Sunday Brunch 7: Guest Host Aaron of Essex with Longy

Guest host Aaron of Essex takes the Sunday Brunch wheel and welcomes Longy for a laid-back, music-first hang: five Longy tracks get spun, boosted, and dissected in real time, with the chat and sats flowing as part of the show’s “participation layer.”

Between songs, Longy rewinds the tape to his early influences (from childhood sparks to teenage band chaos) and makes the case for live performance as the ultimate truth serum: the stage doesn’t care about hype, it only cares what you can actually do when the lights hit.

The conversation keeps one foot in Essex lore and one foot in the Valueverse. “Hamlet Court Blues” becomes a love-letter-to-a-place (with a cheeky Margot Robbie thread), and the guys talk about why gritty, story-rich local scenes still matter.

On the industry side, Aaron and Longy contrast the legacy music pipeline (distributors, slow publishing, tiny payouts) with the immediacy of value-for-value, where artists can get paid directly and fast.

They dig into Spotify-as-gatekeeper dynamics and the uglier incentives around streaming, including allegations of inflated numbers and the way “top-heavy” manipulation starves everyone downstream.

They also unpack a practical, boots-on-the-ground example: a UK gig at The Fickle Pickle that turned into a mini proof-of-concept for the new model, combining an in-room show, livestream participation, and even a recorded release as additional revenue, with Bitcoin onboarding help for attendees.

Links

• New Music Nudge Unit
• Aaron on Nostr
• Longy on Fountain
• Longy on Nostr