Retired. About 20 people on the list when I stopped. The recs are very of their moment — if you were online in 2017–2019, you'll hear it in the first three tracks.
What it was
Every Friday I published a new themed playlist — not a static pool that got edits, a full fresh sequence with a new idea behind it. I made custom cover images for each week and wrote the playlist descriptions with quotes and enough context that the week had a point of view, not just a file name.
Example themes: what I thought Einstein would be listening to if he was alive today, weeks for Isle of Dogs, Childish Gambino, Black Panther, Kids See Ghosts, and a few that only made sense in the culture of the moment. When Lil Peep and XXXTentacion died, I made memorial weeks. Same for Mac Miller. The archive is a time capsule.
The Einstein week
The on-image copy for the Einstein week came from text in a letter he actually wrote. I set it in a version of his handwriting for the art. I care about a dumb level of detail when I care — which is the whole through-line of this site.
The business model that did not land
The premium version was supposed to work like this: you pay once, I send you a USB flash drive with a link to the playlist, and the playlist at that URL updates every Friday — same link, new sequence, new cover. Physical object, digital ritual, no subscription fatigue. I still think that's a good idea in the abstract.
I never launched it. People did not want to pay for a playlist, even once, even for the drive. I get it. I was asking for a different frame — pay for curation, pay for a Friday you don't have to think about. The market, in my sample size, said no.
Listen to the archive
The list got big enough that I split it into three public Spotify playlists. They're the full run — pick a part, skip around, and treat 2017–2019 as a single era.
iGood archive, part 1 of 3 → Part 2 of 3 → Part 3 of 3 →
Cover art
What I took from it
A weekly public deadline is a machine for making taste sharper than you think you have. I also learned that a small audience you actually have is worth more for feedback than a large audience you imagine. And I learned, concretely, that some ideas need a business model the culture already understands, or they stay art.
The archive is still the point
Three playlists, one run of Fridays. Open any part and skip at random — it's a map of a specific window of the internet.
— John Loughrin