The Medley 012
Reporting live from the dog days of summer
Hey music friends,
Hope you are easing into August with rhythm and grace. I write to you in a time of transition, both personally and for this platform. I recently started training for a full-time job (yay!), which will require adjustments to my time commitments. Don’t fret—the directory isn’t going anywhere. However, I will likely need to alter my regular maintenance days to reflect my new schedule. Before we get into this month’s curation, I’ll expand more on the updates and announcements.
Community Housekeeping
Pending changes to directory listings
When I first started this project, I could easily find and tag publication names while drafting each category. This allowed me to mention the publication separately from the writer (which was helpful in instances where the submitter wanted to remain anonymous or the publication and username were equivalent). Unfortunately, this functionality has changed.
At this time, I am evaluating whether to remove tags completely and switch to hyperlinks (which was already the default for non-Substack entries). I could keep the embeddable widgets and perhaps tag new listings on Notes. This change would be a large undertaking, but it’s approaching time to do another round of intensive maintenance on the directory anyway. I appreciate your patience regarding this matter—I was so excited to add some new names just a couple of weeks ago, only to be slightly deflated by this lack of functionality. However, I accept that pivots like this occur to ensure ongoing alignment.
Friendly reminders and submission notes
When filling out the original submission form, please send a link to your overall publication, not individual articles. Note that the submission form states this request directly.
With respect to this project’s community-minded mission, I reserve the right to use discretion with submissions to the musician and composer categories from those who generate music exclusively through AI (especially considering the controversy surrounding Suno AI and copyright infringement). I have updated the submission form to reflect this sentiment. I don’t foresee this being a widespread concern, but I know it is a hot topic as of late.
This is also a great time to reiterate the following disclaimer: Inclusion in the directory does not equal endorsement of the views, sentiments, or statements of the featured publications. Engage with discernment.
Submission Links
As always, here are the submission links to join the directory or update your existing entry. The initial directory submission form is for all new entries—if you can’t recall whether you’ve submitted, I suggest searching for your name/publication name on the directory homepage. You can also reach out to me to confirm, as this will help reduce duplicate submissions. And whenever you’ve changed your website domain, description, or logo, the directory maintenance request form is your friend.
With those updates out of the way, I want to put y’all on to a special offer: early access to Encore, a new platform built by Adam Offitzer. I’ve been using it for the past few months to log all the concerts I’ve attended—it’s akin to a Letterboxd for live shows! I’ve had so much fun remembering all the artists I’ve seen in concert and viewing what shows other music lovers have enjoyed. To try out the site, please check out the link to Encore below (my early access code: thingsicollected). You can find me under the username shante once you’ve arrived.
And now, let’s recap what folks have enjoyed musically in 2026 so far with a selection of best/favorite/top mid-year music lists!
Your best/favorite/top music of 2026 (so far)
I’ve browsed and rounded up lists from ten different writers to offer a sample of folks’ heavy rotations this year, and no two lists are exactly alike! The curation is featured in alphabetical order by author name, because I can’t effectively tag publications anymore (I promise, I’ll get over it eventually). Feel free to share a link to your own mid-year music list in the comments.
Shanté (yours truly)
Per usual, I’ll conclude with a collection of songs. This time, I’m including some of the artists featured in the lists above. Happy listening!
The line about AI-only submissions seems like the right call. A directory like this works because there's an actual person behind each listing. Congrats on the new gig.