THREAD (long): Many fellow musicians posting their Spotify year-end numbers. I'll preface this by saying my numbers aren't that impressive, and it'd be easy to dismiss this thread as sour grapes. In fact, I *did* feel pretty badly about it, and that got me to thinking...

Why? I had a nice year professionally! A movie I scored was #1 on the Netflix Top Ten Movies List. I released two albums and my first vinyl LP. I scored an episodic series (yes, for Quibi, but still... I enjoyed it!) and composed cool music for some brilliant filmmakers.

As I reflected I realized that, of course, this is exactly what Spotify wants me to feel. It wants me to give in to the human urge to compare my success to others'. It wants me to blame myself for any perceived failings, and it wants me to redouble my efforts on their platform.

Posting our numbers promotes that cycle, and also serves to drive up traffic. Does it help us? Many pixels have been spilled on pathetic streaming royalites-- we know they are unlikely to help most of us achieve anything approaching a middle class lifestyle in a major city...

So what are independent artists really supporting by posting these wrap ups?