The Oklahoma City-based ‘pagan synth’ duo Esoterik have unveiled their latest single, “Trickster”. This track precedes the release of their forthcoming EP, “Archetypes”, scheduled for later this year. The upcoming EP, “Archetypes”, delves into universal symbols and stories that resonate across cultures, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in human history.

The “Trickster” single explores the themes of chaos and its role in both creation and destruction, posing questions about its necessity and the nature of change it incites. “Trickster” is now available across various digital platforms, including Bandcamp and Spotify. A music video for “Trickster” is out as well.

Here’s the video for “Trickster”.

Esoterik has also embarked on a US tour titled “Only Death is Immortal”, featuring performances alongside Combichrist, Dead Animal Assembly Plant, and special guests across multiple cities.

Formed in 2013, Esoterik blends ’80s synthpop with rock, creating a sound that has been affectionately dubbed “Pagan-Synth” by their fans. The band, consisting of Allison Eckfeldt and Brady Bledsoe, are currently preparing the foloow-up to their last album, “Alchemy”, which fused mystical themes with electronic rhythms.

Esoterik Tour

• March 16 Los Angeles, CA @ Whiskey A Go Go
• March 17 San Francisco, CA @ Neck Of The Woods
• March 18 Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
• March 19 Portland, OR @ Star Theater
• March 20 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
• March 22 Idaho falls, ID @ The Gem
• March 23 Salt lake city, UT @ Leatherheads
• March 24 Denver, CO @ Kulture music hall
• March 26 St Louis, MO @ Red Flag
• March 27 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
• March 29 Madison, WI @ Annex
• March 30 Chicago, IL @ Distro Music Hall
• March 31 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
• April 2 Detroit, MI @ Magic Bag
• April 3 Albany, NY @ Empire Underground
• April 4 Montreal, QB @ Foufounes Electriques
• April 5 Providence, RI @ Fete Hall
• April 6 Mechanicsburg , PA @ LoveDrafts
• April 7 Philadelphia, PA @ Warehouse on Watts
• April 8 New York, NY @ Brooklyn Made
• April 9 Pittsburgh, PA @ Preserving Underground
• April 10 Columbus, OH @ King of Clubs
• April 11 Piedmont, SC @ Tribbles
• April 12 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Hell
• April 13 Tampa, FL @ Crowbar
• April 14 Orlando, FL @ Conduit
• April 15 Miami, FL @ Gramps
• April 18 Houston, TX @ Scout bar
• April 19 Austin, TX @ Come and Take it Live
• April 21 Dallas, TX @ Haltom Theater
• April 23 El Paso, TX @ Rockhouse
• April 24 Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
• April 25 Albuquerque, NM @ Inside/out

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Over the years I have seen something new amongst bands, and that is comparing streams and followers. All nice, but I have regularly seen red flags as well with artists presenting suddenly booming streaming figures, and spikes in followers growth or playlist placements. The red flags point to pay-for-follow, pay-for-play and pay-for-inclusion on playlists of corrupt playlist curators. Especially the latter starts to be a growing concern as these include sometimes some of the biggest playlists around.

Paid playlist inclusions are still hugely popular

If paid followers and streams were bad, there are also corrupt playlist curators.

Paid playlist inclusion on Spotify, especially in 2023, remains a contentious issue. Spotify’s terms of service are very strict regarding paid placement, which involves paying for a song to be placed in a playlist. This practice is not only against Spotify’s guidelines but is also considered unfair and unethical because it places songs in playlists not because of their quality, but because someone paid for their inclusion.

For artists seeking to increase their visibility on Spotify, playlist placements are crucial. Many marketing agencies now ‘facilitate’ direct communication between artists and playlist curators, allowing for more authentic interactions and potentially more effective playlist placements. These agencies might offer services like pitching songs to Spotify or YouTube playlist curators, influencers, and more, as part of a broader music promotion strategy​​.

