Blog

It’s time to ditch Spotify & Even Bandcamp!Go Independent & Artist Owned – soft suge knight

I’m ashamed to admit that I still have a Spotify subscription! I know, I’m working on it! I really am😭. Right now, I share a family plan with my roommates. We’ve been going in circles on which service to switch to in  finally replacing the black and green menace. 

One of the reasons I started a music collective is because I got tired of streaming services. In 2026, I think they’ve finally lost their appeal.  Convenience has become so enshitified that consuming media has become more work than your typical 9-to-5 (or whenever you work). In the digital wastes, your art has been reduced to a virtual thumbnail, and your music can easily be removed by a Distrokid or Tunecore bot dispute.  

I started a music collective because I grew tired of the devaluation of music and wanted to put just as much love into creating sound as I could into the packaging itself. When an artist receives their work in a physical medium that didn’t cost them a dollar, it is truly a wonderful experience to see as a curator. I think music is meant to be enjoyed, touched, held, as well as heard. We deserve a listening experience without ads, subscription fees, poorly curated Algos, and AI slop. 

Imagine walking through the Louvre and getting interrupted every 5 minutes by a car insurance ad, or the entire museum & archive disappears because you didn’t pay this month. Technology had matured the music listening experience decades ago with physical media enshrined in well-thought-out cover art with liner notes and then perfected when Napster and P2P sharing gave everyone access to the world’s catalog at a crunchy 128kbps. 

Now, audio fidelity is at an all-time high, good speakers are dirt cheap, but we’re stuck with choice paralysis while the new creative and underground acts still find it hard to get attention. The primary job of music distributors and DJs should be to introduce us to new sounds that change and challenge our understanding of the world. Not playing the same thing we’ve heard ten million times before. Familiarity breeds comfort, and growth dies in it. 

With all that said, I think it’s time we check out the new music players on the scene. It’s time we completely abandon Spotify, not only as consumers and producers of music, but in the grand scheme as a DIY record label…We should begin to abandon Bandcamp for distribution as well. NO company owned or invested in by private equity or major labels should have control over our art. As we cook up some new compilations this year, look for us exclusively on the independents. 

Its easy to figure out why the music industry is the way it is… Artists comply with bullshit.- soft suge knight

Coming soon This statement is from the lead singer of the Sleigh Bells and while I understand where she is coming from…I completely disagree. I disagree with the level of acceptance and the lack of capacity to dream of something better. How can someone come so far yet give up so easily?

I think that artists are excellent dreamers, we imagine ourselves as super stars and winning awards or completing that project that will bring us to the next level of our careers. I think if we spent as much time dreaming of better support systems as we do becoming the respected stars in our field, that conditions would be better for us out there.

Now the parts I do agree with, how not everyone can or should drop everything at once because other people have the ability to do so does not excuse anyone from just accepting terrible conditions, to lie to ourselves that “we don’t have capacity” to at least find small ways to get free. It goes beyond holding someone else accountable, its about you. Can you hold yourself accountable to demand being treated like the talented human you are?

We have to use our creativity outside of what society tells us we’re allowed to build. Building that org, that union or running that venue that treats artists with respect is just as important as that hit song or sold out tour. In this business built on extraction and monopoly, there is the option to comply with or defy exploitation and yes it means sacrifice and risk. We have to use the same amount of courage that helped us carve our own path to then walk away from a system that is hell bent on killing you or at least start constructing alternatives so other people can see that things don’t have to be this way.