ENDANGERED!The Looming Independent Music (and independent everything)Crisis

What is happening and what we can do

Sigh!

“Sigh” is one of those words that needs to be an onomatopoeia. I want you to read that word and know EXACTLY how I feel right now. It’d go something like, “hrrrruuuuggrrruhhrrrrlxxxchhhluhhhhhhhhggg”.

But that’s only a sigh of deep existential despair. There also are sighs of contentment which would be a lot lighter and less guttural—hhhhaaaahhheee! It’d be way too complicated to actually work and there are just far too many consonants involved in both. So we’re just going to have to stick with, “sigh” as it is—as inadequate as that little word is.

I’m just going to have to trust that most of the people who are reading this are people in my circle, which means you’ve been sighing pretty deeply over this slightly over a week that has passed.

I don’t know what to say about it. I’ve been struggling to write, but know I need to. When I write or play music, I usually feel better, even if for a little while. It connects me to other creative individuals and to a process that is at the heart of what being a human is all about—making stuff.

And not just any “stuff”, but the stuff of art. Playing with words, delving into my feelings and fears, leading with love, exploring paths of connection and hope—these are all things that the creative process allows me to do. At the heart of things, we are humans who are faced with a myriad of choices, unknowns, and messy attempts at making something of our days. Art makes it all a bit more palatable.

I’m of the mind that a healthy society is one filled with a cornucopia of vibrant and differing voices, all engaged in acts of innovative and daring creation, all the while being skeptical of tyranny and willful destruction. A healthy society is one where the richest and poorest are not that far apart and in fact money is but a tool, and not the be all end all.

Ohhhh man! Reading that back to myself makes me want to laugh the type of pained, dark humored laugh that one has to conjure in order not to wail out hopelessly.

Apparently one of the driving forces behind people voting for a convicted felon who attempted to overthrow a legitimate election by shouting unsubstantiated claims of fraud, etc, blah, blah, blah, is that they think he’ll do better with the economy.

Money is the be all end all right now. Maybe it always has been. Throw in a healthy dose of misogyny, racism, and misleading and/or blatantly false information and yeah, it makes sense why we’re here.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a music Substack. I’m getting there.

First of all, the economy won’t be better. At least not for you and me. Capitalism is designed for all of the cream to be concentrated at the very top. Oh the stock market might look great and the GDP might look impressive, but nobody at the top is going to spread that around. What has already been happening will only continue to happen—power and wealth will be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer mega corporations that continue to merge into monopolistic entities that choke out all competition.

Who suffers here? Independent art. Independent business owners. Independent media. Independent thought. Independent voices of all kinds.

Yes, that includes independent music and musicians. In fact, in recent days there have been some troubling developments that should sound alarms for those of us who care about these things.

Troubling item number one. See the WBEZ article below:

Pitchfork’s abrupt exit from Chicago seen as a ‘loss’ for music community

Love them or hate them, at one point in time Pitchfork Media was the beating heart of independent music and independent music journalism. Yeah, at times they seemed like pretentious hipsters, but that’s just music journalism in general—you’re going to have a mixed bag of voices, but that’s what makes it fun and interesting.

The point is there was no better place to find thoughtful reviews of albums and artists that otherwise would have been nearly impossible to find.

And out of that came the Pitchfork Music Festival that featured a thrilling mix of many of these unknown and sort of known or soon to be known artists mixed with cult heroes, bonafide legends, and buzz worthy tastemakers.

It’s a long story as to why I only made it once. I should have gone more. But for the generosity of friend of this Substack, Jennifer Husbands, I probably would have gone exactly zero times. You always think you have more time than you actually do when it comes to the good things in life.

Speaking of Jenn, her husband Mike Bennett of CHIRP Radio, a force unto itself when it comes to independent music and media, is quoted the following, which sums up this situation and consequences of losing independent spaces of all kinds, very succinctly:

It was a place they (alternative people) could really congregate and feel they were a part of something. That’s a loss for Chicago.

The pronoun “they” in the above quote could be a stand-in for anyone who loves the excitement of independent music discovery, independent artists, off-beat characters, and those who believe that live music should be available and accessible for all. It was a breath of fresh air in contrast to the increasingly corporatized mega festivals. It was a celebration of what is capable when the indie spirit is allowed to flourish. It truly is a loss.

The writing was on the wall when Condé Nast bought Pitchfork and immediately laid off scores of employees. It became less about the indie spirit and more about maximizing profit by streamlining operations and milking what they could of what was left of a once thriving operation.

And then there’s the details found in this Substack article:

The War Against Indie Creators Is Now Getting Dirty

Read the whole piece to get a full picture of why calling it a “war on creators” is scarily appropriate. But I want to highlight a couple of bits that illustrate what indie musicians are up against.

