iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 09/12/2025

Oh, get fucked, Bandcamp. This is a stupid policy at the best of times, and even moreso when I’m trying to link to my friend’s novel that I wrote this track for.

Error whilst trying to save draft on Bandcamp:

“Note: Links to external stores are not permitted.”

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 26/04/2025

OMG I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY ON PATREON S’cuse me I suddenly need to clear out my evening schedule

New Finale video on Netbula let’s goooooooooo

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 17/09/2024

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #305,610!

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 19/07/2024

Gee I sure love how Sibelius doesn’t bother remembering the values you set hairpins to so that every time you load a score they all get reset and you have to configure them all fucking over again Goddamned pile of bugs, this app

Screenshot of Sibelius with multiple hairpins reset to “auto”

Screenshot of Sibelius with multiple hairpins now manually set to “Change: 10%”

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 09/05/2024

By golly, this mammoth freaking track I’ve been working on since <checks timestamps> *last August* is finally approaching completion. Y’all better like it, or I swear I’ll cry. Like, ugly-cry. You’ve been warned.

Screenshot of file properties window for “Sunken Horizons Suite SKETCH – Intro.mp3” showing it was created on August 18, 2023

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 23/04/2024

8/ What about “Valid ID”? It’s as you can guess: You take a photo of some gov’t photo ID – driver’s license, passport, etc. – and submit it to Google. Again, they totally promise to delete it after 2 months. Folks, in this house we follow a simple rule: “Do not give your gov’t ID to Google.”

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 23/04/2024

7/ What is “video verification”? TL;DR: You record a 30-second video of yourself with your phone, which YT uses to generate a 3D model of your face. This model is then stored on your account, and Google pinky-promises to delete it after 2 months of channel activity. Ha. Hahahaha. Haaaaaa. No.

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 23/04/2024

6/ So. How can I get these advanced features (links! advanced!) back? YouTube offers three options: Video verification, ID verification, and channel history.

Screencap of YouTube’s advanced features requirements, showing that I’ll access features such as appealing Content ID claims, uploading more videos daily, and adding external links in video descriptions if I complete at least one of three options: “Video verification”, “Valid ID”, or “Channel history”

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 23/04/2024

5/ Until or unless I get these “advanced features” back, this is what the links to my other pages look like now in my video descriptions – non-clickable, with anything but the shortest links cut off:

Screencap of the video description to “Trainyard Paint Spray”, where all exterior links are whited out and non-clickable, with several of them cut off

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 23/04/2024

4/ Also, it looks like I’m far from the only one affected. Apparently a lot of people are getting these stupid emails, with equally little justification or explanation.

Screenshot of YouTube comments section (under “YouTube's Advanced Features Update: How to Avoid Losing Access” by Doug Hewson YT) showing numerous commenters complaining that they received emails implying they somehow broke the rules and restricting their channel feature level without explanation

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 23/04/2024

3/ The only thing the email says is that my channel needs more channel history, which basically means it needs a track record of being used over at least a few months without breaking the rules. Again – already done this. Obviously. Not sure what’s suddenly changed.

Screenshot of YouTube’s “channel history” help page, which explains that channel history is a record of a user’s uploads, comments, and data related to how they use their Google account; that most active channels “already have sufficient channel history to unlock advanced features”; and that ways of losing access to advanced features include violating various rules against spam/copyright infringement/cyberbullying/impersonation/etc.

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 23/04/2024

Today’s adventure in Google fuckery: Got an email saying my YouTube channel has “lost access to advanced features”. Apparently these features include things like pinning comments, higher upload limits, and – the only one that matters to me – adding links to other sites in video descriptions. 1/

Screencap of email from YouTube announcing my channel has “lost access to advanced features” because it “doesn’t have sufficient channel history”, which “may have happened because [my] channel did not follow [YouTube’s] Community Guidelines”

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 08/04/2024

Semi-important update: The Empty Horizons OST – despite being completed years ago – has new cover/album art! This replaces the previous art. Unfortunately, I also had to blur out the old art in the YouTube videos. You can read more about this decision in this YT community post I just published.

“Empty Horizons: Original Audiobook Soundtrack” album art

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 20/03/2024

This piece was originally composed in 2018 as a bit of homework for music lessons I was taking at the time. The assignment was to practice scales in a few different keys, with the challenge of using only a French horn, piano and double bass.

Excerpt from sheet music for “Scales (2024 Update)”

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 20/03/2024

Must … resist … until … the right … time …

Screenshot of Bandcamp upload page buttons: “Draft Saved”, “view draft” and “Publish”

Screenshot of SoundCloud upload page buttons: “Cancel” and “Save”

Screenshot of YouTube upload page buttons: “Back” and “Publish”

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 16/10/2023

Finally finished the sketch for my next track …

Screencap of Audacity audio file titled “Sunken Horizons Suite SKETCH – Complete” clocking in at over 10 minutes long

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 28/08/2023

. @heathensquirrel.bsky.social over on Xitter challenged people to create a 20-track list of their absolute favorite tunes, which each artist featuring only once: twitter.com/heathensquir... Here’s my 20 tunes I never, ever skip, presented in no particular order. Includes both songs and OST tracks.

1) Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, “Just Us” (‘Soul’ OST)
2) Coldplay, “Daddy”
3) John Powell, “Forbidden Friendship” (‘How to Train Your Dragon’ OST)
4) Dan Romer, “Go Find Out for Me” (‘Luca’ OST)
5) Céline Dion, “My Heart Will Go On”
6) U2, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”
7) The Weeknd, “Save Your Tears”
8) AURORA, “Running with the Wolves (Wolfwalkers Version)”
9) Patrik Pietschmann, “Violet Melody”
10) Lisa Torban, “Darkness, Darkness” (‘Ghosts of the Abyss’ OST)
11) John Williams, “You Are the Pan” (‘Hook’ OST)
12) Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide”
13) Hans Zimmer, “Marry Me (Album Suite)” (‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ OST)
14) Hildur Guðnadóttir, “Vichnaya Pamyat” (‘Chernobyl’ OST)
15) Half-Moon Run, “Drug You”
16) Simon & Garfunkel, “The Sound of Silence”
17) James Horner, “Dedication and Windsong” (‘Mighty Joe Young’ OST)
18) Jim White, “Static on the Radio”
19) Savfk, “Past Tense”
20) Inon Zur, “Science & Secrecy” (‘Fallout 4’ OST)

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 28/07/2023

I created this music-only account just two weeks ago, published a small handful of posts (mostly plugging recent & existing projects), and it’s been mostly inactive since. It’s been gradually accumulating new followers, and now has as many as my Twitter music-only account does after 1½ years.

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 18/07/2023

🎵 NEW MUSIC (KINDA): ‘Sunken Horizons OST’ Unfinished Sketches 🎵 I planned to live-score the finale of the audiobook, but life got in the way and I didn’t get any further than the sketches. I still like those ideas, so I’m posting them here. Links below: ⬇️ #music #orchestral #sketch

Goldenwing’s Sunken Horizons: Original Audiobook Soundtrack (WIP/sketchy art)

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Joé McKen ♪ Composer @music.joemcken.net · 17/07/2023

Please remind me never to prepare four songs for posting simultaneously ever again (Oh, yeah, four new tracks are coming soon. Probably later today or tomorrow.) #music #orchestral #sketch

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