Reciprocal listening - meeting artists at their solution

And: Music sounds better with you; Measure of Music closing remarks; Talk about speaking out; VC betting on the future of nightlife; Listening to 'Scenes'

The future of music is project-based and collective. Gone are the days of DIY, and up are the days of DIWO (do it with others). Fundamental to harmonizing this future is to find ways of listening to each other. Not just one way, but listening in two directions - reciprocal listening. We’ll need to listen to artists and their visions around their music. Artists will need to listen to find the teams they need to build their teams around each project. Artists, here, is defined broadly and can include presenters, curators, promoters, and more.

Project-based work

It all starts with a vision. This can focus on a specific sound, a collaboration, a collection of songs, a live show, etc. There’s no silver bullet or standard playbook anymore, each project requires a specific set of skills, knowledge, and experience. From the vision, from the idea, the work starts. Is it going to be an installation piece? Perhaps there’s a need for an interaction designer. Is it going to be an album? Perhaps there’s a need for a PR person who knows the blogs, radio hosts, and curators that that artist doesn’t know yet. Is it going to reimagine how we think about a music release? Perhaps a group of early believers and champions is needed.

Collectives everywhere

To help make project-based work a reality, we’ll see more and more collectives pop up. On the one hand, nobody should have to do the work alone. On the other hand, we need modes of organization that allow a diverse set of creators and organizers to shift from project to project, from one group to another. Loosely organized around collectives, this allows people to shake up their identities per project they work on. Moreover, it allows everyone involved in a project to share in the spoils. Each collective can share ownership based on effort and work, but focused on the project first.

All releases are stories

Every project is a release, and every release is more than a collection of songs or a line-up of artists. There are always stories, and these stories need to be presented in ways that fit the artistic vision. Every single expression, by everyone in the collective around the project, should help bring that vision to life. Nothing should be created to pander to algorithms. A collective helps defeat a cold-start problem, because it is cellular. In musicology, there’s a theory that explains how a single motif can be seen as the germ cell for the development of a much greater whole - think about how a single small motif can lead to an entire symphony. That’s how we need to think about these stories - each one can be understood as a tiny little cell creating a whole encyclopaedia of the project and it’s artistic vision. Each one can help bring us closer to a connection.

The product is not the music

For decades, if not for a century, the recorded piece of music has been the product - the object to monetize. But when we start to think about project-based music collectives, the ‘product’ is not the music. It’s much more about exposing the web of relations, associations, and connections. The aim is to deliberately expose them and showcase what’s needed to bring a vision to life. The main question is what the system is and where it comes from - hence the reference to cellularity. All of this is about building different systems that live outside of the main flows of money within our industry. It’s about opening up the single-box idea of the music industry and creating many little boxes, each one filled with a collective and a project that they monetize in different ways based on the vision and the execution of the work.

A final note

Reciprocal listening will first bring collectives together and then help them find their groove. The aim behind all of this is to move away from a need for endless growth and to focus on the act of creation. For each of these acts, for each project, the collective can determine what it needs to sustain itself.

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LINKS

🤟🏽 Music sounds better with you (Kaitlyn Davies)

“As I sit here in the early days of 2024, both figuratively and literally hundreds of miles away from those beloved morning listening sessions, I’m still struck by how “How Many Ways” felt like a crack in the matrix. Being stuck inside during the early 2020 lockdowns had made it clear that streaming’s algorithmic discovery and liner note-less album pages left a lot to be desired. But “How Many Ways” was proof that it still was possible to discover music outside of the stream, and that a song could have a financial and emotional value that was greater than 99 cents. In a way, it was a reminder of what discovering music used to feel like: Whether we were packing into a basement club with our friends, or chatting with a clerk at our local record store, our experience of music, and the meaning it gave us, used to revolve almost entirely around community and context.”

✘ This is such a great piece by Kaitlyn, and, as I write above as well, there’s a deeply social element to music and listening that cannot be taken away by any intermediary - we’ll always keep finding ways to bond.

❤️‍🔥 Feb 2024 Measure of Music Conference & Hackathon | Closing remarks (Christine Osazuwa)

“As my call to action for this year, I ask everyone to do more for artists. Share their music, buy tickets for their shows, and give them the love and support that you provide to other brands you love. For music companies, think about what you're doing to actually invest in your artists in the long term both with time and money? What programs are in place to support their mental health? What programs ensure they have childcare available? What programs help them get instruments & equipment? What programs allow them to meet and collaborate with other artists? Companies invest so much in their employees (as they should!) but what can be done to support their artists also?”

✘ Christine is one of the best in the music industries and her Measure of Music is one of a kind [unfortunately]. These closing remarks are full of little gems, but her final call to action should be shared by everyone reading this here in this newsletter as well.

🙊 Why we need to talk about speaking out (Nina Cresswell)

“But what people who’re so scared of women speaking out need to realise is that the goal isn’t to limit or ‘cancel’ men. It’s about our complaints being heard for the first time and taken seriously. It’s about accountability for abusive actions: not only assault and rape, but misogynist behaviour and harassment that so often goes unchecked. And it’s about making sure that women in music, and other industries, can operate in creative mode, rather than survival mode.”

✘ Another really important piece here and this quote here highlights what so many get wrong about this topic. It’s why we need to call out men who respond with their ego when women speak out. It’s not about them, it’s about the person speaking out and actually listening to them. Also, do sign up to this iteration of the Drowned in Sound newsletter.

🌆 The VC betting on the future of nightlife — and the startups doing it (Sarah Drumm)

“Tech startups could help clubs, DJs, promoters and artists run more profitable operations, but De Silva also argues that VCs should support startups making nightlife more accessible and sustainable. Best Nights VC splits its investments into three categories: subcultures and lifestyle communities, hosting the night and breaking down barriers.”

✘ Sarah does really well here to show how investment and tech start ups can work hand in hand with specific parts of the music industries - in this case focusing on nightlife.

🎧 Listening to ‘Scenes’: The connective experiment from Sound of Fractures that reminds us what we’re doing here (MacEagon Voyce)

“At some midpoint between artist and listener, Scenes resurrects the emotional connection that’s been buried in our passive stream-and-scroll environment. I sat down with Reddington to discuss how – through Scenes – he’s able to connect with people more meaningfully. The project offers an opportunity to “change the language” around success, he said, and to create new rails for experimentation so that artists can, indeed, say what they want to say.”

✘ Another one that resonates strongly with my own piece above. For regular readers, you’ll know how much I love Sound of Fractures, and that I’m a supporter of Scenes. This article goes deep into why this project matters so much - reimagining an album, a release strategy, and music as connective, emotional tissue.

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MUSIC

It’s that time of year again, as the seasons start to change, Perc comes through with another mix. This Spring Mix is techno of the kind that made me fall in love with it in the first place. This will make you dance, so turn up the volume when you press play.