Radio Detox

<p>Your weekly dose of fiat & Big Tech™ detox is back with UK singer-songwriter Joe Martin, one of the most recognized artists in the value-for-value music space. Joe just wrapped a whirlwind US trip: three weeks in Nashville to record his new album, a stop in Valentine, Texas, to shoot album artwork and music videos, and a songwriter round at Bitcoin Park with Ainsley Costello. His new album, Alone in Valentine, drops April 17. Singles are already out on all streaming platforms and on Wavlake and Fountain ahead of the release. Vinyl and CDs are available now at <a href="http://joemartinmusic.com">joemartinmusic.com</a>.</p> <p>This episode covers the real business of being an indie artist in 2026 and why the music industry needs the value-for-value model so musicians can thrive.</p> <p>Joe and Heather get into the barriers to adoption: clunky terminology, broken UX, the regulatory walls that block fiat-to-sats on-ramps, and what it actually feels like when a musician wakes up to find their entire catalog deleted off Spotify with no recourse. They also get into what could change everything, including Joe's idea for a Tidal and Cash App integration that could bring Lightning payments to a mainstream audience overnight.</p> <p>Joe's origin story: he found Fountain through a podcast about Lightning, figured out RSS feeds by trial and error, uploaded a song, tagged a few Bitcoiners on Twitter, and made the equivalent of $80 in two days. Sam Means from Wavlake reached out shortly after. He has been in the ecosystem since around 2022 and got into Bitcoin through The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous, whom he later met and thanked in person at the Plan B conference in El Salvador.</p> <p>The conversation gets honest. The tech is not sticky enough. The onboarding is too hard. Artists are already overwhelmed, and another platform added to the pile is a tough sell. The terminology like value for value, lightning, sats, & decentralized, is not landing. Joe says it needs to just work, display balances in fiat, and abstract away every layer of complexity. Heather talks about why the messaging keeps failing and what a real on-ramp would actually require.</p> <p>Joe also breaks down the state of live music after watching a Luke Combs tribute act sell out a thousand-seat venue at £28 a ticket, 150 shows a year. He did the math on the tour gross. Meanwhile original artists split the remaining crumbs. The only way back, he says, is to disintermediate the monopolies. He is still in it. He just wants more people to care.</p> <p>Alone in Valentine is out April 17. Northern UK tour in April, southern UK tour in September. Physical copies including vinyl at <a href="http://joemartinmusic.com">joemartinmusic.com</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://joemartinmusic.com">joemartinmusic.com</a> </p> <p><a href="http://fountain.fm">fountain.fm</a> </p> <p><a href="http://wavlake.com">wavlake.com</a> </p> <p><a href="http://ditto.pub">ditto.pub</a></p> <p>00:00 Joe Martin - Hand Me Down Heart </p> <p>3:07 Intro and welcome </p> <p>00:56 Nashville recording sessions and Valentine, Texas </p> <p>02:37 Joe as a live artist and the UK tour breakdown </p> <p>04:35 Alone in Valentine: album title and release date </p> <p>05:41 The story behind the song and the Uber driver in Nashville </p> <p>10:04 How Joe found Fountain and Wavlake </p> <p>11:12 Joe Martin - Alone In Valentine </p> <p>15:00 Joe was a Bitcoiner first </p> <p>17:06 The Bitcoin Standard and meeting Saifedean in El Salvador </p> <p>20:31 Why the UX needs to be radically simpler </p> <p>22:07 What Ditto is and where it fits </p> <p>24:31 When a friend's entire catalog gets wiped off Spotify overnight </p> <p>28:14 The fiat bridge problem and the regulatory walls that block it </p> <p>33:00 The thousand true fans model as the only path forward </p> <p>36:13 Tribute acts are winning while original artists fight over crumbs </p> <p>40:00 Why the messaging keeps failing and what might actually work </p> <p>44:16 IP ownership: who decides how music is used </p> <p>49:28 An honest look at why the tech is not sticky enough yet </p> <p>51:23 It should just work </p> <p>57:37 Shared cultural moments, the Thriller premiere, and the fragmentation of music </p> <p>01:01:00 Support your local artists </p> <p>01:13:13 The Tidal and Cash App idea that could change everything </p> <p>01:15:30 Joe's Fountain radio takeover experiment </p> <p>01:16:21 The chicken and egg problem </p> <p>01:17:00