Almost 7 out of 10 playlist curators we contacted do payola

However, there is a very thin line. I did a test, pitched a track to roughly 1000 playlist curators, and more than half (674 of them) immediately (within a few hours) sent a price list ranging from $49 to $280, without even checking out the track (I tracked the clicks on the link so I knew). Some also offered guaranteed plays, which is a BIG red flag of course. Only a few responded that they would possibly include the track after having listened to it.

One of the curators, based in the UK, sent me this (I checked his playlists and saw they were quite unnatural with lots of unrelated and obscure country, rap (and the odd darkwave) tracks):

• 1 playlist 28 day promotion – £30  
• 2 playlists 28 day promotion – £50
• 3 playlists 28 day promotion – £70

He never had checked the track of course.

In short, the whole playlist curation world is quite sick, I would even say rotten to the core, and only goes for payola. Add to that fake streams, and you see you can not trust the figures that streaming platforms give you.

One notable case of stream manipulation involved an indie label noticing a suspicious jump in streaming numbers for one of its tracks. This track, which usually earned around 3,000 streams per day, suddenly jumped to 35,000 streams per day for three days before returning to its normal count. An investigation revealed that all the unusual plays came from six playlists on Spotify that were created recently and showed signs of stream manipulation, likely by bots.

10% of all music streams could be fake

Regarding the scale of fake streams, it’s estimated by some industry experts that as much as 10% of all music streams could be fake. This estimate includes artificially inflated streams from streaming farms, where devices continuously play certain tracks to boost their streaming counts.

The issue of fake streams is not only a technical one but also a financial concern for artists. Indie labels, in particular, have been worried about the legitimacy of their streaming numbers. It’s believed that illegitimate streams could translate to over $300 million in lost revenue, which would have otherwise gone to artists from actual listeners.

Authorities in countries like Brazil and Germany have begun to take action against fake streams. For instance, in Germany, a regional court targeted Likeservice24.de, a provider of dubious services including fake streams. Similarly, Brazilian authorities, in collaboration with an anti-piracy organization, took down several illegitimate streaming services

Game over soon for the payola strategy?

In 2023, Spotify has taken steps to address the issue of fake streams. The platform will financially penalise labels or distributors when it finds that more than 90% of streams on a song are fraudulent. This penalty will be 10 euros per offending track.The penalties will be charged against future royalties (of fake streams again you might think, which is kinda odd to be honest) and the tracks will be removed. While it aims at removing those accounts involved in money-laundering operations, a lot of bands are actually also involved in this, even in this scene where I have seen certain figures which don’t add up at all.

Spotify from its side says that it has developed methods to detect fake streams, which often come from the same few locations and exhibit patterns that appear unnatural. In France, for instance, where they already cracked down on fake plays, only 0.23% of the top 10,000 streams on Spotify showed signs of artificial streaming.

Personally I would definitely advise artists against promotions that offer a large number of streams for a small amount of money. Buying fake streams can and will lead to negative consequences such as lower rankings, loss of credibility, and even account suspension. The same goes for paid playlist placements. A lot of these services are just fake or have gathered publishers that are just in it for a quick buck. And in the end many of these playlists generate fake plays to keep the image (and their price) up.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Lex Remlin) Out now is the 30th anniversary limited double-vinyl (with 4 bonus tracks) of “Naïve Art”, the debut album of synthpop legends Red Flag, which was released in 1989.

The duo (consisting of the brothers Chris and Mark Reynolds) originally saw the album released as a single vinyl release with all the tracks severely edited down, so that it could fit on a single record. This has been remedied for this new re-release. This deluxe reissue also features a gatefold cover and printed lyrics.

The double vinyl is released via Pylon Records, limited to 1000 copies in three separate colors – red, white and black.

The bonus tracks are:

• Black Rose
• Russian Radio (Glasnost Club Mix)
• If I Ever (Dance Mix)
• Russian Radio (Tremont & Webster Mix)

Red Flag was founded in 1984 in San Diego by brothers Chris and Mark Reynolds. After the death of Mark in 2003, Chris has continued as a solo act since 2007 under the name Red Flag.

Here’s the original version of “Naïve Art”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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