What’s intune?
Think of intune as a book club for people who love music.
Each week I’ll discuss the album that resonates with me the most in my everchanging playlist. It might be an old favorite, something I’d missed over the years, or something brand new. I’ll go through track-by-track and share my thoughts and reactions to the music and the story each song tells.
The book club part is where you come in.
Listen along and tell me what you think of the record. What story do you get from lisstening to the the album as a whole? Is there one track in particular you can relate to? Do you know another artist that reminds you of the one I picked this week?
Most importantly: who do I absolutely need to check out next? Let me know and I’ll add them to my queue.
Why music?
Music finds a way to communicate the things I don’t know how to say, or that I’m not brave enough to say.
It fills my mind with questions I haven’t found answers to yet, and I want to discuss:
How can an album can teleport me back in time to when I first heard it?
How do old favorites hold up years later?
What makes me grow out of some bands and into others?
How can an album seem bland or strange when I first hear it, only to have me fall in love the second or third time through?
Great music, when shared, can lead to great discussions. I want to share my perspective and hear yours. Let’s start a conversation about what music means to us, one album at a time!
Why now?
Because I never drive anymore…
My weekly routine changed a lot during the pandemic. Now that I work from home I’m rarely on the road and my “commute” is a just few steps, from bedroom to office.
The extra free time is great, don’t get me wrong, but I miss my old ritual: alone early in the morning, singing along in the car before the sun rises, sipping coffee at a red light while everyone else is asleep and the streets are still empty. Writing intune is my attempt at reclaiming the feeling of my hands on the wheel listening to a great album, and trying to share that experience, track by track.
Because I love music more than ever, but understand it less than ever…
I want to share my experience of the music I love, and the music this community loves…and I think maybe I need to share as well. The pandemic was a very isolating experience for me, but I always had music. I hope that from 2023 forward, I can do some small part to highlight up-and-coming artists while also broadening my musical horizons.
Discovering new music is by far one of my favorite things, but there are only so many hours in the day to listen and write so I need you to help point me towards the really good stuff!
If you’re willing to share, tell me in the comments:
What role did music play for you during the pandemic?
What do I hope to build here?
I hope we’ll create a space to compare thoughts and experiences, and talk music and lyrics and the stories they can tell.
I want to understand why you and I might feel such drastically different things listening to the same song, or how a stadium full of people from totally different walks of life and backgrounds can hear a great line and, all at once, all together, think to themselves “I - know - exactly - how - that - feels.”
What kind of music should you expect?
I listen across a host of genres, but in the end I suppose I’m a product of my environment.
Before I could walk, my family introduced me to the British Invasion and the wealth of other great artists abroad who spoiled music lovers in the 60s and 70s. With my baby steps came exposure to artists like Michael Jackson, Meat Loaf, and Guns N’ Roses, although I remember little else of those times. Friends and schoolmates turned me on to rock, punk, hip hop, and grunge in the 90s, after which I walked headfirst into a 2000-2010 rock-alt movement. Since then I’ve delved into some folk-rock and raggae, both of which I was a bit shocked to enjoy as much as I have.
I still listen to all of those genres, from the bands I discovered them through to the modern artists who carry the torch forward today. I’ll always love the old stuff, but my absolute favorite thing is when somebody points me toward something new. It’s like being a kid again waking up on my birthday; blind excitement tangled up with the hope that hitting play might start another musical chapter that gets my heart racing and makes my hair stand on end.
Expect a mixture of artists I know and love, anything I’ve just discovered, along with some wildcards mixed in and hopefully lots of community recommendations!
I don’t want to get hung up on what’s indie or mainstream or pop;
I’ll just let my ears guide me and share the resulting experience.
Is there additional content for paid subscribers?
There’s more content coming soon for paid subscribers, but my main focus in the next couple of months will be to refine the free weekly intune reviews. Paid content will grow as the community engages to request it and helps guide the intune journey.
It’s not set in stone but here’s the content breakdown and the plan moving forward:
Free subscription content
Weekly intune album reviews will always be free. These are my main focus and will likely make up the bulk of the content posted.
Weekly album reviews: Each week I’ll post my review of the album I enjoyed the most. I hope you’ll listen along and tell me what you think!
Community discussions: How does this week’s record make you feel? What’s your favorite track? Does it remind you of an old friend or somewhere you used to live? Did you like the review? Did you hate the review? Tell me everything and anything. Most of all, tell me what I should listen to next in the comments of each weekly post. I’ll check out each and every request and if I love it, I’ll review it!
Free subscribers: If I review the album you request, I’ll gift you a free monthly subscription!
Monthly subscription content
I’ll post extra content as often as I can to try to give more value to paid subscribers:
Bi-weekly community-requested album reviews: Anyone can request album reviews, but only paid subscribers will have access to those reviews when they’re published every other week. (The weekly reviews will always remain free to all!)
Request monthly write-ups on other content: “What sort of content,” you ask? That’s up to you! Tell me what to write about! Anything goes as long as we can keep it loosely in the realm of the “music and community” spirit of intune. I’ll read through all of the paid subscribers’ comments and pick my favorite ideas each month for an intune post!
Yearly subscriptions
Yearly subscribtions include all of the content of the monthly subscription at a discounted rate.
Founder member subscriptions
Founder member subscriptions are meant as an option to provide additional support for me as researcher, writer, editor…everything-er for intune! A founder gets the same access as a yearly or monthly sub, with one added bonus: I will write one review for any album you choose.
You might consider being a founder if:
You enjoy the reviews and want to see how the intune community engages with a specific album.
You’d like to put the spotlight on a beloved band, an up-and-coming artist, or even yourself — calling all musicians!
You’d like to help me pay the bills so I can spend more time writing intune! <3
If you choose any paid subscription, I want to give you as much additional content as my time permits me to create. I’d love suggestions on how I can give you more of what you enjoy!