<p><a href="http://Ditto.pub">Ditto.pub</a> is live! MK Fain, co-founder of Soapbox Technology and one of the engineers behind Ditto, joins Heather Larson to pull back the curtain on what Ditto is, where it came from, and where it is going. This is not a Twitter alternative. It is not another app asking you to learn a new protocol. It is the fun, customizable, personality-driven internet that most people stopped believing was still possible. (In full disclosure, Heather works for M.K. at Soapbox).</p> <p>The new Ditto strips out the Twitter-style text notes by default. What you see when you arrive is video, photos, music, and creative content. This was a deliberate choice. MK makes the case that Nostr has done itself a disservice by producing seventeen Twitter clones. Ditto is done with that. If you're sick of mainstream platforms but have never found an alternative worth staying on, Ditto is for you.</p> <p>Remember MySpace? Custom themes, custom fonts, the ability to upload a photo and turn it into a profile background, avatar frames, Blinkies, all of it. It's BACK! And we're just getting started. The direction MK is pointing toward is a future where the Edit in Shakespeare button on Ditto means users can build any feature they want themselves rather than waiting for the dev team to add it.</p> <p>On AI: M.K. breaks down what open source actually means for models. Training data, weights, and the ability to run it locally are three separate bars. Something can be fully open and still require a billion-dollar data center to run. The distinction between open models and open tools matters. Shakespeare works with any model, open or closed, and the tool itself is open so you can see exactly what it is doing.</p> <p>Get on Ditto at <a href="http://ditto.pub">ditto.pub</a>. Make it yours.</p> <p>Chapters </p> <p>00:01 Intro and M.K. Fain Background </p> <p>00:40 Soapbox History: Fediverse, Mostr Bridge, and the Move to Nostr </p> <p>02:52 Spinster, Hen House, and Building Feminist Spaces Online </p> <p>05:00 The Original Ditto: Bridging Fediverse and Nostr </p> <p>06:11 Why the Old Ditto Did Not Work </p> <p>06:29 Ditto 2: Built for Everyone </p> <p>08:50 Bringing Whimsy Back: MySpace Energy and Custom Themes </p> <p>12:02 The Indie Web, Blinkies, NeoCities, and Vibe Coding </p> <p>14:23 Ditto Gives You Indie Web Freedom Without Needing to Code </p> <p>17:25 Why People Are Skeptical of Free Open Platforms </p> <p>18:27 What Open Source AI Actually Means: Weights, Data, and Local Models </p> <p>20:06 Anthropic Said No to the Pentagon </p> <p>20:19 Should You Learn to Code in 2026? </p> <p>24:10 Kids Understand Ditto Immediately </p> <p>25:41 The Knitting Analogy: Code for the Love of It or Do Not Bother </p> <p>28:59 Knowing What to Prompt Is the New Skill </p> <p>31:26 Early User Feedback on Ditto 2 </p> <p>32:39 The Edit in Shakespeare Button and What It Means for the Future </p> <p>33:59 Nostr Is Not a Twitter Alternative and Ditto Is Done Pretending It Is </p> <p>35:20 The New Ditto Landing Page: No Notes, Just the Good Stuff </p> <p>37:30 TikTok: Great Algorithm, Dystopian Everything Else </p> <p>41:25 Do Not Say Nostr in the Marketing </p> <p>43:06 Zapvertising and Why People Still Do Not Get It </p> <p>45:14 The Bitcoin and Zaps Strategy: Wait Until They Want to Buy Something </p> <p>46:15 In-Game Currency and Why Zaps Win </p> <p>48:48 Soapbox Live Teaser and Where to Find Ditto</p> <p>Links </p> <p>Ditto: <a href="https://ditto.pub">https://ditto.pub</a> </p> <p>Soapbox Technology: <a href="https://soapbox.pub">https://soapbox.pub</a> </p> <p>Shakespeare AI Builder: <a href="https://shakespeare.diy">https://shakespeare.diy</a> </p> <p>Listen on Fountain: <a href="https://fountain.fm">https://fountain.fm</a></p>

<p>This one is different! Heather Larson's Radio Detox went live at Pubkey in Washington DC for the inaugural RUNSTR 5K on March 15, 2026, and singer-songwriter David Tarr took over as emcee for a full day of music, conversation, and community. </p> <p>A new music platform launched in the room, EpochMusic.xyz! Three young women made the case for Bitcoin better than most people twice their age. 🔥 Thank you, Ella Hough, Ainsley Costello, and Kathryn! And David Tarr debuted his new EP the day he dropped it. 🚀 LFG! Listen to hear how Bitcoiners are using peer-to-peer payments and new technology (including vibe coding) to fight the greedy music industry by making their own lane. </p> <p>If you have ever wondered what this community actually feels like in person, this is the episode that shows you.</p> <p>LINKS</p> <p>RUNSTR: <a href="http://runstr.app">runstr.app</a> </p> <p>Epoch Music: <a href="http://epochmusic.xyz">epochmusic.xyz</a> </p> <p>Wavlake: <a href="http://wavlake.com">wavlake.com</a>Fountain: <a href="http://fountain.fm">fountain.fm</a>Bitcoin District: <a href="http://bitcoindistrict.org">bitcoindistrict.org</a>Human Rights Foundation: <a href="http://hrf.org">hrf.org </a>Pubkey DC: <a href="http://pubkey.bar">pubkey.bar</a></p> <p>Radio Detox is released every Friday around 7pm Arizona time. Support with boosts and zaps on Fountain, Podverse, or any Podcasting 2.0 app.</p>