, v-necks, hoodies, mugs, and more.

I don’t make much money from the merch shop (like $3-$4 per shirt), but for the rest of this month I’m going to donate 82% of what I do make from the entire store (not just this collection) to LGBTQ+ organizations and charities.1

All the merch comes in variety of t-shirt sizes, colors, and types (if you’re curious about the brand of t-shirts printed on, you can find that information here).

image

Check out the pride collection here.

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  1. I’m not sure which ones yet, I’m still doing some research. Reach out if you have suggestions.

Liner Notes (May 31st, 2019)

Enema of the State

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by my two-day schtick of using sarcastic Taylor Swift gifs around the website.

In this week’s newsletter I reminisce on the 20 year anniversary of Blink-182’s Enema of the State, talk a bit more about The Dangerous Summer and everyone’s reactions to hearing the new songs, and share the three bands I’ll buy anything from before hearing a note of music. Then I go through my usual music, movies, and TV rundown of stuff I enjoyed this week. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I liked this week and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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