My new single "Learn How to Love Me" drops today
And I'm done with Spotify.
Darwin would have turned eleven on July 1…
He was the epitome of love. Selfless, unapologetic and completely unconditional love. He’s up in puppy heaven now… sadly he’s moved on from this world :(. But the love he showed me lives on forever in me and through my music...
I’m trying something new with my music. And my art just in general. I’m going to spend a year exclusively releasing it — all of it — only on Substack (and when applicable, Bandcamp).
My first single “Learn How to Love Me” is the first experiment of this strategy. I’ve made a bunch of really killer tunes lately so I decided to slap them together and call them an album. Yes. We still make those as musicians… The Heartbreaker EP drops July 1 — exclusively here on my Substack, now rebranded to “Stories in Stereo”, and powered by Bandcamp. It lives nowhere else. No Spoti-fry. No Apple Music. No algorithm deciding whether you ever hear it.
Just you and me and the music. Here’s why…
Why I Left Spotifry
I dunno if you saw, but on June 12, 2026, Spotify updated their terms of service. I read them. All of them. I know. I’m THAT guy…
The Spotify Terms — Read It Yourself
Forget speculation. This is straight from Spotify in their own words. Read the full updated privacy policy here: → Spotify Privacy Policy
Sections 1.2, 1.3, and 3 are where it gets uncomfortable.
Why It Matters — For Fans
You came to Spotify for music. What you got was a data profile. Every search, every skip, every late night playlist you built after a breakup… logged, analyzed, and sold to advertisers who know more about your emotional state than your closest friends do.
On free Spotify you are the product. The music is the bait.
And when Spotify’s AI DJ recommends your next song — it’s not doing you a favour. It’s optimizing for engagement, not discovery. The independent artist making something real in their basement gets buried. The algorithm-friendly content rises. You never know what you missed. It’s BS. Not how I imagined a music career. Here’s why…
Why It Matters — For Artists
$0.003 per stream. That’s the number. You need 250 streams to make one dollar. One dollar. Before tax. More if you’re candaian, ‘cause oh yeah… that’s USD and there’s a bunch of taxes you’ll pay if you’re not set up properly in the states. (that’s for another rant…)
Meanwhile Spoti-fry uses your music — your actual recordings, your creative output — to train the machine learning models that will eventually make your job redundant. Without your consent. Without additional compensation. Without so much as telling you it’s happening. That sounds an awful lot like the big capital R word to me…
Session musicians get nothing. The drummer who built the track, the bassist who held it together… legally exempted from the streaming payment structure entirely. In Canada, Spotify is actively fighting CRTC legislation in court that would require them to contribute 15–25% of revenue back to Canadian artists. Hundreds of millions of dollars locked up in litigation while Canadian musicians starve. Like wtf?
You built your “career” on their platform. They own your audience. They own the data. They own the relationship between you and your fans. The moment they change the terms — and they just did — you have nothing. Wait, you already had nothing… now you have less than nothing…
Why It Matters — For Brands & Industry
If you’re a brand, a manager, a label, or an industry professional still building exclusively on streaming platforms — you’re building on sand.
The artists your brand is attached to are underpaid, data-mined, and one algorithm change away from invisibility. The labels still signing deals structured around streaming royalties are handing the most valuable asset… your fan relationships… to a platform that has zero loyalty to either side.
The brands and industry players who move now… the players who help artists own their audiences, build direct relationships, and create sustainable revenue outside the platform economy… those are the ones who will still be standing in ten years.
The underground already exists. It just needs infrastructure. So being the troublemaker I inherently am, I decided to make a petition. I don’t have all the answers. I have a lot of ideas and a few really good questions to get the party started though… but I’m calling on all the brave souls who still believe in independent art to stand up and put an end to the streaming era with me.
→ stayindie.ca — Sign the petition. Join the movement.
I’m done feeding that machine. How about you?
What I’m Building Instead
This is it. Right here. And why you’re seeing a rebrand from the MusicFit Underground. (that’s still alive and well… it just lives over here now on Skool)
Stories in Stereo is where my music lives from now on. No middleman. No algorithm. Direct from me to you. The way it should be.
Moving forward, you can expect this place to be my creative expression hub. I will drop music, my thoughts and some personal stories each week and keep you updated on life behind the scenes as I grow and build what is becoming the CrossFit franchise of the music industry, MusicFit. See the resemblance…? I swear that was unintentional!
The free tier gets the writing, the philosophy, the tools — everything I know about keeping people moving, thinking, and making their world a better place despite whatever BS that’s going on.
The HiberNation founding tier opens July 1. Full music library access. One new release every month. Private chat. Private sound & story concert workshops. All the real stuff. Direct to you. That’s what I want to do. Buiuld relationships through my art and love for life.
This is my world. And how as a creator, I see the future. Direct. Relationship-based. Intimate. On purpose. To me it’s so much more than the music.
It has a heartbeat… 💜
The Heartbreaker EP
The sound? Alt Zen. If Big Wreck and Third Eye Blind did a yoga retreat with Trevor Hall and Wu-Tang was the instructor.
Music for burnt out 90s kids who think too much and still feel everything.
Five tracks. Built from the kind of heartbreak that cracks you open and lets the light in. The kind Darwin taught me about just by showing up every day and loving without conditions.
I forget where I heard this… probably Paul Chek…
The function of a broken heart is to let your love pour out.
That’s what this EP is.
Learn How To Love Me — Out Now
The first single is live right now. Free. For everyone. Right here to stream and as a digital download in case you wanna throw it on your preferred music player on your device. (Reminder that I’ll be releasing all my future works in my paid tier so if you’re interested, be sure to pledge your support down below before July 1) Enjoy!
If you’re open to it, I would love to know what this song reminds you of of what you think of when you listen… 👇
Put it on. Let it land. If you’re interested in hearing the rest of the album, the tracks are all high quality wav files… and I’ve got some limited edition merch up for pre-sale… 👇
The Movement
I wanna be clear…I’m not just complaining about the streaming platform fiasco... I’m building the alternative.
I.N.D.I.E. — Intergalactic Network Defending Independent and Emerging Artists — is a petition and a community for artists, fans, and industry professionals who are done watching the platforms profit while the musicians starve.
Sign it. Share it. Stay indie.
July 1. Darwin’s birthday. The Heartbreaker EP. HiberNation opens.
Good chat. Thanks for being here and welcome (back) to Stories in Stereo.
Stay tuned.
MTS
PS. I’m looking for 2 more private 1:1 or semi-private clients for the summer. Ideally, they’re someone who’s experiencing chronic pain, maybe a bad back, knee or shoulder… tried everything and nothing seems to click/ They’ve been written off by a doctor or told to give up or that’s just the way it is now... It’s not. Shoot me a message if you know anyone who might fit the bill. I’d like to see if I can help them out.
