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Algorithms keep giving you more of the same. Our newsletter is dedicated to the rest. A song and an interesting story about it, every weekday.

What It Is

In our newsletter, we feature a song and an insightful story about it. You can enjoy the song on your preferred streaming platform while the story will give you something to ponder and discuss with your family, friends, and colleagues.

Why We Do It

We have been working in music for many years and always enjoyed listening to exciting songs from different genres and eras. These days the recommendation mechanisms and paid campaigns on music platforms make it increasingly difficult to get to know new and different music. To help you break out of the algorithm, we developed The Rest—a refreshing, insightful, and snackable music newsletter.

How We Do It

We listen to a lot of music. The songs we pick have, in one way or another, pop potential, but so far they haven't been performed on the biggest stages or made it into cultural memory. Before we decide on a song, we always ask ourselves: Is its story exciting and interesting enough that we would want to tell it to our friends?

People

We are open to any music genre and era and try to offer as diverse a selection as possible. In order not to be limited by our own preferences and patterns, we rely on a rotating team of contributors with different backgrounds.

Publishing Team
Arci Friede
Editor-in-Chief
Contributor
Binta Kopp
Photographer, DJ
Contributing Editor
Conor McTernan
Journalist, Curator, Strategist
Publishing Team
Denise Haeberli
Art Director
Publishing Team
Isabel Flückiger
Managing Editor
Contributor
Jamal Nxedlana
Artist, Cultural Entrepreneur
Editor
Livia Grossenbacher
Writer, Journalist
Contributor
Mohamed Ghabri
Artist Manager, DJ, Radio Host
Editor
Oratile Mashazi
Writer, Recording Artist, Performer
Publishing Team
Remo Bitzi
Editor-in-Chief

Why The Paywall?

The essence of The Rest is an appreciation for deeply human traits, such as random taste, desire for variety, and irrational passion—all of which we have cultivated with a lot of dedication over the years. And then there is the actual work: listening to dozens of songs every day, researching exciting stories, and putting together a newsletter that reads as nicely as it looks. If you want to do this every weekday and do it really well, it's gotta be more than just a side hustle—it should be a proper job. And a proper job that consumes most of your time should pay the bills. Fair, right?

Editorial comments and musical inputs?

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