Daily Drops are live for alpha users
Hey fellow record dreamer,
The TL;DR: Daily Drops are now live for alpha users. And a couple of gifted records reminded me that physical format sharing still hits different.
Read on for the details! Or share Collxn with a vinyl head near you.
🌀 Daily Drops are live for alpha users
Starting 4 days ago, Collxn alpha users will see a Daily Drop waiting for them each morning. It’s a gentle nudge toward one record from your collection; something you might’ve forgotten, or maybe just a hello from a frequent favorite.
Here are the first couple of Drop notifications that came to my inbox this week:
Drops in the app are pretty simple today: a full record cover view, and some basic info. I'll be adding more here over time, so stay tuned.
If you're already in the alpha, you should be getting Drop notifications in your inbox. Just click the link in the message to see your Drop for that day.
If you’re not yet in and have a Discogs account, reply with your username and I’ll get you slotted in as soon as I can.
🎁 Recently gifted
I’ve been gifted two records since arriving in Kyoto and I wanted to share. I still don't have a turntable since I’ve just moved to Kyoto so I've taken neither of these records for a proper spin yet and it's driving me nuts. BUT! I'm on the case...
Gift 1: Zoufris Maracas – Prison Dorée
I met my buddy Laurent from Bordeaux at Catalyst Records LES in May at their Bring Your Own Records event (highly recommend). He later visited me in June at the NYU ITP Camp show when I was demoing Vibe Match, an experimental AI-based feature for Collxn.
Using Vibe Match, he noticed that I like La Femme, and he instantly had 10 more solid recommendations for French music (one of those albums got a shoutout last time). Among the recs was Prison Dorée, which I've been enjoying on stream since.
Well, Laurent happens to be visiting Kyoto this week all the way from France, and he shocked me with a brand new copy of the album. Thank you Laurent!
Gift 2: The Tigers – Human Renascence
My good friend Ian from Osaka and I were out crate digging before an Acid Mothers Temple show in Kyoto last week (first time for me; there was a synth Gandalf btw). Ian surprised me with this album, which he found at 100000t Records near Kyoto City Hall.
I'll admit that this one's a total wildcard for me, but apparently The Tigers get referenced as a Japanese version of The Beatles. In return, I could only offer Ian the tidbit that Chekov was Star Trek's answer to The Beatles... but without a doubt, his gift to me is way cooler. I'm stoked to hear it soon. Thank you Ian!
Gift 3: Phoenix – United
Ok, I know I said two records, but I'm a newsletter tyrant and I'm giving a bonus shoutout for an album gifted to me on iTunes (remember that?) back in the iPod era (remember those?) by my late friend Jordan Breeding. I found a pressing of United at Face Records in Kyoto recently and had to pick it up.
Spoiler alert: it's today’s "Playing while I write this" (see below). The layers of feels I get from when this album are too deep to get into, but I'm so happy to have a vinyl copy now. Thank you forever and always Jordan!
Thanks for reading. More Collxnism soon from Kyoto.
- Ash