🔵 The desperate need for optimism and action in the music industry

Doomsaying articles are correct... but we need get past that now

Hi there,

It feels of late that more and more articles are emerging, all highlighting just how bad things have become in the music industry now.

Ted Gioia

’s “The Music Business is Healthy Again? Really?” article is one example, and more recently

Shawn Reynaldo

also penned a similar article - “The Music Business Is Broken, and Everybody Knows It” - for his excellent First Floor Substack, also highlighting the various ways in which things are looking increasingly bleak.

Both articles are a good read, if you want a decent summary of just how grim things have become. Both articles are also correct in their assertions, so I am not here to cry foul with anything either have written.

The concern I have, however, is that we are falling into a trap of focusing purely on the negatives. Yes, things are bad; at this point, I’d say that from certain perspectives - most notably those of the “working class artist” I tend to reference a lot, i.e. artists who cannot yet sustain a full living from their work, and are now less likely to achieve that than ever - this is entirely self-evident. However, we must be careful not to simply accept these things as if that’s just how things are now.

When things are bad, the answer is not to wallow in that. Quite the opposite: what is needed, now more than ever, is for positive, impactful change to occur. Equally, I feel that requires parties to come together far, far more than they are doing at present. From where I am sat, the indie scene is entirely falling for a “divide and conquer” strategy and it needs to wake up to that, urgently. Perhaps that is a topic for another day though.

I still maintain that arts and culture are a constant. The media through which we enjoy them changes, but the art itself, and the appreciation of that art by others, is as old as time.

To that end then, there will always be a hunger for music, and people will always pay for things they truly value. Quite what form that ‘thing’ of value is can shift, but the money is there - proven, arguably, by the recovery of the music industry from the days of piracy, even if that has led us to the situation the industry finds itself in now.

What matters is not to decry how bad things are, but to ask what we can do to really shift that model, ideally building new means to connect with fans and monetise those relationships in a manner that people can make a living from their art once more.

Change always takes time. Historically I would argue that Big Tech has forced much quicker changes upon us. Remember how fast MySpace died when Facebook arrived? Hundreds of millions of users, all migrating within months. Outside of that however, change often comes more slowly, with new businesses indicating the path forward, sometimes not surviving to really prosper, but nonetheless proving instrumental in proving the efficacy of new models.

I’ve made it my business to try and stay across new developments in the music space. On the music consumption front we have various platforms looking to offer new models or experiences. Nina represents a bold model in which artists somehow keep 100% of the proceeds. Subvert is looking to build a co-operative version of Bandcamp. Bandcamp itself remains arguably one of the better platforms out there for emerging artists. There are others too, but I’m not sure I’m permitted to name them here without breaching their confidence.

At the same time, since posting my last article about a Fan Data Platform, I’ve become aware of multiple services who, whilst not entirely making good on the spec I’d outlined in my piece, are certainly operating in the right area to really make that move.

I few weeks ago, I was catching up with an industry friend. He quoted something from a book he’d read recently, and it has stuck with me ever since: “you must invest into the networks you want to see thrive”.

I wholeheartedly agree with this, and since then I’ve made a point of buying more subscriptions to publications I love. I’ve also maintained my policy of always spending a bit of money in indie record stores when I pass them. Why? Because I don’t want these places to disappear - and they cannot run on hope and goodwill. If you like this stuff, spend your money on it. It is also why I’ve jettisoned Spotify. Stop giving money to services you don’t like.

I feel this principle is one that the music business - be that the artist community, the label community or beyond - really needs to reflect on. If we are going to complain about Spotify and how awful it has become, do two things: first, cancel your Spotify account. Second, don’t release your music on it. Be bold, and direct fans to other platforms.

I’ve no doubt someone is reading this thinking “ah yes well that’s easier said than done”, and on that, I agree. But the friction must be overcome, and the effort must be made. To sit and simply complain that everything is broken now is to basically cave into slacktivism, where tweeting or skeeting about how fucked the music industry is amounts to shouting into the void. People read that, nod, and move on. It achieves nothing.

To be clear, the likes of Ted or Shawn are absolutely right to write about how bad things have become, but I would ask that we also start looking beyond that, asking how this can be fixed. We have to, otherwise things will only get worse, and nobody needs that. We all have these platforms on which to effect change, and we should use them for that. It is why I’ve put forward proposals around an indie worker benefit system, and a centralised fan data platform. These are concepts I think can work, and can improve this ecosystem in one manner or another.

But there are more ideas to be had, and more ways to bring this all together. Let’s focus on that and start finding solutions, rather than just focusing on the state we are in.

Have a great evening,

D.

🎶 Listening to “Acid Dub Studies III” by Om Unit on Qobuz. The third instalment of 303-n’-dub works from Om Unit is another gem of a listen. Interesting to note that this is on Qobuz, but not Spotify. I’ve linked to Bandcamp here though where physical and bundles are available too.

📺 Watching “Resonance Beyond Borders: The Sounds of Ukraine (OFFICIAL TRAILER)” on YouTube. Very sad that I can’t make the first screening on this documentary from the Hospital Records team about the drum n’ bass scene in Ukraine against the backdrop of the war with Russia. It looks fantastic - I can’t wait to see it when it is released.

🤖 Geeking out on AmpSuite. After the whole debacle with Spotify pulling a track, coupled with a general sense that DistroKid was just not a great platform, I signed a deal to move my label over to AmpSuite, and I have to say, I’m blown away by the functionality it offers. Granted I’m a very specific type of user (ie someone co-running a label alongside a day job) but for people like me this is the stuff of dreams. With contracts, licensing, publishing, promo, mailing lists, even smartlinks all including within the one platform, it feels like the perfect place to be. (Disclosure: AmpSuite is owned by Beatport, who are an MU client, but this is entirely separate from that arrangement)

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Notes & followups in dispatches:

• After writing about the Fan Data Platform concept last week, I’ve had a bunch of conversations, be that other peers expressing interest in making this happen, through to platforms that, whilst not fully there, are most definitely moving in the right direction. Great to see, and I’ll share more on that when I feel there’s something valuable to say.

• When I wrote about one of my label tracks getting pulled from Spotify due to supposed streaming fraud, I was overwhelmed by the responses I got from people. What became clear was that this was not just happening to DIY releasers, but labels too. Equally the most common sentiment shared by those responding was just how frustrating the whole experience was, and how people felt a bit judged in this “tried and found guilty” kind of messaging that is often taken, leaving you with no sense of being able to respond and actually deal with the situation. Another interesting point someone made however was that it is possible DistroKid pulled my track, not Spotify, as a preventative measure. Really though, this was all part of what convinced me to ditch DistroKid. Those off-the-shelf, high volume, supposed convenience-based solutions just don’t work (for me anyway), sorry.

• I’ve no updates to share on the Indie Worker Pass idea I pitched a few weeks back, but that’s entirely on me. With Motive Unknown growing constantly (and soon approaching 30 members of staff) I’ve had little time to action this. That being said, there have been some incredibly positive conversations and I am planning to get back to that next week, so I remain confident that we can make this happen.

• Our friends over at Dark Arts are looking to hire a Social Media Manager. “The job is multifaceted, requiring excellent copywriting, content production skills, deep platform knowledge, ideas, creativity and a strategic mindset. This is a client facing role so first rate communication and organisational skills are absolutely essential.” Interested? Full details here!

• I’m still posting over on Bluesky too, so if you want hot takes on stories as they break etc, follow me over there. 🦋

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