What is Grace Spelman Music Project?
Grace Spelman Music Project is a twice-weekly newsletter dedicated to providing its readers with good, interesting music recommendations free of algorithmic AI slop.
You’re not crazy. In the last few years, music streaming services like Spotify have abandoned any notion that they could be an effective or even exciting platform for discovering new music. Instead, they churn out AI-generated slop that almost feels like an insult to users’ intelligence. The barbed wire noose of “innovation” tightens its grip, and you’re left wondering why the hell you keep getting recommended songs you already know. How is anyone supposed to expand their music taste in an environment like this? And why the hell is this app recommending audiobooks?
My goal for this Substack is to continue sharing the music content I’ve been posting for free over the last decade, but now all in one place here. I want to recreate the excitement I felt scouring my favorite music blogs as a teenager. Or, for those of you who touched more grass than I did, I’d like to play the role of Older Sibling’s Friend With “Cool” Music Taste.
Who am I?
Grace Spelman is a music writer, screenwriter and musician based in Los Angeles. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you already know me as an extremely-online content creator with an immeasurable passion for music. For a good chunk of the 2010s, I was a staff writer at BuzzFeed in New York. I later worked in development on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’s musical spin-off variety show, That’s My Jam. I then co-hosted The Ringer Music Show, a music podcast from The Ringer and Spotify, alongside journalist Charles Holmes.
Some other cool places my music obsession has taken me:
This video interview about my popular, hyper-specific playlists.
In 2023, I moderated a panel on video game music at the Guild Of Music Supervisors Conference.
During the pandemic, I hosted an interview on Instagram Live with film composer Michael Giacchino.
My silly Steely Dan Twitter Account was mentioned in a book.
A guest on many a podcast.
How does this work?
Every song, album and playlist featured in Grace Spelman Music Project will have appropriate links for Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, YouTube Music and Amazon Music.
Monday Newsletter: One-time themed playlists1 along with some recurring series.2
Friday Newsletter: Every Friday newsletter is the same: The Friday 15. I share fifteen songs I’m currently digging and write a brief commentary on each. Every edition of The Friday 15 ends with a stupid and/or fascinating music-related TikTok or Reel.
Monthly recommendation round-up: Delight in the fruits of my weird internet rabbit holes.3
What do you get?
Paying subscribers to Grace Spelman Music Project can expect:
🚨 At least two newsletters each week.
🚨 Access to a private Substack chat where we’ll hang out, discuss music and share links.
🚨 A monthly round-up of miscellaneous recommendations.
🚨 Full access to my archive of well-known Spotify playlists.4
🚨 SOON: Full access to my popular Instagram Highlights.
Free subscribers to Grace Spelman Music Project can expect:
🚨 The first song in each Monday and Friday newsletter.
Why pay?
If you’ve enjoyed any of the content or recommendations I’ve shared for free over the last decade, please consider subscribing. At the end of 2023 after a cancer scare and kidney surgery, I decided to leave my office job. Your $5 a month would make it possible for me to turn my greatest joy in life into a full-time job and my primary source of income. By subscribing, you’ll help keep this project running. Services cost money, and your support will allow me to continue sharing the things I’m passionate about5 with you.
Some upcoming one-time playlists:
Songs For Being High In The Bath
Girls Talk-Singing Over Bleep-Blorps
Favorite Solos Featuring An Unconventional Instrument
Songs In Which A Lyric Mentions The Sample Being Used
Some upcoming playlist series:
Covers I Actually Like: I’m a stickler when it comes to covers. In this series, I’ll share five covers that swing for the fences and knock it out of the park.
Dinner Party Playlists: Hyper-specific playlists inspired by social gatherings.
World Music Week: I’ll highlight some of my favorite music from a country or region of the world.
Seasonal Road Trips: I don’t need to tell you that an October road trip playlist should sound completely different from a summer playlist.
Let me show you the video of a marching band performing a twenty-minute tribute to a five-hour avant-garde opera. That documentary about a classical music piece written for a string quartet and four helicopters? I’ll watch it and share with you my favorite parts. I’ll top the whole thing off with a cool PDF I found from an old music publication.
Right now all my archived playlists are only available via Spotify. I’m working on transferring each Spotify playlist to the other streaming services, but it’s tedious. Spotify is the only streaming service that is not compatible with playlist-transfer software, which I think is deeply evil of them. I will update you on this process as I chug along.
For example: The episode of The Muppets where this one muppet plays “Hava Nagila” on the bagpipes while Animal goes crazy on the drums.
