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The Number of Songs Uploaded Every Day Will Shock You

Did you know that 10.08 million new tracks were uploaded to online music streaming services in the first three months of 2023? That’s 120,000 new tracks every day, according to estimates from Nashville-based Luminate, a company that tracks music industry data. At this rate, we are looking at 43 million new tracks into the services by the end of 2023. In comparison, they saw 93,400 new tracks being uploaded daily in 2022, or roughly 34.1 million tracks. In 2021, that number stood at 30.5 million new tracks.

Songs released every day May 2023 Luminate png

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Disney Minus

It is no secret that I am a big fan of BBC/National Geographic’s reality TV show, Life Below Zero. It is now in its twentieth season. As someone who didn’t have a cable television account, I used to buy the season from Apple’s iTunes store. I paid for the first fourteen seasons. I didn’t mind because it is a guilty pleasure and allows me to get my “Alaska fix.” 

However, things have become harder since it is no longer feasible to buy the “season passes” or watch the most recent episodes. You can buy one season at a time, and even then, you can’t watch the 19th or the 20th season. Frustrated, I decided to sign-up for Disney+ with Hulu (without Ads) and ESPN+. I canceled my ESPN+ account and signed up for the whole enchilada. Given that one of the perks of my American Express credit card is a

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Goodbye Spotify

Way back In 1935, genius musician Duke Ellington in an effort to placate two ladies, placed each of them on two sides of his piano, he composed and played a song — In a Sentimental Mood. Such is the magic of the song that nine decades later I can’t stop listening to it — in fact, it was the second most listened to song on my list of the 2,492 songs I listened to on Spotify in 2022, according to their annual musical data story — Wrapped 2022.

There are quite a few nuggets from the story — that are kind cool and amazing to be made aware of — for instance, the artist I listened to the most in 2022 is Eric Hilton, the one half of Thievery Corporation, which has been my most listened to bands for a few years. I guess, I know what I like. In

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TikTok & The Tiny Tune Trend

black smartphone showing time at 12 00

Even though we like to blame the shortening length of music tracks on TikTok, the fact is that songs have been getting shorter ever since we started to live on the Internet. Just as written content went from being longer to more ephemeral tweets, the same has happened with music, and TikTok has made things worse — much like how Twitter impacted the written word. 

“Just as more blog posts or tweets get more traffic and attention, shorter songs get more attention on streaming services. Did you know the average “top 100 pop song has shed 40 seconds, dropping from 4:10 in 2000 to around 3:30 in 2018?”

“The portion of sub-three-minute top 10 hits ballooned from just 4% in 2016 to 38% so far in 2022,” reports Billboard. In the sixties, you had sub-two minutes songs that hit the top 40. TikTok, like Twitter, has made things even shorter.

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Are the Oscars over?

Today is the day of the Oscars — Academy Awards that celebrate excellence in the art of movie-making. There was a time when this was a red-letter day on my calendar. I have not paid much attention to this made-for-TV spectacle since I cut the cord. 

I am not the only one who has become disinterested in the Oscars and its television broadcast. In the 1990s, Oscars ceremony broadcasts would get about 55 million viewers in the United States, and in 2021, it was 9.85 million. ABC pays $100 million a year for the rights, and ad revenues have been around $130 million, making some wonder if they have peaked. 

Looking at the lack of ratings, meaningless broadcast, and movie stars losing their star appeal, LA Mag asks the all-important question: “Are the Oscars over?” 

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