For the evening crowd, I wrote about investment in music:
06.03.2026 02:33
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For the evening crowd, I wrote about investment in music:
I wrote it in response to Secretly Group co-founder Darius Van Arman's excellent essay from last week, which is also well worth your time:
dariusjagjag.substack.com/p/rise-of-th...
I've got a new out essay in MUSICx on investment power in music in the age of AI—who controls it, how it shapes everything downstream, and how artists, workers, & indies can build real leverage over music’s future ✊
musicx.substack.com/p/who-contro...
You order a copy yet? GO NOW!
For the morning crowd!
I wrote about how old music (catalog) is like a money printer for rich folks that runs at the expense of new artists and music. Not great for the sustainability of music in the long term!
brodieconley.substack.com/p/investing-...
I wrote a lil thing about Kyncl's letter to shareholders, and how the majors are pumping money into music catalog while failing to invest in the future of music.
Ce n'est pas bon!
brodieconley.substack.com/p/investing-...
More to come (this will be a series of benefit comps), but for now, head over and grab the album, and let it inspire you to take action for Palestine and in resistance to genocide, occupation, and colonial violence, globally.
🇵🇸✊
beaconsound.bandcamp.com/album/gaza-i...
3/3
This project was truly a collective effort: ft artists from around the world (incl a stunning track from Efrim of GY!BE!), gorgeous cover art by Joan Baz, & beautiful liner notes from
Tara Alami and Yousef Anastas, on the moral and political responsibility of artists to act in solidarity.
2/3
Very proud to have worked on this album🇵🇸✊
'Gaza is the moral compass' is out now, with all $$ to Palestinian-run mutual aid groups: Seeds of Hope, Gaza & Reviving Gaza
Premiering now(!!) on Radio alHara , and available from Beacon Sound: beaconsound.bandcamp.com/album/gaza-i...
1/3
I grew up on independent music -- where would I be without Smallman Records sending artists to play at the Native Friendship Centre in Timmins!
Indie labels and music have shaped my life and pushed me towards community, and I'm very grateful to be trusted with this work.
Indies are also creating stable, high-quality jobs and valuing workers:
83% of label workers in our sample were formal employees with access to benefits.
This is a strong commitment to decent work in a sector where precarious labour is pretty much the norm!
I'm especially excited by the data showing how indies treat both artists and workers equitably - consider this:
For every $1 invested, labels generated $0.77 in profit — and critically, 77% of that profit ($0.59) was distributed directly to artists! 🤘🤘
I wrote a big ol' research report on the value of independent record labels!
This report provides some neat data to validate & reinforce what so many of us already know: Independent labels rule!
📄Read the report: tinyurl.com/3azfuv9s
🌐Exec summary in🇬🇧🇫🇷🇪🇸🇵🇹: tinyurl.com/3y6kmvxp
I annotated the Globe and Mail's soaring cost of living chart, and it just might be possible to see the problem!
cc. @isabellamweber.bsky.social whose work demonstrates a lot of this is absolutely evil 'Sellers' Inflation', taking advantage of price shocks.
Anyways, I am a leftist who knows about this stuff should anyone need any advice on it! 👋🏻👋🏻
These people r freaks — they understand arts as a tool of the ruling class, rather than lifeblood of society & meaning making. Art isn’t to be USED to inculcate specific meaning, it makes meaning & sense of the world through its doing and sharing.
🤢:
www.withoutdiminishment.com/p/why-im-enl...
Seeing a whole thing among CDN Conservatives on here plotting out their plan to take over the arts and instrumentalize it to nationalist ideological ends, and I really hope folks in our left wing party are thinking about how to counter this through pluralist arts investment.
That $2.45BN valuation is entirely created by all the artists in the world whose music Suno stole to train their model.
This valuation is their embodied labour expropriated by capital.
😵🥴
Taking @ntnsndr.in's direction to MAKE GOVERNANCE FUN™️ seriously by hosting what is sure to be a fun (& interesting!) talk between Tabassum & Liz on collective ownership and the new labour movement in music!
Come for the talk, stay for the governance (i.e. the @newfeelingcoop.bsky.social AGM!)
Yes! She is one of the best! I'm so psyched for this conversation!
Bonus: if you are into music and music writing and making music better for workers, then you should run for a board position!
We’re a very dope crew of folks and we’d love to have YOU!
Grab a ticket….or become a member/co-owner and attend for free! 😉
To celebrate year 5 and to MAKE GOVERNANCE FUN™️ we’re throwing a lil’ pre-AGM shindig ft. a convo between NF’s own Tabassum Siddiqui and @lizpelly.bsky.social
They’ll be talkin’ the good stuff: collective ownership and labour in music.
Come for the convo, stay for the governance!🤓
Happy 5 year anniversary, New Feeling!
New Feeling fucking rules. Wouldn’t it feel good to casually tell your friends that you’re a co-owner of the coolest music media coop around?
Click through for a discount and to become a co-owner now!
If we’re serious about sustaining Canada’s arts & music ecosystem, we should work with the gov in power, but we should also name this clearly:
Renewal without (at minimum!) inflation adjustment is decline.
4/4 fin!
By 2028, these programs will have absorbed years of real-dollar losses.
And the baseline for measuring that loss isn’t 2024 or 2025. It’s 2023, when this nominal level first came into effect.
3/n
But we should also be clear about what was actually announced.
The funding is continued, but it is not increased!
These programs will receive the same nominal amounts for the next three years as they did in the last two.
In a high-inflation environment, flat nominal funding = a real cut.
2/n
Many in the arts & music sector felt relief seeing Budget 2025 commit to 3 more years of funding for key programs — the Canada Music Fund, Canada Arts Presentation Fund, and Building Communities Through Arts & Heritage, among them.
1/n
Someone should really write about why it is essential for artists to get equity + governance in gen AI...😎
musicx.substack.com/p/the-foreve...
Remember when Spotify handed the majors equity (as penance for its initial failure to obtain licenses).
When those shares were sold, the majors claimed the windfall wasn’t “royalty income” and didn’t have to be shared with artists.
We're at the same point now with AI!