Apple, you’re up:

Earlier this year, Apple insisted that Patreon must pay them a 30% commission on all new subscriptions made with the app. In other words, Apple wants to take away close to a third of the income for indie creators—almost quadrupling their transaction fees.

This is the new business model from Cupertino, and it feels like a Mafia shakedown. Apple will make more from Patreon than Patreon does itself.

Not to be outdone, heeeeeeerrrrreee’s Google:

Not long ago, this website attracted 20 million visitors per month. But Google changed its algorithm—and now only a few thousand visitors show up.

“No one can find our site,” admits web publisher Joshua Taylor.

But somebody else is benefiting.

“Most entertainment keywords have now been given to one big company,” Taylor explains, “whose numerous sites own the top slots for nearly every entertainment-related query of any substance.”

Tech and music have always had a bit of a tenuous relationship. There was that whole Napster era that killed the idea of physical media. And now streaming benefits a handful, but largely means pennies or less to the average independent musician. The landscape of Spotify is over saturated and the art is undervalued. I’ve spoken about my opinions on Spotify. It’s great in a lot of ways. I don’t think it’s the devil, but it certainly isn’t the answer. Its goal, like the goals of Apple and Google, is to make a shit ton of money. These companies answer to their shareholders and not the musicians whose work helps pave the way for their successes.

Make no mistake, these are not isolated instances. Independent culture is under siege. The independent musician is not extinct, but it is a severely endangered species. Follow any number of independent musicians on Substack (still, thankfully, a growing, easy-to-navigate independent platform) and you can read their thoughts on how much harder it is now than it used to be for a variety of reasons.

And things will not get better with either party in charge (though the incoming administration is likely to enable billionaires and unchecked capitalism much more than a Harris administration would have). The actions needed to preserve and promote indie musicians have to be grassroots. Not coincidentally, independent action and ideas are needed to preserve independent culture.

So where do we start? I don’t have all of the answers for that but I do have a few ideas

1. Go to independent venues and support independent musicians. Then encourage your circle to check out the artists you fall in love with (I know…duh! But it takes more intention than many are willing to put forth)

2. Buy direct from the artist—merch, physical media (Bandcamp Fridays are great for this)

3. Spend less time on Spotify and more time searching Bandcamp for new artists (it’s overwhelming, but there’s something satisfying when you find something you connect with. It’s sort of like the old days of taking a chance on an album based on the artwork. Kinda exhilarating)

4. Shop indie, promote indie, read indie. You want to know why Walmart started carrying organic? Because people voted with their wallets. But don’t buy music from Walmart, that’s not what I’m saying. See point #1. My point is that if people start voting with their dollar for independent culture, the big guys will take notice and will have to incorporate them in ways that we demand or continue missing out on a chunk of the action

5. Start a Substack and be an independent creator

6. Listen to and donate to independent radio

7. Join online and/or in person groups of music loving individuals. One person’s voice can have power, but communities of human unions can start movements

8. Stay informed on the issues—follow aforementioned artists on Substack and social media and listen to what they have to say. Read from independent news sources that remain committed to the fading tenets of journalistic integrity

9. Advocate for and patronize vital local arts programming, libraries, neighborhood fests that give opportunities to local up-and-coming talent, etc

10. Be ready to march, make phone calls, protest, disrupt, and to fight for the people and ideals that are the basis of indie culture. Be loud. Be firm. Be resolute.

Number 10 is important because it’s tied together with everything that is happening right now. There is a segment of the population who have given the green light to a government that vows to embrace less difference, to move inward rather than outward, to trust corporations and cash over empathy, to be more homogeneous and hard lined than maybe ever. These things are the enemy of independent culture.

I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m scared, and my god I’m tired. Some days my raging anxiety and depression makes even the littlest of actions seem like an ascent up Everest.

And sometimes it feels like, “well, that’s it. We lost. The dream is over.” And I don’t know. Maybe it is.

But I know where I stand with who I love, the things I love, and the communities, culture, and ways of life that have given me joy and a reason to struggle, all the while carrying some measure of maybe misplaced optimism, through the hard times.

Look, I know this isn’t my best work. I’ve rambled and have been barely coherent in places and maybe some of the ideas are a bit disjointed. But at least it’s honest. It feels like a storm of unprecedented intensity is brewing on the horizon and I don’t know how to face it or prepare for it.

But face it and prepare for it, we must. When the independent voices of a society are silenced, then all is truly lost. When we fight for independent music, we fight for a better world. When we fight for a better world, we fight for independent music. It’s all the same song.

It’s not a fight I wanted or expected, but one I will gladly take on.

Take care everyone. It’s okay to feel however you need to. You are not alone and you are loved.

Hrrrruuuuggrrruhhrrrrlxxxchhhluhhhhhhhhggg!