Michael Stipe has released a new song called 'Hum Desiderata', and you will not find it on Spotify, Apple Music or any other major streaming platform. The track is available only through Joyfully Waiting, a website that bills itself as a space for multi-disciplinary sound exhibitions whose works "mutually enrich each other" (Pitchfork).

The song, which runs 2 minutes and 42 seconds (Joyfully Waiting), pairs two distinct pieces of material. Over an instrumental version of 'Hum' — an unreleased track from Stipe's forthcoming debut solo album — the former R.E.M. frontman recites Max Ehrmann's well-known poem 'Desiderata'. That spoken-word recording dates back to a 2023 installation Stipe presented at ICA Milan (Pitchfork).

Stipe wrote and produced 'Hum Desiderata' with Andy Lemaster. Athens, Georgia-based artist Elizabeth Hatmaker contributed additional vocals (Pitchfork).

The release adds to a growing body of solo work from Stipe, who spent decades as the voice of R.E.M. before the band disbanded in 2011. He announced his debut solo album during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in April, where he performed another unreleased track from the record, 'The Rest of Ever'. He also co-wrote 'I Played The Fool', the theme song for the Apple TV series Rooster, with producer Andrew Watt (Pitchfork).

For listeners used to finding every new release a click away on their preferred streaming service — the digital platforms that dominate how most people consume music today — 'Hum Desiderata' asks them to go somewhere else entirely. Joyfully Waiting is not a music store. It is an online exhibition space, and the song lives there as part of that environment rather than as a standard single drop.

Whether 'Hum', the album track whose instrumental underpins the piece, takes a different form when the full solo record arrives remains to be seen. No release date for the album has been confirmed.