It's time to ditch Spotify & Bandcamp! Go Independent & Artist Owned

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. 

_Practice