Some albums hit you in solar plexus from the very first note. Why? It's all about authenticity. When you play an original album you hear what the artist intended to put out. Compilation albums seldom have that effect. There is no rule without an exception. I recently stumbled across "Ballads and Songs from the Appalachians" by Hedy West, three classic LPs for the Topic label reissued in a two CD package. The 2-cd was released on british label Fellside Recordings and topped the 2011 Folk Roots critics poll in the reissues of the year category. The album contains no less than 41 songs. It's hard to choose one song over another as everything here is of a very high standard. However, "Fair Rosamund", "Barbara Allen", "The Wife Of Usher's Well", "The House Carpenter", "Pretty Saro", "Little Matty Groves", "The Unquiet Grave", "The Sheffield Apprentice", "Little Sadie" and "The Cruel Mother" stand out. Everything is here; from child ballads, broadsides, religious songs to murder ballads. They depict hard times and unimaginable struggle. Hedy West was born in 1938 in Cartersville, in the poor and rural Georgia, and is regarded as a prominent artist of the 60s folk revival. She died in 2005, but her musical legacy lives on. She had a no-nonsense vocal style combined with stripped-to-the bone banjo playing. Hedy West pass the test of authenticity. Uncontrived, unfeigned and unspoiled to the end. 

Slackeye Slim is back. Not a day to soon. In fact, it's been over eight years since "Giving My Bones to the Western Lands" was released. The preorder of his new album "Scorched Earth, Black Heart" will open April 10th. Slackeye Slim posted this on his website: "I've been working with Gotta Groove Records on nailing down a solid release date, and we finally got one! June 23, 2023 is the day. By this date I will have the limited edition vinyl and cassettes ready to ship out. Preorders for the limited edition packages will open on April 10, and when you preorder you'll get an instant download of the full album before the official release date! Sorry, no preorder for digital. This offer is only valid while supplies last, and it won't be available for long. We're only making 100 records and 50 cassettes, so don't wait or you might miss out. Preorders will be exclusively available at slackeyeslim.bandcamp.com." No cds at all. I will have to settle with lossless digital (24 BIT/24 KHZ WAV high-resolution source audio). I don't know anything about the album more than it's a concept album written from the perspective of a circular firing squad. This sounds promising. I'm pretty sure it will meet my high expectations.  

The reputable online store CD Baby closed shop without prior notice and without adding any frills: "Where's the CD Baby Store? CD Baby retired our music store in March of 2020 in order to place our focus entirely on the tools and services that are most meaningful to musicians today and tomorrow." Unfortunately, this meant that the tools and services that were most meaningful to me (physical cds) were gone in an instant. I've bought several albums through them; The Broken Prayers: Spanish Wells, The Darklings: Desert Ship, The People vs Hugh Deneal: Gas Station Sandwiches, Woodbox Gang: Drunk As Dragons, Hazy Loper: Ghosts of Barbary, Kal Cahoone: Saints and Stars, Salter Cane: Black Swollen River, Palodine: High Desert Hymns & All the Pretty Wolves, Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy: S/T & Hatchetations, The Maledictions: Idle Hands, Ashcan Orchid: The Woods, Various Artists: Yells From the Crypt, Christian Williams: Defiant, Myssouri: War/Love Blues & FurnaceSongs, Antic Clay: Hilarious Death Blues, The Blackthorns: The Blackthorns, Creech Holler: With Signs Following & The Shovel and The Gun, Pushin Rope: Blood on the Line & Murderous Songs Of Despair and The Roe Family Singers: The Earth and All That is in It. I will miss the long and ironic note in the order confirmations. "Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing. Our world-renowned packing specialist lit a local artisan candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day. We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to STORE.CDBABY.COM!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Sigh... We miss you already. We'll be right here at http://store.cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return. CD Baby The little store with the best new independent music." The order confirmation note was maybe a little bit over the top and the company name CD Baby leave something to be desired. Nevertheless, CD Baby was an important online distributor of independent music. One comparative advantage was the shipping option USPS INTL-AIR NO PLASTIC. Very affordable. On March 31, 2020, CD Baby ceased its retail sale. You will be sorely missed. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
 

