yewknee
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An internet waystation.

it me - michael eades

👋 Hi, I'm Michael Eades; a long time Internet dweller, design dabbler, dangerously amateur developer, online social experimenter and frequent curator.

Currently working as VP of Product at Smarter Apps. I also keep the lights on at a boutique record label called yk records, a podcast network called We Own This Town and a t-shirt shop called Nashville Galaxy. Previously, I built things for Vimeo OTT, VHX, KNI and Spongebath Records.

This site is an archive of ephemera I find entertaining; tweets, videos, random links, galleries of images.

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find me elsewhere

 

contact

Reach out via threads or good ole email if you have anything to discuss. I do my best to reply in a timely manner.

for the record: "yewknee" is a nonsensical word with no literal meaning but a unsurprisingly nerdy etymology. It is pronounced, "yoo • knee."

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ongoing projects

yk Records →
started in 2009 as a conduit for music that friends had no plans on releasing. now it's a full fledged boutique label focused on releasing quality music from a variety of styles. you know, like a label does. Here's a sampler on Soundcloud and a different one on Spotify. Options.

We Own This Town →
Originally a Nashville area music blog, this site has grown into a full blown podcast network as of 2018. It's an attempt to bring together creative folks about a variety of interesting topics.

I host this show all about Nashville local music outside the expectations of the city. I'm biased but all the shows are good.

Nashville Galaxy →
An online t-shirt shop featuring beloved and defunct Nashville area businesses. Very niche audience on this one but I tend to think niche is good.

some noteworthy other things

Chris Gaines: The Podcast →
published along with co-host Ashley Spurgeon; a limited series podcast that takes an absurdly researched deep dive into the time that Garth Brooks took on a fictional personality named Chris Gaines.

Garth Brooks Chris Gaines Countdown →
to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the time Garth Brooks took on the fictional personality Chris Gaines and appeared on Saturday Night Live in character, I GIF'ed the entire episode. It's a lot of GIFs; please use them.

Whiskerino →
a social network built around communal beard growing for four months. yes, it was as weird as it sounds but equally fascinating and enjoyable.

Moustache May →
an offshoot of the beard growing contest mentioned above. equal amounts of oddball fun but only a month long.

Summer Mix Series →
before all music was streaming everywhere, Internet music fans would swap zip files of music. it was truly a strange and wonderful time.

• • • — • —
Back in March of 2022, my beloved Bandcamp was acquired by Epic Games. I commented on it at the time but never fully felt like the match made much sense. A few journalists shared their thoughts on why it happened at all (Spoiler alert: Epic wanted to use Bandcamp as a weapon in litigation against Google and Apple) but, again, it really never made much sense to me.

Then, perhaps more shockingly, Epic announced a large round of layoffs and a divestment in Bandcamp. They sold it off to Songtradr, a platform aimed at helping artists distribute their music to streaming platforms and seeking licensing agreements for film and TV.

I don't know much of anything about Songtradr. I've read some complaints that they charge too little for licensing or behave too complicitly with the horrible royalty rates from streaming platforms but despite all that, they still make more sense than Epic Games as a parent company.

I mentioned this during the last acquisition but I still find the entire thing baffling. Supposedly, Bandcamp is a profitable company. They may not have as much growth or as much super profit as a corporation may desire but they aren't in debt. At least, so I've read. If that's actually true, I don't think I'll ever really understand selling at all.

All and all, I'm happy they are not under the wing of Epic anymore. I'm glad the new parent seems a bit more sensible. And I remain cautiously optimistic that history does not repeat itself and that the new parent company tries to change things too drastically.

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