Dear indie friends,

This is Weekly #100.

I wrote that sentence and stared at it for a while.

One hundred.

One hundred Fridays.
One hundred ideas.
One hundred excuses to sit down and think about music with you.

When I started writing these weeklies, I certainly didn't have a master plan for number 100.

Mostly, there was curiosity.

Something would bother me, surprise me or make me think about the strange world independent artists inhabit, and I would write about it.

Streaming. Algorithms. Discovery. AI. Playlists. Fans. Royalties. Social media. The infinite catalogue. Music becoming wallpaper. Sharing songs into the void. The strange disappearance of the dedication. Et cetera. Et cetera.

Different subjects.

But somewhere along the way, I realised that I kept coming back to the same question.

How do we keep music human?

I've never been particularly interested in telling you what you should think. There are enough people doing that already. I'd rather find a question worth asking.

Because the music world has become extraordinarily efficient.

We can upload a song in minutes. Distribute it worldwide. Generate artwork. Create videos. Analyse audiences. Count streams. Target listeners. Feed algorithms. Measure almost everything.

And somehow, in the middle of all that extraordinary technology, it can sometimes feel as if we're losing sight of the simplest things.

Someone making something. Someone discovering it. Someone listening. Someone caring.

That little chain is what interests me.

And after 100 weeklies, I think I finally understand that this is also what Mitxoda is about.

The Weekly grew. Then came the Artist Reviews, the Interviews. Le Salon Indie. The Submit Portal. Soundcheck. The Top100.

None of this was part of some brilliant five-year strategy.

One thing simply led to another.

A place to think about independent music became a place to discover it. Discovery led to listening. Listening led to voting.

Artists needed somewhere to send their music.

And apparently I also decided that what the world desperately needed was one more daily word game 🙂

Fair enough.

But eventually I realised something:

I was trying to put too much of Mitxoda inside the Weekly.

And you taught me something else. You read. You really do.

The deeper articles are often what resonate most.

But that doesn't mean you want fifteen links, three reviews, a radio show, a game, a chart and half the internet competing for your attention afterwards.

Neither would I.

So from Weekly #100 onwards, I'm simplifying.

That's the Weekly.

One question. One conversation. Sometime one interview. A few minutes together.

And everything else? It finally has a proper home.

Over the years, Mitxoda quietly became something bigger than this email.

A place to:

THINK.
DISCOVER.
LISTEN.
VOTE.
PLAY.
CREATE.

I've brought all of those pieces together.

Not inside this newsletter.

But where they belong.

On Mitxoda.

And yes, there will be a Weekly #101.

In fact, the next 25 editions will be a little different.

They will form one long conversation.

Twenty-five chapters about creation, technology, audiences, independence and what music might become next. Sometimes with or without artists interviews. Let’s see how the magic will be!

And before we talk about algorithms, AI, streaming, success or the future of the music industry, we should probably start with the simplest question of all:

Why do we still make music?

That's Weekly #101. Thank you for reading. Whether you've been here for 100 editions or this is your first one.

We're just getting started.

With indie love, Mitxoda

One last thing: today's Soundcheck is waiting. One word. A few guesses.

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I would go on with this weekly. But You are 500 souls reading me. Every Week. I won’t let you down.

But I don't want Weekly #100 to be a monument. One hundred is just a number. The interesting part is what comes after it.

For the next 25 Fridays, we're going to have one long conversation about music. About why we create. Who we're creating for. What success means. Whether being heard is the same as being remembered. What AI and algorithms change. What fans actually are. Why attention isn't love. Whether independent can still mean independent.

What we've gained. What we've lost. And eventually:

what we should never lose.

But all the other parts of Mitxoda are still here too. They’re simply getting more room to breathe. My absolute personal goal is to give that indie energy, that indie power, back to you. You are my endless source of inspiration. You are my always-on indie family.

After 100 Weeklies, it's time to open the doors.

100 Weeklies haven't made Soundcheck any easier.

Sorry about that.

This entire ecosystem starts with artists creating something.

I still listen to your submissions.

Your track might become one of the next three discoveries, find its way into the Salon, or enter the Top100.

Until next week,

Take care of yourself, take care of the people around you, and keep a little room in your life for music that nobody told you to listen to.
With love, always,
🖤 Mitxoda

Every Friday at 4:00 PM (Brussels time) a new episode of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda will take place on salon.mitxoda.be, don’t miss it.

END 😆