The State of the Newsletter: 2024

It's the end of the year as we know it ... and the newsletter feels fine.

At the beginning of this year, this newsletter had 4,293 subscribers. Today, it has 6,275. Along with that subscriber growth, Can’t Get Much Higher newsletters have been viewed nearly 600k times across 115 countries, up nearly 200% from last year. In celebration of this growth, I first wanted to say thank you. Two years ago, I couldn’t pay someone to let me write about music. Now, I have scores of people waiting to read each week. Each time I get a response, I remain as shocked as the first time it happened.

Secondly, I know I send out tons of stuff, so I wanted to highlight our most popular stories of the year. Please also remember that paid subscribers get access to twice as many stories as free subscribers, and those paid subscribers make it possible for me to keep this thing going. Finally, I’m going to be working on a huge project in January. To bide myself some time, I will have some of my favorite writers fill in here. Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon enough.

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Most Popular Stories

These stories are ranked by the number of views that they received in the last year.

1. “Needles in Haystacks: The Lostwave Story” - In a guest post that got shared by tons of outlets, Catherine Sinow dove into the weird subculture on Reddit that tries to locate songs from the analog age that have been lost to time.

2. “Did Frank Sinatra Really Perform at My Grandma's High School?” - As the title suggests, my grandmother would always claim that Frank Sinatra performed at her high school. I spent months trying to figure out if her memory served her correctly.

3. “Spotify's Former Data Guru Tells All: A Conversation with Glenn McDonald” - After many years building algorithms on Spotify, Data Alchemist Glenn McDonald sat down for an hour-long interview.

4. “Mommy, Why Did You Name Me Doja Cat?” - A history of how popular songs and artists have influenced the way parents name their children.

5. “The Great Generational Snob Shift” - While musical snobs have always existed, the nature of the snob has changed dramatically in the last few decades.

Most Popular Interviews

Paid subscribers get access to biweekly interviews with people moving the music industry. Here are the most popular interviews from the last year.

1. “Spotify's Former Data Guru Tells All: A Conversation with Glenn McDonald” - After many years building algorithms on Spotify, Data Alchemist Glenn McDonald sat down for an hour-long interview.

2. “A New Obsession for Spotify's Former Chief Economist: A Conversation with Will Page” - Will Page, a man that has been on the cutting edge of music technology for the last two decades, sat down for an interview.

3. “The Evolution of the Critic: A Conversation with Mark Richardson” - After spending years as the Editor-in-Chief at Pitchfork, current Wall Street Journal music critic Mark Richardson sat down to discussion the evolution of his profession.

4. “The Ween Of American Rock Critics: A Conversation with Steven Hyden” - In the wake of writing a mind-bending book at Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., critic Steven Hyden came by for a conversation.

5. “Being the Music: A Conversation with Khatia Buniatishvili” - Though we mostly talk about popular music in this newsletter, this week we spoke with classical pianist Khatia Buniatishvili.

Most Played Songs

Each week, I recommend a new song and an old song. Here are the song that got the most plays.

1. “Amen Brother” by The Winstons

2. “Sel” by Nereikia Žodžių Feat. Lit

3. “rendezvous” by Dhyan

4. “Got To Be Mine” by Vulfmon & Evangeline

5. “ROCKMAN” by Mk.gee

Most Enticing Titles

If you read this newsletter in your email inbox, all you can see before you click is the title. I figured that the newsletters with the highest email open rates had the most engaging titles.

1. “Mommy, Why Did You Name Me Doja Cat?” - A history of how popular songs and artists have influenced the way parents name their children.

2. “When Jessica Simpson Said My Name” - Collaborator Catherine Sinow investigates why Jessica Simpson released 500 versions of a song in 2006.

3. “Did More Artists Die Young in the 1960s? Mailbag” - Exploring reader questions about time signatures, expensive singles, and premature death.

4. “Every Song Bob Dylan Has Ever Played Live” In collaboration with Ray Padgett of the newsletter Flagging Down the Double E's, we do a deep dive into Bob Dylan’s live music history

5. “Recorded Music is a Hoax” - The fundamental quality of recorded music is that it is based on deception.

Most Clicked Links

Throughout the year, we share tons of links to other stories in this newsletter. Here are the links that got the most clicks.

1. “The bottom number in time signatures has always confused me” by Ethan Hein (Ethan teaches you music)

2. “Hip-Hop is Declining in Popularity” by Shannon Power (Newsweek)

3. “The Curious Case Of The Underselling Arena Tours” by Zach Schonfeld (Stereogum)

4. “Why I Finally Quit Spotify” by Kyle Chayka (New Yorker)

5. “Is the Love Song Dying?” by David Mora and Michelle Jia (The Pudding)

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Thank you again for reading Can’t Get Much Higher. It’s been an absolute pleasure writing for and talking with you this year. I hope you have a wonderful new year! I can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store.