iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I WANT TO OWN MY MEDIA FUCKING TIRED OF RENTING BRAH

Quiji @quijipixel.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

In 2023 I released The Black Pepper Crew on Early Access. Two and a half years later I finally finish my first update. Being a solo dev with a day job and family has proven really difficult... still, I will finish this game!! #gamedev #indidev store.steampowered.com/news/app/160...

store.steampowered.com

The Black Pepper Crew - First Content Update! - Steam News

Is finally here!

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Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 07/08/2025

If you just really want to hear me explain why so many publishers are just utterly useless now, here's a talk for you.

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Hendric @hendricsueitt.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

These concepts were a delight to create : D I love mining theme. Why are you not playing Pipistrello already???

game concept art with a jelly boss in a mining background with oil and a machine.

isometric concept art of a mine with lots of mining machines

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Hendric @hendricsueitt.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Concept art of the city center. Pipistrello and the Cursed yoyo.

Concept art of a city square. with fountain, statue, bank, postoffice and restaurant.

Concept art of a restaurant interior and a motorclub building.

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Hendric @hendricsueitt.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Pipistrello and the cursed yoyo - Concept arts : ]

Cinema loung and screen room concept art.

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Quiji @quijipixel.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

CraftCraft us out!! We have been pouring all our love into this little game! And now is out, go get it!!!!!

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Placeholder Gameworks @placeholder.games · 29/05/2025

After 3 long years of development and many... err... accidents, we are delighted to announce... CraftCraft: Fantasy Merchant Simulator is OUT NOW on Steam! Link in replies✨

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Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 13/03/2025

I have shared this story, this thread, before - but I think given the state of the world, it's worth telling once again. Maybe it can help, especially if like me, you make art, and you wonder what the use of all of it is right now.

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paper aviator @paperaviator.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

hey i made an zine about spotify's sins, inspired by @glasse.bsky.social's spotify bio if you want to print some, DM and i'll send you the file!

SPOTIFY SUCKS and how you can better support your favorite artists

Lineal by Frank Adebiaye, with the contribution of Anton Moglia, Ariel Martín Pérez. Distributed by velvetyne.fr.

Karrik by Jean-Baptiste Morizot, Lucas Le Bihan. Distributed by velvetyne.fr.

SOURCES:
Herstand, Ari. “Takedown Fails: Artists Are Seeing Their Music Removed From DSPs for Streaming Fraud They Didn’t Commit.” Variety, 12 Apr. 2024.

Krukowski, Damon. “Solidarity.” Dada Drummer Almanach, 3 Oct. 2023,

Krukowski, Damon. ”Spotify made £56m profit, but has decided not to pay smaller artists like me.” The Gaurdian, 30 Nov 2023.

Lopatto, Elizabeth. “Not Even Spotify Is Safe From AI Slop.” The Verge, 14 Nov. 2024

Maddaus, Gene. “Variety.” Variety, 4 Sept. 2024.

Omarji, Sophia. “I Was Laid off From Spotify After Moving to Sweden for the Job. I Had to Leave the Entire Life I Built Behind and Am Still Looking for Work.” Business Insider, 31 Jan. 2025

Pelly, Liz. “The Ghosts in the Machine.” Harper’s Magazine.

Starvos, Jennifer . “How Spotify Is Quietly Supporting the Military-Industrial Complex.” In These Times, 10 Mar. 2022.

Willings, Sam. “Daniel Ek Earned More From Spotify in the Past 12 Months Than Any Artist Has Ever Earned on the Platform.” MusicTech, 5 Aug. 2024

SPOTIFY PAYS VERY LITTLE (if at all)

Spotify pays a measly $0.003 per stream!

You’d need 406,000 plays/month just to make the national minimum wage—assuming you publish your own music and don’t have a record label to do that for you, because labels typically take 50-90% of your royalties!

Besides, minimum wage is still TOO LOW to live comfortably!

For smaller artists, any music that does not achieve 1,000 streams in a year will not receive any royalties at all (Krukowski).

FAKE ARTISTS

Most Spotify users rely on Spotify’s curated mood playlists (e.g.“Ambient Relaxation” and “Bossa Nova Dinner”) as background music.

So Spotify figured users wouldn’t notice if they replaced the REAL music by REAL musicians in those playlists with FILLER music under FAKE artists’ profiles, so they don’t have to pay royalties to the real artists.

This filler music, called “Perfect Fit Content,” consists of mass-produced stock music commissioned from a handful of anonymous musicians that Spotify completely owns and profits off of. These tracks receive millions of plays that could have gone to real, working musicians (Pelly).

There’s a plethora of problems regarding AI and Fraud on Spotify:

Fake AI-generated albums are put under real artists’ profiles, which fraudsters profit off of. The real artists can do little to stop this. (Lopatto)

Many artists have been the victims of unwanted artificial plays, including many artists I know: artists’ music is mysteriously flagged for artificial plays, and the artist is forced to remove the song/album or face a fine or even be banned from the platform (Herstand).

There’s also nothing stopping people from just uploading AI-generated music (made from huge libraries of copyrighted music) and profiting off it.

AI itself has way more problems to unpack, which could be its very own zine…

SPOTIFY SUPPORTS THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Prima Materia, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s investment company, had invested €100 million ($114 million USD) in Helsing, a German defence tech company that has developed military drones and AI software to aid in military operations. (Starvos).

WHAT YOU CAN DO

It’s clear that Spotify does not actually care about the livelihoods of musicians.

CEO Daniel Ek infamously tweeted that “the cost of creating content” (i.e. music) is “close to zero.” Sure, I guess the hours, experience, equipment, etc. to make music is worth nothing!

Meanwhile, Ek made 345 million dollars last year (Willings), while laying off 17% of their workers in 2023 (Omarji).

Support your favorite artists more directly by buying their music on services like Bandcamp and iTunes.

Digital albums typically cost $5-10, and your purchase will have a bigger impact than your streams ever will. And can listen to them FOREVER!

At $12/mo., if you only use Spotify to stream the same few albums, you’ll save money in the long run if you just buy the albums.

Buy CDs, vinyls, and other merch! Support your local music stores!

Switch to a better streaming platform like Tidal or Apple Music. Tidal pays the highest, paying an average of $0.013/stream—that’s over 4 times more than Spotify’s average. They can pay up to $0.05/stream ! Apple music falls just behind, paying $0.007-$0.01/stream on average.

Musicians cannot strike or organize a boycott on Spotify without being sued under antitrust laws, since the musicians are considered independent contractors, while Spotify is the “customer” (Krukowski).

Tell your representatives to support the Protect Working Musicians Act, which would allow independent musicians to organize and fight back!

Join/Donate to the United Musicians and Allied Workers who are fighting to regulate streaming, restrict AI, eliminate Ticketmaster and Live Nation, and more!

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Quiji @quijipixel.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

What are you waiting for!!

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Hendric @hendricsueitt.bsky.social · 29/09/2024

The Black Pepper Crew é um jogo que eu me apaixonei assim que vi a primeira imagem. Acabei trocando uma ideia com o criador @quijipixel.bsky.social e tive a honra de poder criar a arte do steam em HD. Segue uns prints de telas pra vocês pirarem também.

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