#227: Your 2025 Music Wins: The Community Highlights Episode

Year-end victory laps are more fun when they belong to all of us. We gathered standout wins from the Inside the Mix community and stitched them into a guided tour of what real progress looks like in music: narrative albums released one single at a time, a premiere on a tastemaking YouTube channel, the first vinyl in decades, live shows rebooted, and a charity compilation that rallied more than 56 artists and topped Bandcamp charts.

We kick off with Year of the Fall’s Love on a Dying Planet, a story-driven release rolled out over three years with visuals to match, proof that serial storytelling can build anticipation without sacrificing cohesion. Valley Lights shares the strategy behind pairing a high-energy track with an “epic” video and aiming at a niche platform where the audience actually lives. From there, we read wins from makers who finished EPs, returned after long hiatuses, and found their voice again through disciplined routines, remote collaborations, and careful channel selection.

Community power runs through every segment. Aisle9’s 'Outrun the Sun' shows how curation and cause can galvanise a scene while delivering real impact. We spotlight live momentum from Dream Commander, a Berserk-inspired remix from Typherian, and the sharpening of craft from Jay Cali, whose focus on foundation and consistency unlocked better writing and vocal work. I also share personal milestones, YouTube monetisation, a surge in monthly listeners, and 600+ first-week podcast downloads, to unpack what sustained output and simple marketing rhythms can do.

If you’re planning 2026 goals, this is your blueprint: ship small and often, collaborate with intent, and choose channels where your genre thrives. Subscribe, share this with a producer friend, and leave a review with your biggest win of 2025. What are you building next?

Chapters

• 0:01 Welcome And Year-End Setup
• 0:39 How To Share Wins And Feedback
• 1:23 Listener Win: Year Of The Fall
• 2:29 Listener Win: Valley Lights
• 3:00 Wins From The Feedback Form
• 4:19 Instagram Wins: Indigo
• 5:23 Instagram Wins: RogueFX And Dream Commander
• 6:50 Instagram Wins: Typherion And Jay Cali
• 8:13 Big Wins: Aisle9’s Community And Streams
• 9:59 Host Wins And Year Wrap-Up

Transcript

Marc Matthews: 0:01

You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews. Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials, and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hello folks and welcome to this new year's edition of the Inside the Mix podcast. It is the last episode of 2025. So big welcome to any new listeners and of course, as always, a big welcome back to the returning listeners. Now, if you are a returning listener of the podcast, you will well know that this episode is dedicated to your wins, folks. I'm going to be reading out and playing your wins of 2025. For the past two months, I've been signposting you to submit your wins by clicking the link in the episode description and fill out that two-minute survey to help me shape and plan the podcast in 2026. Now, of course, it's too late to submit your win. Thank you to everybody who has, and we'll play those shortly. Or rather, I'll read them out and we'll also play them. But you can still submit your feedback to help me shape the podcast in 2026. You've got a few days left. Click that link in the episode description. Let me know what's working well, and maybe let me know what you want to see or rather hear less of in 2026. And maybe something new altogether. So do click that link in the episode description. So the first listener win is an audio message from Philip of Year of the Fool, a synth pop synthwave outfit. Transatlantic, actually. One of them is based in Europe and the other one's based in the States. Philip and Dan actually featured on Inside the Mix back in August of 2022, quite some time ago. Episode 42, how to write music across different time zones. So do go and check that episode out. That is season two, episode 19, or episode 42 in total, and that's with Year of the Fall. So here is Philip, Year of the Fool's win of 2025.

Year of the Fall: 1:57

Hi, this is Philip from Year of the Fall. Um, our biggest music win of 2025 was uh releasing our album, Love on a Dying Planet. It's a story of two lovers on a city world slowly collapsing around them. Uh told across eight singles, we released between 2022 and 2025. Um yeah, if you want to experience the full story, hear the music and see the visuals, just head to yearofthefall.com. That's yearofthefall.com.

