Hi folks! As part of our collaboration with Penny Fractions, we are bringing you the first episode of a new format—David, Saxon, and Sam, thinking through our moment in an off-the-cuff convo about current events. We hope you like it!
The music industry was recently shaken by news around beloved marketplace/web-magazine Bandcamp, where half of the staff was recently let go (or, as press release from definitely-not-shady new owners Songtradr put it "After a comprehensive evaluation...50% of Bandcamp employees have accepted offers to join Songtradr”). It’s…not great. Unfortunately, it’s also not entirely unexpected. To try to get our heads around what’s happening, we talk union-busting, the decline of music criticism, the death of tech optimism, the rise of the influencer economy, the zombie-like survival of grifting, and what the future might hold for a synch-happy tech-bro Bandcamp. Somedays, it feels like it's their world, and we just live in it. Today might be one of those days.
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Digital Dark Ages
Dub Economics: The Life and Times of Lee “Scratch” Perry
How MTV Changed the World
Oligopoly in the U.K. with David Turner of Penny Fractions
The Political Economy of The Grateful Dead with Jesse Jarnow
Ticketmaster Blues: The past (and future) of the Live Music Industry
BONUS: Morgan Parker talks Fugazi
Gangsta Rap and LA History with Felicia Angeja Viator
Can Fugazi help us imagine a better future for music?
Making the Mainstream: The History of Top 40 with Eric Weisbard
Twitch Trolls Metallica
Pulling Back the Veil on Posthumous Albums
Bootleggers, Hippies, and...Lawyers: How piracy remade music with Dr. Alex Sayf Cummings.
NF(t) DOOM or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blockchain
BONUS Episode: Stephen Thomas Erlewine
“God is My Girlfriend”: Christian Rock and Niche Genres with Andrew Mall
Financialization Feeding Frenzy with Cherie Hu and David Turner
Liz Pelly on Alternative Platforms and Possible Futures
Consent Decrees
The Life and Death of The Greatest Hits Album
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