Experiment
Media release tracker
A weekly job that puts upcoming albums, books, films, and TV seasons from the artists, authors, and directors I follow on one calendar. I rate each release from my morning dashboard, and those choices shape what it tracks next.
The problem
I kept finding out months late (or not at all) about the release of an album or book that I would have wanted to know about earlier. Release news is split across music, book, film, and TV sources, and none of them know what I listen to or read.
What it does
Building the list
- Artists come from my listening history: anyone I've played 10 or more times, out of about 1,200 artists checked.
- Authors come from my reading list, directors from the films I've logged, and shows from a short list I keep.
- Anyone I follow from the dashboard joins the list whatever their play count. Anyone I mute drops out of every source.
Finding releases
- Each week it checks music databases, book catalogs, and a film and TV database for upcoming titles. Books draw on three sources, so a gap in one doesn't hide a release.
- Names match across sources despite spacing and accent differences, so “R. F. Kuang” in one catalog finds “R.F. Kuang” in another.
- Each release carries a score from review aggregators and, for books, whether my library has an ebook copy and how long the wait is.
Acting on it
- Every release becomes an all-day event on its own calendar and a row on my briefing dashboard, with Want, Skip, Mute, Done, and Follow buttons.
- Indicating interest in an upcoming book places a hold at my library. My interest in an album sends a release-day notification that adds it to a “To listen” playlist in Apple Music.