Seven is heaven, eight is great and nine is fine. I launched the website on March 1, 2014, which is exactly nine years ago, hence "nine is fine". The first blog entry I posted had the dramatic title "So it begins...". Since then I have posted an anniversary blog post every year. The second blog post (2015) had the expectantly title "So it continues...". Here, I discussed the past, present and future for the site. The third blog post (2016) had the prosaic title "And so it goes on and on and on and on and on...". Here, I did some merciless following up on ambitions and promises. The fourth blog post (2017) had the patronizing title "The necessity of content gardening". Here, I stated that a website, with proper content gardening, could live forever. The fifth blog post (2018) had the technical title "Ratchet effect through organic growth”. Here, I speculated how web indexing and algorithms drove traffic to unprecedented levels. The sixth blog post (2019) had the glorifying title "5 years and 100 000 hits". Here, I rattled off statistics lengthwise and crosswise. The seventh blog post (2020) had the dutiful title "The show must go on". Here, I concluded that the responsibilities I have towards society are too important to be calling it quits. The eight blog post (2021) had the explanatory title "7 is the number following 6 and preceding 8". Here, I complained about muddling through in the time of the pandemic. The ninth blog post (2022) had the cheerful title "Eight is great". Here, I made some random remarks. Today, it's time again for a new blog post. The visitor counter indicates 220 038.

Assessment

Executive summary: The website has operated successfully for the last nine years. New content has been added with regularity and to a sufficient degree without any deterioration in quality. The website is in need of a minor review, primarly with the intent on updating existing pages and removal of dead links. A plan for this has been developed and implemented. Minor disruptancies in the operation of the website have occured, but this haven't affected production or quality. The coming year we will see a strong focus on content and the management and development of the site.  

Visitor statistics

To go from zero to 220 000 visitors took 3 277 days. The site didn't have many visits from start. Then the web indexing and Google algorithms began to kick in. The average number of days to reach another 10 000 visitors has normally been around 130-140. The last year has been a record year. More than 37 000 visitors during the last year. All time high.  

Spotify published their final accounts for 2022. This is not a text for the faint-hearted. They made a huge loss. This comes as no surprise. Spotify presented losses in every quarter. The operating loss amounted to €659m ($706m). The accumulated deficit amounts to €3 647m ($3 908m). You have to wash a lot of dishes to cover this bill. According to the annual report Spotify has 205 million paying (premium) users of a total of 489 million users, which makes 42 percent. The share of paying users has never exceeded 50 percent. Moreover, the tech market analysts have missed that the share of premium users is decreasing (it was 44 percent in 2021 and 45 percent in 2020). The freemium users grows faster than premium users. This isn't sustainable since costs grows faster than revenues. The conversion strategy (by providing freemium, users will upgrade to premium) is nothing more than a mantra. Who wants to invest in Spotify nowadays? Not many. The business share price has plummeted since the introduction in 2018. The annual report provides the following laconic comment in the fine print "We have incurred significant operating losses in the past and may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to be profitable or to generate positive cash flow on a sustained basis. In addition, our revenue growth rate may decline." In any other business the top management would be whipped, keelhauled and then forced to walk the plank. Not in this case. The management takes the opportunity to enrich themselves before the whole shithouse goes up in flames. In fact, their salaries gives the concept of overpaid a new and deeper meaning. Spotify management team is placed no 1, 2 and 7 on the list of the 10 people with highest salaries in 2022 (Sweden). Alex Norström, Chief Business Officer ($30m), Gustav Söderström Chief R&D Office ($28m) and Katarina Berg CHRO ($10m). Spotify have always prioritized growth before revenues. Now everything has come to a grinding halt. Spotify has found out that a company, sooner or later, must operate with efficiency. CEO Daniel Ek said: "I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today." Then he fired six percent of the staff in an insouciant way. In reality this means that he holds his staff, and not himself, accountable. This will not go down in history as a moment of inspiring leadership. Personally, I don't feel sorry for the people being laid off. They chose to work for an unethical and evil company that rips off musicians. Arithmetic is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers. The four mathematical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The key metrics speaks for itself. Top management needs to do the math.