I'm Begging For Some Context

In which I spiral about release calendars, calm myself down by creating a fake app to fix them, and share what I use instead

I have to confess something.

There’s a reason I ask you guys in chat or Discord most Fridays what new music releases you’re most excited about, and it’s not (just) because I’m trying to make conversation. Usually I’m using you to find out what actually came out that week and what’s worth the bother.

Did I start a newsletter and build a 19,000 person reader base just to help myself keep up with new music? Possibly. It’s working, isn’t it?

You know what doesn’t work, though? Release calendars. Not unless your preferred method of music discovery is throwing a dart at a wall.¹

I am so wholly out of touch with how sane people keep up with new music that I have no earthly idea what role release calendars play, if they enter the equation at all.

What I do know is that as somebody who has to pay attention to new releases every Friday (semi-)professionally, I find them almost entirely useless. And if I were a casual listener — a civilian, if you will — I would be really fucking annoyed.

This article is secretly telling you about upcoming music releases AND sneaking in new music recs. Hot dang! For more obvious new music recs and monthly roundups, why not subscribe?

My Kingdom for a Genre Tag!

Raise your hand if you’ve actually discovered a new band thanks to a release calendar.²

Release calendars could easily double as new artist discovery tools, but they give us nothing.

Realistically, you’re only scanning them for recognizable names, and you’re only recognizing most of the names if you’re already “in the biz” or otherwise hyper locked in to new music. If only industry insiders recognize most of those names, then what are those calendars but smug gatekeepers? They’re serving half of their potential purpose.

I’ll grudgingly forgive the lack of standardization or completeness — it’s not like there’s a single source that announces to media outlets on January 1st when all of the year’s records will be released. And even if they did, every magazine has a different niche and different audience to cater to.

What I can’t forgive is the almost complete lack of context.

For those who speak record label, the label inclusion here is a blessing. For the 99% of others, it’s just added smugness.

Part of the release calendar’s inherent smugness is the assumption that everyone knows the artists on the list. Not just that, but because there’s rarely a priority signal of any kind, there’s also an assumption that everyone knows which albums are most highly anticipated and why.

I reject that notion outright. My brand of anti-gatekeeping accepts that some people have, in fact, been living under rocks (and like it that way).

“Tracking new release calendars can be a slog and is useful only up to a point. Sure, it’s nice to know what’s coming out soon, but if your biggest issue is that you haven’t heard of most of these artists in the first place, it might be better to wait on the other end of this particular production line, where everything has already been sorted, digested, processed, and tabulated by the Pitchforks and Stereogums of the world to let you know what’s what.” -New Music Discovery 101

Invariably, the music topping all my lists at the end of the year comes from bands that I knew absolutely fuck all about at the beginning of the year. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty plugged in and I’ve likely heard of more obscure, pre-debut, up and coming artists than the average person. A sizable percentage of you are probably reading this newsletter precisely because you rely on me to tell you about those kinds of artists. And I’m still hearing crickets when I read these new release announcements.

Who, then, is the release calendar for? At least as a prognostic tool?

People who don’t actually need to discover any music, that’s who.

At least they link out to their own reviews or artist pages where it’s possible to do so. That’s already a massive improvement.

The lack of context extends beyond the missing genre labels. It’s helpful to see the occasional notation that an release is actually an EP, and there are a few outlets who will notate live albums and reissues, too. But that’s as far as it goes. How nice would it be to have debuts highlighted? Or a quick “for fans of”?

No Ripcord’s release schedule is the best I’ve encountered, and I’m only partially saying that because I had input into its design. If you read New Bands for Old Heads via e-mail, you’ve already seen it (and potentially use it?) for yourselves. It comes closest to the idealized calendar in my imagination — I may not agree with all of the genre labels, but at least it has them! The flag stickers are also a cute touch, even though they’re mostly just reminding us how anglocentric the average curatorial focus continues to be.

I am not too good to play favorites.

Still, it’s not enough.³

Maybe I’m inventing problems where there aren’t any. Maybe this is a complete non-issue for you. So what if release calendars are inscrutable? That’s what music critics are here for. That’s what curators are here for. That’s what I’m here for! Maybe the whole point of release calendars is to scan for the artists you already know about and move on.

