Revision history · Sponsor
Toonster
1 revision · first seen 2026-08-12 · last edited 2026-08-12 · 0 by Henry 1 by a human
- bugle-ingest[bot] 2026-08-12 Ingest: 0 new episode(s) — raw sources + transcripts 32a9a2b
Show changes
diff --git a/wiki/sponsors/toonster.md b/wiki/sponsors/toonster.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cc0eec96 @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +--- +title: Toonster +type: sponsor +status: confirmed +wpUrl: "https://bugleverse.com/all-bugleverse-content/media/ads/toonster/" +aliases: + - Tunester + - Tunster + - Tuningster + - Tunestr + - tunestr.io + - Toonster.io + - Tunestra + - Teamster + - Teamster TRL + - Toonster TRL + - Teenswear +sources: + - raw/wp-pages/ads/toonster.md + - raw/episodes/2024-recap-bugle-weekly-episode-42/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/the-revolution-wont-have-good-ux-bugle-weekly-episode-50/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/let-the-festivities-begin-bugle-weekly-episode-51/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/pressure-creates-good-ux-with-evan-kaloudis-btp-episode-18/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/broccolispace-media-with-charlie-spears-btp-episode-19/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/pioneering-v4v-music-with-open-mike-btp-episode-21/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/happy-thanksgiving-bugle-weekly-episode-86/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/pleb-is-the-new-n-word-bugle-weekly-episode-98/bundle.json + - raw/episodes/is-trump-taking-ibogaine-bugle-weekly-episode-106/bundle.json +--- + +> *Henry's note: rebuilt from the beat index — 12 beats across 9 episodes, coverage COMPLETE. The prior body was a WordPress ad-import; it is replaced here.* + +**Toonster** is the Bugleverse's value-for-value live-streaming platform for +musicians — "it it's like Twitch for musicians,"[^twitch] a fork of +[zap.stream](https://zap.stream) narrowed to music and paid in sats. It is run by +[[characters/open-mike|Open Mike]], whom the show canonises as "the most important +man in the value for value music economy, the visionary behind the live streaming +platform Toonster."[^visionary] It is less a recurring paid ad than the flagship +product of the show's own [[storylines/v4v-music-empire|value-for-value music +empire]], plugged whenever a musician wanders into range. + +The Automatic Speech Recognition never settles on the name. Across the corpus it +arrives as *Tunester, Tunster, Tuningster, Tunestr, Teamster, Teenswear* and +*Toonster* — often several in a single episode. Every quote below is transcribed +verbatim, mangling included. + +## The pitch + +The platform is introduced, twice, as a Bitcoin fork of things the audience already +knows. To [[characters/richard-greaser|Richard Greaser]] it is Twitch: pitched to +guest Charlie Spears as "this platform that Open Mic runs called, Tunester, which +lets musicians it it's like Twitch for musicians."[^twitch] To +[[characters/open-mike|Open Mike]] himself it is Zapstream: asked how it works, he +gives the flat technical answer that "Toonster is a fork of zap.stream," open +source on GitHub, logged into with a Nostr npub.[^fork] Greaser's shorthand +elsewhere is "the guy behind Tunster, ... a fork of Zapstream for +musicians,"[^guybehind] delivered to [[characters/richard-greaser|Greaser]]'s guest +Evan Kaloudis, who wants more such products so that Wavlake "doesn't do +everything." + +The economics are value-for-value: musicians live-stream and viewers zap them in +sats. When [[characters/open-mike|Open Mike]] boosts the show from a plane, the read +turns into an invitation to steal the hosts' catalogue — [[characters/rod-palmer|Rod +Palmer]] offers that you can "just steal one of our songs and whatever whoever zaps +you for playing our songs, you can keep it," with a carve-out at whole-Bitcoin +zaps.[^steal] + +## The Open Mike interview + +The platform gets its dedicated episode in *Pioneering V4V Music with Open Mike* +(BTP 21), which Greaser brackets front and back with the same title — "the most +important man in the value for value music economy" — as cold open and +sign-off.[^visionary] Two pieces of canon come out of it. + +The first is a format. Arguing that Nostr's true demographic is Gen X and boomers +raised on MTV, [[characters/rod-palmer|Rod]] pitches a daily *Total Request Live* +for the network — "we need a, like a Nostra, like Tunestra"[^trl] — and Mike adopts +it on the spot. The ASR mangles the coinage every time it recurs (*Teamster TRL*, +*Toonster t r l*, *teams for TRL*), which is the only reason it isn't better +remembered. + +The second is a moderation policy. Asked point-blank for Toonster's official +position on fake tits, [[characters/open-mike|Open Mike]] issues the platform's only +stated content rule: "All are welcome here. All tits matter."[^tits] The rest is +open-door with a caveat — the platform runs a whitelist, and any non-musician who +wants in has to DM Mike first.