Hello beloveds. Today, I am making a humble request.

I’ve been wanting to make this request for a while, but have been hesitant, because asking for help is difficult. But I’ve had people reach out to me with offerings anyway, especially those who can’t afford to support my work on Patreon but still want to help, so I want to open up to receiving what anyone is willing to give.

What I’m looking for is music I can use. Music is helpful to have in the background of my videos, to support the lessons I’m imparting from my teachers and guides. Humans learn best when they feel supported, and music is a fundamental and beautiful way that we create support for one another when navigating challenges, and learning is, by its very nature, challenging, especially when we’re deconstructing deeply entrenched beliefs around capitalism and colonization. Music can soften the edges, turn words into poetry, bring us together.

But the music I currently have access to—royalty-free, but disconnected and anonymous, does not generally feel right to support my work. Rather than go down yet another individual path and teach myself to make music the way I’ve taught myself so many other skills that go into this work like editing, speaking, writing etc., it feels more aligned to ask for music from those already passionate about making it. I cannot offer compensation at this time, which has been my biggest barrier to asking. I hope to be able to within a year or two, as my long-term goals include hiring an editor and paying for a strong set of tailored background music. But for now, I had to remind myself: we are all struggling to do things differently and break free of capitalism! It’s ok to work with what we have.

So if those of you who are aligned with my goals of educating the public so we can move beyond this disastrous societal mess were in would like to offer music I can use in my videos, I can credit you and share links to social media. If that’s enough for you, I would humbly and gratefully accept the gift of your art.

So, if you would like to provide me with music I can use (even just anything you’ve already made, I know a lot of people who enjoy music production have tons of little songs that don’t have anywhere to go), I’ve set up a Google drive (yes, I know, they’re evil, but I’m limited in the time I can spend on researching other platforms—fretting over the lack of time and resources I have to do everything ethically the way I want to mostly just causes me to not do things at all, so I’m pushing past those anxieties because being paralyzed and stuck is exactly what the capitalists want us to be, lol.) You’re also welcome to email me files directly, but minimizing the abour I need to put into organizing things is part of why I want to just keep everything in the drive. Here are the categories of what I’m looking for, divided by… general vibes, basically:

1) Soft, gentle, reassuring, maybe with some occasional tension and minor tones but ultimately like a lullaby – think that famous Chopin Nocturne

2) Grounded but intense, driving, maybe techno-y but still gentle and not too fast – can be a little darker

3) Upbeat, fun!

4) Bouncy theme music for opening and closing credits, or anything else that might be interesting to put over the closing credits

Each category has its own file in the drive. Note that background music can’t be super heavy on percussion or it interferes with the dialogue. (I lack the production vocabulary to explain exactly what I mean here, but hopefully you understand!) Same with lyrics – singing is fine, but words can be distracting. Long tracks are ideal, even if it’s just the same 60 seconds looped for 8 minutes or so.

Please include your artist name in the track file so I know who to credit. You can also upload a text file to the credits folder so I can credit you and include links to your social media and/or music platforms.

Thank you so much comrades. We’re all in this together, and I’m very grateful for this type of collaboration. Solidarity, beloveds ❤️

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/120PMgU10HIYdA8G7HbOkrov5gglX_0a9