Don’t Make This Mistake

Greetings from icy New York City! It looks like we are up for a cold winter, so we decided to take a break from it come mid-February. We had a few options where it is reasonably warm at this time of year, and in the end, Lisbon appealed to us the most. Again. Yes, we were there last year, but we enjoy visiting a place multiple times and really get to know it.

To kindle our anticipation, we watched travel videos on YouTube, which exist in the hundreds of thousands. For every imaginable place, you can find a flurry of travel videos. Some are created by traveling individuals, and some by people who have built a serious business around it. The latter group tends to follow YouTube Marketing 101 closely, which is heavily influenced by Number One YouTuber, MrBeast.

These videos give you an idea of what is wrong with media in the internet age. YouTuber Wolters World did not name his video “15 Tips for a Great Time in Lisbon” but gave it a forced negative spin: “15 Mistakes Tourists Make in Lisbon, Portugal - Don't Do This in Lisbon!” Some of his tips are shoehorned into a mistake, like don’t make the mistake of not visiting Pastéis de Belém. Don’t get me wrong, his content is good and informative. But sadly, he needed to turn information into negative news to attract more listeners. After watching these types of videos, your recommendation stream will fill with head-shaking, frowning hosts pointing to big red Xs on the video covers.

I suspect we could draw more attention to glamglare if we started doing negative reviews or published something like the “Worst Songs of the Week” list. We will certainly not do this because we never liked spreading negativity. Especially now, it is crucial to fight the negativity bias wherever you can.

“What is the music industry going to do about unpopular music?” asks Music Business Worldwide. These stats pop up regularly: there are now over 200 million songs on Spotify, and about half are played only ten times or less.

The question is, instead, what is the problem here? It can’t possibly be storage, especially compared to video-sharing services. MBW quotes, “the oversaturation of streaming platforms” by cheaply produced music. The only issue here is that if people started to listen equally to all the “less popular” 200 million songs, the music industry would be dead. But they don’t and won’t. So, aside from throwing around mind-boggling numbers, nothing is new here except for another attention-grabbing, negative headline.

glamglare favorites

Listen to glamglare favorites on Spotify, Apple Music, or below on YouTube.

A few weeks ago, I went through the album releases of 2024 and selected the ones I wanted to keep in my library. Now I’m doing something similar for 2023, but that seems to be even more complicated: just by casually browsing through the list, I found many albums that I absolutely loved. Here are songs from five of them by Art School Girlfriend, Nabihah Iqbal, Cherry Glazerr, Avalon Emerson, and Detalji.

Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Pick of the Day features or subscribe here to receive them into your mailbox in real-time. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

We love Yodashe for her audacious electronic productions that push the boundaries of synth-pop. Her new song "LITE" is another example. "Only Say Yes" is the debut single from Danish Melbourne-based artist Sara Lina. It is about "living carefree, allowing oneself the freedom to follow immediate impulses." 

In "Talk to Me,” Carmie reaches out to someone in trouble. "It’s a feeling of powerlessness but also profound care," she explains. ”I don't need lucky stars; I just need your loving arms around me." The UK supergroup Everyone Says Hi gets romantic in “Lucky Stars.”

Next is a beautiful collaboration, “Shadow Song,” between Tessa Rose Jackson and Nana Adjoa from Tessa’s new album "A Mirror Sometimes." Portland, Oregon, dark wave trio Ceremony Shadows has released a batch of singles since 2020. "Reclaim" is their latest one. 

We close this week with the new song "Give in Up" by Swedish artist Rebecka Reinhard from her upcoming EP "Strange Week."

Nine Current and Not-So Current Photos

We haven’t experienced such a grey and cold January in years. Double digits Celsius freezing during the day - I can’t even remember! But we do go outside, of course, and recently caught a lovely sunset with no people whatsoever around. Hence, I needed some people to go with my nine photos here. Since Oliver mentioned Lisbon, I wanted to do a little anticipatory daydream with a #coupleselfie from there, at the Santa Maria Maior neighborhood. Enjoy!