My plans for Crucial Tracks in 2026

With 2026 coming to an end, I started to take a look back at 2025 and plan where to take the site in the coming year. So much good happened to Crucial Tracks in 2025, I really can't believe it... not only did I launch an app, but it's been way more successful than I imagined. I was not only able to interview my favorite drummer, but a few other bloggers that I've been following for years. And listen to so much new music... So fun, so cool.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, for sending in comments over email, for telling me in person how much you enjoyed an album I posted... for just using the Crucial Tracks app every day. All of it makes me so appreciative of the little community I have surrounded myself with this year. I couldn't do any of this without you.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2026. I wish you all the very best.

The Future

With all of that said, here's what I came up with for the future...

Experimenting with better ways to support musicians

I'm constantly thinking about how to better support musicians in this era of streaming dominance. This has been even more true since I posted Quitting Spotify, ethics, and pay per stream.

One of the most challenging aspects I've been thinking about is how to do my Crucial Releases column each week without relying on streaming. There's Bandcamp for previews, but not every artist or group has a Bandcamp page. There's YouTube, but not every artist posts every song at release. Free streaming services are out... so, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to continue using Apple Music streaming for discovery.

What I can do beyond that is commit to buying the vinyl or MP3s of my featured releases each week, whether it real time or utilizing Bandcamp Fridays to maximize the benefit to the artist.

I'm also working on an "owned music" streaming setup with either Plex or Navidrome to stream the music I do own, which is quite extensive from my days of using eMusic or ripping the CDs I purchased over the years. So far I've spent the most time with Plex and I'm quite impressed at how well it works.

Of course, I'll share my adventure in more detail as I figure things out!

Interviews

The Crucial Tracks interviews have been harder than I initially planned when I launched the site. I always have feelers out with a bunch of folks, commitments from a handful of others, and (of course) a list of dream folks I'd love to have participate. Time to turn those feelers and commitments into interviews!

In Year 1, I shared 4 total interviews (including Chris and I), so in reality just two "new" total. In Year 2 (2025) I published 6 total interviews, including 5 with folks I was not friends with before the interview. So that's a big improvement in my opinion. For 2026, I'd love to share 10-12 interviews from a wide variety of folks. I think I can make that happen...

Other regular content

I've experimented with a few regular columns beyond Crucial Releases and the interview series... I'd like to continue those, as well as branch out into other areas, including guest columnists. We'll see where that goes... but for now, expect:

• Crucial Playlists
  My first pass at something like this was Crucial Molina, where I took a look at Jason Molina's music in a little more depth. Expect more here, including looks at record labels and music scenes.
• Operation Mainstream
  This is a series where I look at Rolling Stones latest top 500 albums and do a focused listen of albums I wasn't entirely familiar with, to expand my musical knowledge beyond obscure indie rock, hardcore, and punk bands. 😄
• Music Book Club
  Thinking maybe once a quarter I pick a music related book to read and the community can read along and blog about their thoughts. More to come on that!

The app

The Crucial Tracks app has been wildly more successful than I ever imagined with over 220 members closing in on 4,000 posts. It's still so fun to read how people respond to the prompts and check out the songs that are shared.

What I'd like to accomplish in 2026:

• Add support for user submitted mixtapes – I think this could be a cool, creative thing for the community, to allow folks to build themed mixes or even their own Crucial Molina type playlist. Lots of possibilities.
• Add support for Desert Island Discs. I've gotten a number of requests for album support and I think adding something in this area would fit the general vibe of the app.
• A way for users to submit prompt ideas – simple enough and a good way to expand the prompt options, which is currently at 160.
• Double the number of community members. I'm planning some kind of member drive in Q1 with giveaways and other perks for not only joining the app (it's free!), but helping me cover the costs of the app and blog as we continue to grow.
• Maybe an iOS app? I think this alone would help me double members, but it's also the most complicated thing I've mentioned so far...

And I'm sure there's something cool I haven't even thought of yet... the Crucial Tracks app wasn't even an idea this time last year.

✌️🤘
--Jason

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