J Herskowitz
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jherskowitz.com
J Herskowitz
@jherskowitz.com
🎸 as Quarantine Angst (https://quarantineangst.com/)
▶️ Advising + Tinkering
⏮️ Product @ SeatGeek, Spotify, Tomahawk, LimeWire, AOL music, DigiScents, GameShark & some other stuff
🪹 Brooklyn, NY
Looking over the shoulders of a Broadway crowd as they kill time on their phones before the show starts is an utterly fascinating glimpse into the current state of our society.

(Also, hello to whoever behind me is reading this!)
December 6, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Almost 13 years later and I'm happy to report that we did successfully raise two music-loving kids (adults) - although according to Spotify Wrapped's "listening age" we are moving in opposite directions...

19 yo = 46
21 yo = 73
me = 38
December 3, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I think my favorite thing about The Chair Company is that the laughs come in the places you least expect them.
December 2, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Is there a Last.fm for video (tv/movie) streaming yet? I want to build a hack that serves you up a playlist of the songs that got sync placements in whatever you recently watched.
December 1, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by J Herskowitz
It has been pointed out to me that this means 2.5 billion-dollar AI music company Suno has spent less money on music than many individual music fans
Billboard got access to Suno’s investment pitch deck.

It revealed that Suno has spent $32 million on compute, and $2,000 on training data.

Let that sink in.

www.billboard.com/pro/suno-cre...
November 25, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Last night at Thanksgiving dinner I was telling everyone over the age of 50 how my childhood family tradition included a dish made of sweet potatoes, marshmallows and Tang.

Then I had to explain to everyone under the age of 50 what Tang was.
November 28, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Heading to Syracuse and just learned that they are expecting a foot of snow. I'm definitely not mentally prepared for that.
November 26, 2025 at 7:04 PM
My daughter has a new music project with one of her friends at college. "Jesus Goes to Junkieville" and "Howl" by New Girlfriend are now up on Bandcamp - and I'm biased, but they are good. They sort of remind me of The Replacements.
newgirlfriend.bandcamp.com/album/jesus-...
Jesus Goes to Junkieville / Howl, by New Girlfriend
2 track album
newgirlfriend.bandcamp.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:09 AM
The Songkick aspect of the deal is a bit of a head-scratcher but WMG likely saw as a easy exit from a business they didn't really want to be in anymore.

www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/warner-music...
Warner Music Group strikes ‘landmark’ deal with Suno; settles copyright lawsuit against AI music generator - Music Business Worldwide
The deal also settles previous litigation between the companies; Firms will collaborate ‘on next-generation licensed AI music’…
www.musicbusinessworldwide.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Well that's a first.
November 25, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Me, to hairdresser: "Just make me look slightly more respectable for Thanksgiving — but not completely respectable."

Hairdresser: "Don't worry, I got you."
November 25, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Got one kid home from college last night and get the other one on Tuesday. My sister and brother-in-law show up today. Going to be a good week!
November 22, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I was recently telling some friends about "the good old days" right after college when I managed a band and how we'd travel around the Mid-Atlantic with a couple of us laying on a mattress in the back of a capped pick-up truck.
November 21, 2025 at 9:28 PM
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results." - Music marketers that are better than me, probably
November 21, 2025 at 6:50 PM
I don't know exactly who needs to hear this, but this is good.
November 19, 2025 at 10:35 PM
UMG is about to get a $200m settlement...
www.wsj.com/business/med...
Exclusive | AI Music Platform Suno Valued at $2.45 Billion
The startup has raised $250 million and says annual revenue has reached $200 million.
www.wsj.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Spotify acquiring WhoSampled is a pretty big deal (off-hand mention in this press release). When did that happen?

artists.spotify.com/blog/spotlig...
Spotlighting the people, connections, and stories behind your music – Spotify for Artists
Expanded song credits, SongDNA, About the song
artists.spotify.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:53 PM
If your jonesing for some new melodic indie rock guitar music, the one still has that new car smell... 🔗
November 18, 2025 at 3:00 PM
In NYC? Come see my brother-in-law's art exhibit later this month/next month.

www.thepaintingcenter.org/daniel-suthe...
The Painting Center: More Than A Gallery
www.thepaintingcenter.org
November 17, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I'm not face-blind, but there is no way I could describe *anyone* well enough that a sketch artist could draw anything that looked like them.
November 17, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Well, I guess my next hour is now spoken for...

www.theverge.com/podcast/8208...
How LimeWire ended the Napster music revolution
The last big thing in file sharing.
www.theverge.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:19 PM
One of the perks of not making music until later in life is occasionally getting messages like this from old friends you haven't seen in decades.
November 14, 2025 at 11:15 PM
My new song is here. It's what I hear in my head when I imagine the Louvre heist going down.
lnk.to/repressionWE
Quarantine Angst - The Repression of Banditry
Listen to The Repression of Banditry by Quarantine Angst.
lnk.to
November 14, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I feel like someone at Spotify just stumbled across the flowcharts I made 8 years ago. 😆
artists.spotify.com/royalties-gu...
November 14, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Huh, I just happened to notice that my music has been getting played far more on Pandora than I would have ever guessed (I haven't looked at those stats in probably a year).

It is always fascinating to me how my most streamed song on one service is one of my least streamed on another.
November 12, 2025 at 4:04 PM