Marc Matthews: 2:27

Thank you, Philip, and Year of the Fall. The next win, and it's another audio message, is from the artist Valley Lights, based in the States. So here is the music win of 2025 for Valley Lights.

Valley Lights: 2:39

Hey, what's up? This is Valley Lights, and my biggest win of 2025 is recording an epic music video to an epic song called Giving Up on You and having it debut on the one and only new retrowave YouTube channel. Dreams do come true. I'll see you in 2026.

Marc Matthews: 2:56

Thank you, Kai, aka Valley Lights. So now I'm going to read out some wins from the feedback form. Remember, click that link in the episode description to submit your feedback and help me shape the podcast in 2026. So from the top, uh we have Jimmy Hemp, and you can find Jimmy Facebook.com forward slash Jimmy Hemp Recording Studio. And his win of 2025 is completing enough songs for his next EP Anonymous, uh, two finished tracks. Uh T Chop uh socials at T Chop Music. His biggest win, or their biggest win, rather, is the biggest thing for me was coming back to music full time. I played in bands in my 20s and then had to go work and make some cash, but I'm super fortunate to be back full time as my retirement project. Amazing stuff, love it. Uh, the next one is from Ed Fitzpatrick, and you can find him on Instagram under Ed FitzpatrickMusic and his whim released three new tracks after a long break. And then there's another anonymous one which is none this year, but next year it will change. Some amazing wins there, and there's a common thread throughout, which is releasing new music, finishing music, and then returning to music after a long hiatus. So that's amazing to read. So a big thank you to everybody who submitted their wins of 2025 via the feedback form. Now we're going to dive into some wins submitted via Instagram. So these are DMs that have come into me. And the first one's from my good friend and vocalist Indigo. Now we've worked on several songs in total, to be honest, but this year we've released Dark Light and Narcissist, and you can check those out on Spotify. I'll put a link in the episode description. Indigo also featured on the podcast in episode 211, which is creating authentic remote vocal collaborations when miles apart is quite worthful. Uh mouthful, rather, isn't it? So do go and check out episode 211 to learn more about indigo. But her win of 2025 is as follows. Uh, in general, getting to meet and work with new artists, started a new duo, tried doing gigs after a long hiatus, and finally have confirmation on my second album release. Amazing stuff. The first album's brilliant. Do go check that out. And again, it's one of those hiatus stories as well, isn't it? Coming back to something after a bit of a break and coming back with vigour and renewed enthusiasm. So thank you, Indigo, for submitting your win. And do go follow Indigo on Instagram under Indigo Synthwave. The next win is from the artist RogueFX. You can find RogueFX on Instagram under, let me just double check, RogueFX underscore retrowave. And uh his win of 2025 is first vinyl out since 1995. Amazing. Now that is quite the hiatus in terms of time, isn't it? So first vinyl out since 1995. Well done, mate. Congrats. The next win comes from my good friend Eric, aka Dream Commander, and you can find him on Instagram under the title Dream Commander. And his win is. My 2025 win or wins would be the handful of awesome shows I got to perform, and through that I was able to connect with some awesome new artists and fans in the community. Also, keep your eyes peeled for his new EP coming out early next year. Again, we've got that common thread of coming back to something with renewed enthusiasm and vigour, as I mentioned earlier, which is amazing. So coming back to playing some shows, which is great, and I do miss doing that myself. I miss playing live. It's been so long, it's been well over a decade since I've been on stage playing guitar. Maybe something I'll do in the future. I do really miss it. And also the new music coming out as well from Dream Commander. So uh some exciting stuff. So big thank you, Eric, for sharing your wins. The next win comes from my friend Typherian. You can find him on Instagram under typherion.exe. And his win is I released a track that was a remix from my favourite piece of fiction in October, which honestly was a long time coming for me. It's from the anime Berserk, remixed one of the tracks from the original soundtrack. Amazing stuff. Love a good remix. Something I want to get and do more of in 2026. So a big thank you to Ethereum and great work with the remix, mate. The penultimate win of this episode comes from my good friend Jay Cali, aka Drum X