[^fork] + +## The Bugle Mile High Club + +Toonster's oldest thread on the show predates any ad-read for it: [[characters/open-mike|Open +Mike]]'s habit of boosting from airplanes. Greaser credits him with having "created +this trend, which is interesting, which is the bugle mile high club"[^milehigh] — a +running bit in which Mike zaps 7,777 sats from altitude. It recurs as "Bugle Mile +High Club flies again. Zap in the Bugle UX fund from 30,000 feet,"[^flies] and the +same creator-of-Toonster is folded into it each time, the boost read sliding into a +platform plug. The bit outlives its own occasion: an unprompted ad-read for the +platform — described as "thermodynamically sound" — is delivered by a host named +Timmy inside a boost segment, off the back of one of Mike's 7,777-sat boosts.[^timmy] + +## Live footprint + +By late 2025 the show treats Toonster as a going concern with a touring calendar. +Reading Mike's boost at Thanksgiving, Greaser calls 2026 "a big year" for Bitcoin +music and runs the roster — the platform, [[characters/noa-gruman|Noa Gruman]] out +touring stadiums with the band Sabaton, a [[characters/joe-martin|Joe Martin]] album +— crediting Mike with "really working his ass off."[^roster] The events follow: + +- **Revolution Rocks**, announced as "a tunester event" — a value-for-value music + festival in Serbia in June, with Scardust headlining and Greaser himself + DJing.[^revrocks] +- **The Toonster Las Vegas stream**, the conference-week substitute for the + discontinued Spamming Vegas — Greaser laments there is "no spamming Vegas this + year" but points to the Toonster stream, with [[characters/tatum|Tatum]] DJing his + songs.[^vegas] + +> irl: Tunestr is a real Nostr-native value-for-value live-streaming site for +> musicians, and zap.stream is the real Nostr live-streaming app it forks — which is +> why the satire can describe the architecture accurately and still land the jokes. + +[^twitch]: [[transcripts/broccolispace-media-with-charlie-spears-btp-episode-19#t-4685|BTP 19 @ 1:18:05]] — the quote spans t-4685 and t-4692; ASR "Tunester", with "Toonster" following at t-4699. The pitch lands on Spears, who then reveals he is a signed musician. +[^visionary]: [[transcripts/pioneering-v4v-music-with-open-mike-btp-episode-21#t-49|BTP 21 @ 0:49]] — the cold open; Greaser repeats the formulation as the sign-off at t-4613. +[^fork]: [[transcripts/pioneering-v4v-music-with-open-mike-btp-episode-21#t-4497|BTP 21 @ 1:14:57]] — the cue is diarized to Rod's question but the quoted words are Open Mike's, in its tail. Open source at t-4550; the whitelist ("a a white list ... to ensure that the community is just all music focused") is stated at t-4522. +[^guybehind]: [[transcripts/pressure-creates-good-ux-with-evan-kaloudis-btp-episode-18#t-4695|BTP 18 @ 1:18:15]] — ASR "Tunster"; "Waveleg" at t-4713 is Wavlake, "zapped out stream" is Zapstream. +[^steal]: [[transcripts/let-the-festivities-begin-bugle-weekly-episode-51#t-2886|Bugle Weekly 51 @ 48:06]] — Rod's offer; the whole-Bitcoin carve-out ("we gotta split that $50.50") is at t-2909. +[^trl]: [[transcripts/pioneering-v4v-music-with-open-mike-btp-episode-21#t-2630|BTP 21 @ 43:50]] — the sentence finishes at t-2634 ("Tuttel Request Live, we need a Carson Daly"); Mike adopts it at t-2656 ("that's the for the show. I love that"). +[^tits]: [[transcripts/pioneering-v4v-music-with-open-mike-btp-episode-21#t-4339|BTP 21 @ 1:12:19]] — Rod's question at t-4331; Greaser's verdict at t-4345 ("almost everybody can universally agree on that, except for me. I like small"). +[^milehigh]: [[transcripts/2024-recap-bugle-weekly-episode-42#t-2058|Bugle Weekly 42 @ 34:18]] — ASR "Open Mic"; Toonster ("Tunster") is named in the same passage at t-2096. +[^flies]: [[transcripts/let-the-festivities-begin-bugle-weekly-episode-51#t-2771|Bugle Weekly 51 @ 46:11]] — quote spans t-2771 and t-2775; the platform is "Toonster" at t-2678 and "Tunestr" at t-2881 in the same episode. +[^timmy]: [[transcripts/the-revolution-wont-have-good-ux-bugle-weekly-episode-50#t-1490|Bugle Weekly 50 @ 24:50]] — a medium-confidence beat; the ad-read is unprompted, inside a boost segment. ASR renders the platform "Tunster" (t-1497), "Tunestr" (t-1512) and "Toonster" (t-1546). +[^roster]: [[transcripts/happy-thanksgiving-bugle-weekly-episode-86#t-2183|Bugle Weekly 86 @ 36:23]] — a medium-confidence beat; Noa Gruman is identified by content, not spelling ("these huge, huge concerts with the band called Sabaton" at t-2198, "her" at t-2213); the Joe Martin album is at t-2213. +[^revrocks]: [[transcripts/pleb-is-the-new-n-word-bugle-weekly-episode-98#t-3102|Bugle Weekly 98 @ 51:42]] — ASR "tunester"/"Teamster"; Scardust ("Skardust") heads a lineup at t-3109 that includes Joe Martin and, "then me, I guess." +[^vegas]: [[transcripts/is-trump-taking-ibogaine-bugle-weekly-episode-106#t-2989|Bugle Weekly 106 @ 49:49]] — a medium-confidence beat; "the Tunster stream" (t-3015) is Toonster; "the RHR event" is likely Rabbit Hole Recap.