We Get The Music Industry We Tolerate

In my 24 years in the music business, I’ve never experienced a moment quite like this. We are collectively at a crossroads, which I’m sure you can feel too. Traditional marketing tactics are falling flat, largely due to collective exhaustion and the fact that social media has shifted from being social to purely transactional. Artists, en masse, are finally questioning whether this career is worth it — waking up not only to the reality that the math doesn’t add up, but also to how damaging it has been to not control their own fan data. Meanwhile, AI is permeating every corner of the business, creating as much fear and uncertainty as it is new opportunities. At the same time, senior-level music industry talent are being fired en masse, with no new seat to jump to.

Whatever consistent complaint you have about the state of this business, it persists because you tolerate it. Just like toxic relationships, dysfunction continues when we allow it. We’ve had the experience, but we’ve missed the meaning.

This is the moment where we all have a unique opportunity to reshape and reimagine the music industry we want to live and thrive in. It’s sobering, but necessary, to take responsibility for the conditions we now find ourselves in — both individually and collectively. As an industry, we may feel a bottoming out, but there’s power and clarity in hitting a low point. I remember when I made the terrifying decision to quit my job shortly after my wife lost hers, with a new baby on the way and no safety net. From the outside, the timing was terrible. But I knew I had to leap, to fight for a healthier and fulfilling future. It was scary being on the edge, but I never felt more alive. That desperate creative energy — born from urgency and fear — is something I would love to tap into again, without reliving the anxiety of those circumstances.

If you find yourself feeling something similar in this moment, channel the energy generated by your current anxiety and future fears into creating. The right actions will follow. It’s hard, I know. Everything you’re feeling right now is valid and viscerally real. Sit with that for a moment, and then turn your attention to where you have control and begin designing from there with maximum responsibility. The uncertainty we’re facing as an industry can be framed as daunting or exhilarating, that’s a choice we each share.

Whether you’re an artist or in the business of music, we are all part of one ecosystem — beautiful, chaotic, and interconnected. We’ve been playing someone else’s game for too long, but now we have the chance to design our own environment rather than tolerate whatever corporate greed decides to hand us next. You better believe a wolf in sheep’s clothing is in development.

I’ve long felt a chasm between artists and the industry, an unnecessary power dynamic and gatekeeping void. It’s closing quickly, and it’s time to fully bridge this gap — by flipping the power dynamic. The people creating the music we all enjoy and depend on should be at the top of the food chain, while those in support must willingly know and accept their place in the ecosystem, standing next in line. Artists have long lost their way, drawn into a memetic competition for metrics that increasingly mean less. Until artists shift their priorities and what they value, little with change for them. Similarly, the industry has lost touch with its sense of awe, admiration, and patience for the humans who wear their hearts on their sleeves and invest everything they have for the sake of their art. But this is changing. I spend a lot of time online listening and observing, and I can hear the shift in tone — in fact, it’s deafening.

There are extremely talented, properly aligned people building a future where artists truly stand at the top of the food chain, whether it’s protecting IP, data rights management, new distribution models, financial literacy for musicians, there’s a lot of good on the immediate horizon. I see the subtle and overt acts of support and camaraderie from my industry colleagues. I can notice artists starting to be less territorial and more welcoming to each other. By nurturing the relationships between people, resources, and opportunities, we can create a balanced, appropriately competitive, enriching, and collaborative habitat where we all thrive.

I’ve spent 2024 hosting music mixers in Los Angeles and, most recently, New York. I love connecting people and seeing what they create together, fully believing in the butterfly effect that happens when talented, well-intentioned individuals meet for the first time. At these mixers, I spend most of my time watching and listening, observing the clear need for authentic human connection and interaction — something that feels non-competitive, an ‘I see you, and you see me’ exchange. We are all moving forward, sometimes at different speeds and with unique perspectives, but it’s so much healthier to move arm in arm, pulling each other upwards, and striving for a better experience of this musical life. Our connections don’t need to be purely transactional — that’s how we reconcile the world and our place in it.

Why should we tolerate anything or anyone out of alignment with this aim? The bad actors who take advantage, manipulate, bully, or harass artists continue because they are tolerated and given free rein in our habitat. If you tolerate them, their behavior is enabled, and it falls to the next artist in their path to hold the line. If you continue to tolerate the nepotism, the grifting, the gaslighting — well, we already know what that music industry looks like. We’ve long been complicit.

What happens next is our responsibility, and I, for one, think it’s going to be amazing. We must not only remain vigilant at this key moment, but strike swiftly at the opportunity that has presented itself to reset our world. We get the music industry we tolerate. So, what — and who — are you going to no longer tolerate?

Soundtrack courtesy of “Tourist” by Luna Shadows.

Photo by Larsen Sotelo

I wrote this blog after reading hundreds of posts from colleagues on LinkedIn and artists on Threads, followed by a restless night’s sleep.

I wanna go back when

The worst that could have been was:

Your bike got stolen

And given back by a boy who felt bad and hopeless

Luna’s music is like a nostalgia hand grenade and always brings me back to a simpler and more romantic time, when our worries and desires felt a little less existential and easier to navigate.

If this resonated with you, please share it with other artists or industry folks who were recently laid off who might find it comforting or motivating.