Time to admit an embarrassing truth: even though I play music on the radio—a role that suggests some kind of authority or expertise—I’m truly terrible at remembering the names of albums, artists, and songs. When someone asks what I’m currently listening to, I say, “I don’t remember, but their album art looks like.”  Maybe it’s because I listen to so much music that it’s impossible to remember it all. But more likely, it has something to do with the listening infrastructure I’ve used and been submerged in for over a decade.

I don’t want frictionless and forgettable encounters with music and sound. I want messy, personal, weird listening experiences that sink in and that I can recall. So, lately, I’ve been trying to change my listening habits into a listening practice. To reorient and slow my attention, I keep a notebook. I jot down what I hear, take notes on music books I’m reading, paste in my favorite reviews from music magazines, sketch out concerts I attend, and log the tracks I play on my show. It’s not just about holding onto memory. It’s about resisting the way streaming platforms and the attention economy flatten the listening experience, and relearning how to listen with more care.

In 2013, a Spotify advertisement featured two young people sharing a pair of headphones, about to kiss. The tagline read: “Because mixtapes still work.”¹ It was an early attempt by Spotify to frame their playlists as akin to the mixtapes of the past—handcrafted, intimate, and personal. But, as the author Liz Pelly argues about this example in Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, despite Spotify’s claim to engender human connection, their model has shaped a passive, mechanized listening culture that pushes us further apart. 

After being misled by these false promises, it’s time to disentangle ourselves from these omnipresent streaming platforms and the attention economy. I ask you to reinvest in alternative infrastructures for sonic connection. Exit the Spotify app and turn up the FM radio, talk to your local record store owner, follow a music substack, exchange messy mixtapes with a friend, go on a sound walk, purchase a music zine. Engage with sound infrastructures where your listening habits aren’t just data to be optimized or the AI DJ creates playlists riddled with ghost artists. If you’re already doing this, do it more.

Tuning Away from Mechanized Listening features Midwest’s music ecosystems—listening cultures where thoughtful curation, collective engagement, and storytelling still shape what and how we hear. This series is meant to be a reminder: listening can be more than a passive, forgetful experience. 

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The latest articles in this series:

1. See the full add here: Paul Sloan, Spotify tries to go mainstream, launches splashy ad campaign,” CNET March 25, 2013. Referenced in Liz Pelly’s Mood Machines. ↩︎

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