Wave, who did actually feature on the podcast episode 215, How to Mix a Wall of Sound That Still Breathes with Drum X Wave and Brian's Skeel. And his win is I think the biggest win for me this year has been my ability to stay disciplined and focused on building a foundation for my music as I slowly sharpen my skills as an artist, songwriter, and vocalist. I'm grateful for the amazing people who have supported me and shared their art with me as well. Lovely stuff. That's amazing. I love that. The disciplined and focused element is found is fantastic. Something that I preach a lot of on the podcast and consistency as well. Amazing stuff. I really love the song Severed that Jay released this year. And if you want to follow Jay on Instagram, you can find him under Jay Cali Drums or Drum X Wave. A big thank you, Jay. So the final win is from my good friend Tim Benson, aka R9. And if you're a returning listener of the podcast, you will be familiar with Tim. He's been on the podcast many times, and he will continue to do so in 2026. And if you want to follow Tim and check out what he's doing, head over to Instagram at R9Music and his wins. So number one, had the privilege of helping put together Outrun the Sun and raised over five grand, covering all the dental work for a fellow artist in need. Probably one of the longest synthwave compilation releases ever, over 56 artists, and it topped numerous bandcamp charts. I was uh it was a pleasure to be invited and be part of that. My song Separation featured on that, and what a cause. Five over five grand. That is a community rallying round of fellow artists, amazing stuff. So a huge thank you for uh to Tim for putting that together. Uh he released his first album, Paradise Cove, which is amazing. The first album of his own since the one he did on cassette in the early 90s. Another another artist going back to their 90s days, just like uh RogueFacts with his vinyl in 1995. Tim achieved over 500,000 Spotify streams in the last 12 months. Amazing, well done, mate. Big, big well done. Went over 20,000 monthly listeners a few times, and he's gunning for 30,000 in 2026. And he also says by Christmas, so this would have happened already. He would have had his first song with over 100,000 streams on Spotify, Race Across Time without Runner. A great song, a great song. So some amazing wins there from uh from Tim, my good friend Tim, based in uh in Watch It, a fellow Southwesterner. So do go check out what R9 Tim has been up to and what he is up to going forward at R9Music on Instagram. And there we go, those are your wins of 2025. A huge, huge thank you to everybody who sent their wins to me to read out or play on the podcast in this episode. I love doing this, I think it's a fantastic way to end the year. So my wins, I wasn't going to share my wins, I didn't mention this at the beginning, but my wins of 2025. Uh probably start with the YouTube channel is now monetized, which I think is no mean feat. I read a statistic, don't quote me on this, but only 4% of YouTube channels are monetized. So I think that's amazing. It wasn't a goal of mine for 2025, but still something I'm particularly proud of. I released four or five songs, can't remember off the top of my head. I didn't quite hit the 10,000 monthly listeners. I got up to 7,500, which I'm very, very proud of. So hopefully in 2026, I'll kick on and hit that 10,000. When I compare my streams, monthly listeners rather, to this time last year in 2024, it was 300 monthly listeners, was the top. And now I've got it up to seven and a half. And at the time of recording this, it's just under 4,000. So if I can multiply it by approximately 10 again this time next year, I'll be in a very good place, I think. Or get anywhere near that, I'll be very, very happy. And the podcast, many wins, hitting 600 downloads in the first seven days for a new episode of the podcast is amazing. Uh my goal was to hit 500, so hitting 600 is is fantastic. And that puts the podcast in the 10% of all podcasts that exist, which is in excess of 4 million. And we are rolling, we're continuing to do strong with the podcast. This is episode 227, which is amazing. And the podcast has now been going for five years approximately, which is crazy. I had no idea that it would continue that long when I started it. And I've met some amazing people, and I continue to be, or rather, I continue to consider them friends as well, which is absolutely fantastic. So to round off this episode, a huge, huge thank you to everybody who listens and supports the podcast, who's featured on the podcast and has helped the podcast in any way, shape, or form. You are amazing. Have a fantastic new year, and I'll see you on the other side in 2026.