UTR February 2022 Playlist + Bandcamp Links

Spotify has taken a thrashing in the media over the past couple of weeks, for reasons including providing a platform for Covid-19 misinformation and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in AI defence tech. It seems unlikely that artists and labels will be jumping ship en masse anytime soon, with many major acts favouring Spotify as their primary digital distribution platform due to the current lack of a viable economic alternative (and Amazon Prime is not it Neil Young), even though they pay a pittance per stream. Closer to home, Australasian playlisters seemingly seek to promote the blandest of local pop content to our region, accelerating the flattening of culture and dismissing the vast variety of high quality sounds dominating Aotearoa's student radio airwaves (and our news coverage) every week.

Keeping our eye on these controversies and the reckons that come with them, we'll be continuing to provide monthly playlists to help spread the word about Aotearoa's best new musical releases in 2022, but urge listeners who like what they hear to support artists directly via Bandcamp (whose fee-waiving initiative Bandcamp Friday returns this week), by visiting local music stores and purchasing irl records & merch, and / or by attending live shows. This month's playlist features killer recent tracks from around Christmas onwards by Night Lunch, Aldous Harding, End Boss, Noah Slee, Sets, MOKOMOKAI, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Karl Steven ft. Ché Fu, Chelsea Jade, Neive Strang, How Get, Imugi 이무기 (two remixes), Thorn Dells and more — Bandcamp purchase links for most tracks available HERE...

As Aotearoa's longest-running independent ticketing and music news website, we've been significantly impacted by the Red restrictions. Revenue from ticketing live shows enables the UTR team to keep bringing you the best breaking music news, interviews, playlists and so much more. Please consider supporting us HERE.