I say in the intro to this podcast episode that the only way to support artists is to buy directly, which obviously leaves out platforms such as Substack and Patreon that artists are using to add a stream of income. When I wrote and recorded that, I was thinking exclusively of being paid for your art, and I’d like to emphasize the divide between that and subscriber-based content creation because I think it really puts a spotlight on what we value.
In the current climate, it’s more difficult than ever before to be compensated strictly for art, and with music in particular, paying for what you listen to is completely optional. I think that services and communities such as Substack and Patreon are amazing in providing a way for artists to monetize their material, but they’re also dependent on consistent content creation and cutting off a slice of that content to offer as a bonus to your paid constituency. It’s about the hustle. It doesn’t foster or encourage the drive to create a masterpiece over a long period of time.
As a project, Weird Music is totally out of step with the current state of art. I didn’t intend to take as long making it as I did, and I had no thoughts about how it fit into overall trends. To me, the most important thing throughout was just to make it. I’d worry about the rest once I was done.
Now that I’m coming to the end, I realize that it’s a statement about our artistic values. We value the hustle, and the art is optional.
Check out the Weird Music album on Bandcamp, iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, and all other places where you can find music. Some of this material can also be found in the post “My Weird Music” on the Talking Writing website. For transcripts to these episodes, visit my personal Substack.
