Sawtooth blog

Posted on Nov 26, 2025 at 13:11 by scott truitt

It happens every week now. Something nudges this post from Andy Dunn about the four words behind his CEO job description to the forefront of my mind, and before I know it, I’m saying them out loud again: 1. Create hope. 2. Define reality. They are deceptively simple in isolation but uniquely challenging in tandem. Staying firmly grounded between these two extremes requires the ability to see the world as it clearly is today and project how it could be tomorrow with time, energy, and money. Th

Posted on Nov 24, 2025 at 11:52 by scott truitt

YouTube is full of ads.  Subscribe to YouTube Premium.  Spotify is full of ads.  Subscribe to Spotify Premium.  Both still track you and sell your data.  But you can’t stop that.  Everything has an ad  in front of it,  over top of it,  sandwiched in the middle of it.  Unskippable ads.  Unescapable bullsh!t. Accept our privacy policy so we can share data with our 837 business partners.  Accept our cookie policy so we can follow you everywhere and manipulate everything you see.  Everything h

Posted on Aug 11, 2025 at 13:10 by scott truitt

The dominant social and streaming services created a model in which only a handful of companies benefit from the creation and consumption of all music.

Posted on Aug 8, 2025 at 09:01 by scott truitt

Of all the things that make me happy about our new site, the one that tops them all is the Network effects visualisation.

Posted on Aug 6, 2025 at 08:49 by scott truitt

Thanks to all who responded with feedback yesterday, whether with issues or encouragement. It’s always gratifying to see the people I care about most notice our work, even when we fall short. Note to self: Always test again after deleting a domain configuration that seemed irrelevant before emailing and posting widely. That’s why the images weren’t loading and the links didn’t work. It should be good now. I wanted to mention something about the messaging on the new site, particularly on th

Posted on Aug 5, 2025 at 12:18 by scott truitt

If you’re reading this on foreplai.com (now sawtooth.ing after our name change), you’re seeing our new site and our refreshed blog now running on Ghost(Pro). And if you received this post via email, that’s because I migrated our email lists to Ghost. You may unsubscribe below. Until today, I posted almost exclusively on LinkedIn first. It never felt like the best place for it, but it was simply where most of my network was after I quit Twitter in 2022. I tried WordPress, which was what I ran in

Posted on Aug 4, 2025 at 09:08 by scott truitt

The idea that software is suddenly easy now because of AI is a fallacy at best or a ruse at worst. Especially when it comes to streaming music. And I say that as someone who is consistently in awe of what AI can do for software development. Presuming your product or service requires the legal rights to use music, which it absolutely should, the heavy lifting is all on securing complex agreements in multiple territories with an almost infinite number of parties or costly upfront payments for gl

Posted on Aug 3, 2025 at 08:21 by scott truitt

I have a new Sunday morning ritual: reading and reflecting on all the posts and links I saved over the previous week because I wasn’t in the headspace or didn’t have the time to give it. I saw an intro to a piece from Anna Branten—somehow, I had not come across her work before—and instantly knew I would love it. Surprising no one who knows me, her conclusion resonated the most: We must stop treating value extraction as innovation. When a company builds its success by underpaying creators, outs

Posted on Jul 24, 2025 at 23:00 by scott truitt

We live in a digital world. It feels strange to say it in 2025, but it’s true, and even I forget to step back and think about what that means. From my teenage years in the 1990s until now, the internet has been my constant companion, shaping both my work and play. It’s a part of me, like the air I breathe, the water I drink, and the food I eat. However, over the past 30-odd years, we’ve witnessed a shift from the early, hopeful days of the internet—when it was about connection, inclusion, univ

Posted on Jul 14, 2025 at 23:00 by scott truitt

Of all the things I did and all the decisions I made over the past year of building FOREPLAI (now Sawtooth), nothing has been more controversial than our name. I’ve questioned my wisdom, or lack thereof, more than anyone else. I know it complicates intros and first discussions. However, I didn’t name it for myself, our team, partners, or investors. I named it for the distracted masses. Those who face the daily deluge of unimaginative marketing from thoroughly unremarkable companies. Each one

Posted on Jul 12, 2025 at 23:00 by scott truitt

My experience in the music industry is slim, but I have studied the tech industry from the inside and out for 30 years. And I can say the following sentence with complete confidence: This moment is as good as it will ever be in the current system. It will only worsen from here, as it has since the needs of platform companies became more important than those of independent artists, labels, and fans. Spotify, YouTube, and the others will not suddenly come to their senses and decide to pay more

Posted on Jul 6, 2025 at 23:00 by scott truitt

In the early days of Sawtooth, we decided not to launch without securing the rights to the music we wanted to sell. That’s a lie. There was never any debate. It was always the only way. The original inspiration for Sawtooth came to me in the late ’90s and early 2000s. I wanted a way to share music with my friends that didn’t take away from the artist. I also wanted a way to show my gratitude and continued support by paying a small amount of money for every play. I would never even consider “t