But damn, what a wasted opportunity. There’s a staggering amount of new music being released every day, and I could use all the help I can get filtering the signal from the noise.

Let me show you what I came up with.

The Release Calendar of My Dreams

As long as I’m wishing for a metaphorical pony here, I might as well give you everything I desperately want in one place when I’m scanning for new music every week. This is truly the context motherlode.

My mockup ended up looking like a very Glossier-coded little app. I have no idea what to call it.

I mocked this up myself in Canva — real album, fake info card. Perhaps rating would also be a useful metric, but you already know that gives me agita.

Imagine a site filled with cards like this one. Somewhere behind the scenes, you can filter and sort by release date, genre, etc.

The cards are split into two parts. The top has the key album info, while the bottom has extras and clickable links.

Here’s what I envision it will include, roughly in order from most to least likely to appear on current release calendars and/or aggregators:

• Artist name

• Album name

• Release date

• Label

• Release Type

  • LP, EP, live album, reissue, single, debut, reunion

• Genre

• Album art

• Country

• Links

  • to Bandcamp, to official sites

• App integration

  • Not just for streaming services, but also for things like email notifications or RSS or Last.fm or whatever else people want to use

• Popularity

• RIYL Comparisons

  • “recommended if you like” or “for fans of” is a context goldmine

• Sorting/filtering

  • Not in my little mockup, but presumably somewhere on the full imaginary website, as already mentioned

• Connections

  • e.g. is it a solo project?

Is creating something like this realistic? I guess not, or it would already exist.⁴ But if I were doing this music thing full time, you’d better believe I’d be giving you at least half of it.⁵

Do you actually use release calendars? How?

If you could build your own perfectly tailored music discovery tool, what would it look like?

and most importantly…

What are we calling my app/website??

What To Use Instead

Honestly, I’ve practically stopped looking at any calendars in advance. I wait until the day before a release day⁶ and frantically scan all of these websites. I quiz you guys to see what you’re excited about. I ask the Discord. A few days later, I use my weekly go-to outlets to find out what’s already come out. Preparing proactively hasn’t worked out well historically, especially when you factor in surprise drops.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with using release calendars as a catch-up and retroactive discovery tool, but they’re not ideally suited for that purpose, either. While we wait for somebody to capitalize on my rantings, here are a few alternatives I personally use.

MOPS

Mariana Neri built one of my favorite and most visually appealing/intuitive new release trackers. It focuses primarily on indie, alternative, and Brazilian music.

Every Monday, she publishes a collection of last Friday’s releases, featuring:

• Album art

• Genre descriptors

• Streaming links for instant listening

• Bandcamp, Wiki, and official website links

• Country of origin flags

• Save-for-later buttons

You can also find her here on Substack.

NEW MUSIC TRACKER

Mark G’s sparsely-named tracking tool does exactly what it says on the tin.

The site is still under development and will have more features and integrations in the future, but for now, the sorting and filtering features are what make it stand out for me.

Current functionality/features include:

• Album art

• Popularity ratings

• Genre tags

• Streaming links for instant listening

• Full artist discography

More?

There’s no end to the music catch-up and discovery tools out there. There are almost as many ways to discover new music as there is new music itself.

Obvious picks include AllMusic, Bandcamp, and Rate Your Music.⁷

There are also the critic aggregators, like Metacritic and AOTY, which I used to use religiously and have now completely given up. If you just want to know which albums the critics are yapping about the most, these are still your best bets.

Cool Sites for Real Music Discovery

I trust you’ll also fill me in on your favorites.

New Music Discovery 101

How *Not* to Organize a Music Library

1. Meh, it’s valid.

2. Be so for real right now.

3. Sorry, David Coleman — there’s only so much you can do!

4. …does it exist? Is somebody about to make a fool out of me? PLEASE make a fool out of me!

5. I wish I were actually unveiling a new website or app instead of just complaining. Maybe somebody with more free time and coding expertise can steal my ideas.

6. Also called “Thursday”

7. One thing to note, globally: there is no such thing as a universal release tracker, prospective OR retrospective. Even Wikipedia doesn’t cover every release — it’s simply not possible. You’ll have to accept some level of upfront filtering at every level.