Press kit.

A factory worker in Muskegon, Michigan wrote, produced and mastered 150 songs — eleven albums, 91 released so far — on one Android phone, in the hours around full-time shifts. Then he built the systems that prove it.

Christopher Jager (JagerNote Records) had never written a line of code before June 24, 2025. Thirteen days of documented failure later, he had the beginnings of FretNova, a guitar-composition engine now live at fretnova.com. Its first working version preceded any music production by about four months; music production under this system began in November 2025 and wrapped in May 2026 — the 150-song catalog took roughly six months, and production is now paused by design while the finished, interconnected catalog is curated and released. Five of the six released albums shipped in a single 21-day stretch (December 16, 2025 – January 6, 2026). Album 7, Vile Spiral, is rolling out by singles toward an October 9, 2026 release. In July 2026, the lead single "Dirt Crown" was featured on the Michigan Music Showcase, with airplay on WYCE 88.1 FM (Grand Rapids) and Interlochen Public Radio.

The unusual part isn't only the volume — it's the receipts. Every number the artist publishes traces to a measured source: hash-chained mastering reports, internal software audit records available on request, 177 development reports, platform analytics. Small numbers are printed on purpose, including a monthly audience of 34.

Each of these is documented and independently checkable. Ask and the records will be provided.

• Catalog150 songs written · 91 released · 10h 33m 17s total runtime (as of Aug 3, 2026), across all eleven albums — one connected work in eight acts: 86,796 words of lyrics, 321 mapped inter-song connections, 31 designated peaks.
• TimelineFirst code ever written June 24, 2025 · thirteen-day origin period to July 6, preserved in 43 project threads and 12,406 kept lines of failed code · music production began November 2025 · all 150 songs completed by May 2026 — roughly six months · release rollout ongoing, production paused by design.
• HardwareOne Android phone. No studio, no desktop computer, no human development team, no funding. Roughly 40,000 lines of Python written and debugged on a touchscreen, alongside a full-time factory job that he kept.
• Radio & pressFeatured on the Michigan Music Showcase ("Dirt Crown", July 24, 2026), with airplay on WYCE 88.1 FM and Interlochen Public Radio; covered in Local Spins.
• SoftwareFretNova, live at fretnova.com; Play Store build packaged, closed testing not yet started. 2,814 chord voicings machine-verified against ergonomic rules — deliberately not claimed as certified human-playable or good-sounding; paid human verification by guitarists is the stated next stage. A 24,192-spec audit passed 100% of its five objective checks on its third run; the two earlier runs and their failures are in the record.
• MasteringA phone-based mastering laboratory holding every release to broadcast loudness standards, with codec-survival testing, ten quality gates per song, cryptographically fingerprinted reports — and a human ear making the final call. 92 of 150 songs have completed the full ten-gate analysis; all 150 clear the codec true-peak gate at ≤ −0.3 dBTP.
• AudienceHonest and small, printed anyway — each figure with its own platform and window, never summed: 100 Engaged Fans by Spotify's own fan-insights count (as of Aug 3, 2026); 34 monthly Spotify listeners, 10.7 streams per listener (doubled), 97% active month over month, 83% of listening by deliberate choice rather than algorithm (28-day window, Jul 9 – Aug 5, 2026); 108 unique Spotify listeners Jan 14 – Aug 3, 2026, up from ~93; Apple Music lifetime 1.4K plays and 20 Shazams (as of Aug 3, 2026), with Detroit (537 plays) outranking hometown Muskegon (401); 65,601 SoundCloud plays in twelve months before 90% of the catalog was deliberately withdrawn from the platform.

The spin ran on the Michigan Music Showcase alongside artists like Michigander and Seth Bernard. Local Spins is West Michigan's music press of record — the human vetting came before any algorithmic traction, which is the story in miniature.

Public record of the airplay: Local Spins — Michigan Music Showcase, July 25, 2026 (names Christopher Jager on the showcase).

• The AI-era authorship record: every step of a from-zero build preserved, timestamped, and published — failures included.
• The phone-native studio: catalog, mastering lab, and shipped app, all from one Android device around factory shifts.
• The anti-algorithm audience: 83% of listening by deliberate choice, at a depth most catalogs never see.
• The zero-ad-spend world map: on SoundCloud's all-time filter, plays from six continents — US 11,164, Ukraine 6,910, Vietnam 4,533, South Korea 3,518, Brazil 3,279 — a Muskegon factory catalog whose second-biggest audience is Ukraine, with no ad ever bought. (Plays, not listeners; a different filter from the 12-month view.)
• The body behind the phone-native work: childhood Perthes disease, reconstructive hip surgery at about 12, a hip replaced at 23 — and a catalog later built standing at a factory press.
• The catalog-as-novel: 150 songs, eight acts, 321 verified lyrical connections.
• Systems Rap: infrastructure-aware hip-hop as a defined, documented genre lane.

Background: the personal-history chapter "Before the system" on the story page is on the record exactly as written and may be quoted as published. Details beyond what is printed there are not available.

Press use of the three assets below is permitted without asking, for editorial coverage of Christopher Jager, with the credit line given. Click the download link under each one for the full-resolution file.

Artist portrait

Current press photo.
Download WebP — 720 × 718 px
Credit: courtesy of Christopher Jager / JagerNote Records. Free for editorial use.

Catalog Map

The 150-song connection ring.
Download JPG — 1062 × 1400 px
Credit: Christopher Jager / JagerNote Records. Free for editorial use.

Catalog Stats

Corpus statistics, verified from the full lyric corpus.
Download JPG — 1400 × 1243 px
Credit: Christopher Jager / JagerNote Records. Free for editorial use.

• Request interviews & full records
• "Dirt Crown" smart link
• All platforms — one link
• Spotify artist page
• YouTube channel
• fretnova.com
• Local Spins