Editor’s note: This is my first post here in nearly two years. I’ll get to why that is in another post. Just know that right now, my mind is clearer, my sense of purpose for Program Change is stronger than ever, and, somewhat sadly, recent events in the broader music industry have made me feel the urgency to get this important message out into the world.
The past two weeks have brought two major events that I believe should alarm any worker in the music industry. Legendary synthesizer manufacturer Moog, after recently being acquired by InMusic brands, announced job cuts at its US-based manufacturing facility. A few days later, Epic Games announced its sale of the online music marketplace and editorial platform Bandcamp to Songtradr after acquiring the company only 15-months ago. When asked by Pitchfork whether artist revenue shares, user experience, or the editorial platform Bandcamp Daily will be affected by the acquisition, Songtradr declined to comment.
What’s notable is that both of these events occurred in the aftermath of labor organizing at both Moog and Bandcamp. Last year, workers at Moog attempted to unionize to advocate for living wages. Bandcamp’s employees successfully unionized 6-months ago, though it seems uncertain how their negotiations will progress after the sale to Songtradr. I haven’t seen any direct comment from Moog or Epic on how these labor disputes may have influenced the sale of these companies, but I am left to speculate on whether or not the executives at Moog and Epic simply thought selling these companies was easier than navigating the thorny problem of having to pay employees a fair wage.
If you’re a musician who reads or watches various forms of music press, it’s entirely possible that you missed the labor-organizing side of the Moog and Bandcamp stories. This is because discussion around music-workers almost always centers around artists and performers, with the fight for better streaming payouts and the fight against merch cuts taking center stage at the present moment. The discourse tends to ignore the broad range of workers who contribute to the creation, experience, and preservation of music, including factory workers at instrument manufacturers, instrument retailers, journalists, service workers and security at live music venues, educators, and a whole host of other workers across the wider music economy.
In his paper “There Is No Music Industry”, Jonathan Sterne argues that a more accurate description of music’s relation to the economy is as a collection of industries “whose activities directly affect the performance, production, circulation, consumption, recirculation, appropriation, and enjoyment of music today.” He goes on to argue:
Opening the term [“the music industry”] up in this way will allow us to develop more robust and coherent social accounts of music as a media practice, and provide a stronger empirical basis for criticizing current institutional arrangements and proposing new, more just and convivial alternatives [emphasis added].
Because of the restrictive framing of the recorded music industry as the music industry, we often ignore how the interdependence between these industries affects all workers within them. Merch cuts and low streaming payouts inevitably lead to less disposable income that artists can spend on musical instruments and equipment, which in turn affects the lowest-paid workers at instrument manufacturers - many of whom may be musicians themselves who took on these jobs to achieve a degree of financial stability that is impossible for most full-time artists. The massive costs associated with touring deter many smaller acts from touring at all, which, coupled with Live Nation’s monopolization of the live music industry, affects the viability of small, independent venues and the livelihoods of the service workers who operate them. The hegemony of streaming services as platforms for music discovery makes it difficult for music press to compete, which in turn limits opportunities for artists who are now forced to depend on playlist placements and TikTok’s algorithm for the exposure they need to have a career. Musicians and workers from the service, manufacturing, and journalism sectors find common enemies in behemoths like Live Nation and Spotify, even if that commonality isn’t always obvious. And many musicians operate under the same systems of economic precarity that affect freelancers, gig workers, and working class people across industries: lack of affordable health care, child care, sick leave, and ever-shrinking purchasing power as life becomes increasingly unaffordable for the majority of people.
The problems faced by music-workers across industries feel intractable in part because we view our struggles as separate from each other, rather than as a collective struggle against our exploitation by corporations. At some point we need to ask ourselves: if local music venues, music press, and iconic instruments are important to the culture we want to preserve, do we really want to trust that preservation in the hands of corporate executives? Ultimately, music-workers are the people who make music culture what it is, who make music happen, and it’s up to us to fight for our right to preserve it. But to do that, we need to first recognize that it is us - the people who actually care about music - versus them - the people who’s primary goal is to extract profit from the labor that creates and preserves music culture.
The layoffs at Moog and the uncertain future of Bandcamp are part of a larger trend of corporate consolidation that prioritizes profits for some over support for the people who produce value through their labor. Appealing to the authority of corporations is useless when they’ve continued to demonstrate a lack of accountability to working people. For the sake of the survival of music culture, we need to support, aid, and protect all music-workers across industries in our interdependent struggles.
We need a broad coalition of music-workers invested in mutual aid and cultural preservation. We need to tie the fight for streaming payouts to broader struggles to protect gig workers across industries by providing unemployment benefits, health insurance, and family and sick leave. Even more ambitiously, we need to explore how we can structure a musical commons that takes care of the needs of its participants and functions to preserve culture rather than exploit it for profit. We need to recognize that the systems we operate under to survive don’t serve our best interests, so it may be time to create new ones. I don’t really care about music being profitable as much as I care about music culture being allowed to exist, and the people stewarding its existence being able to live safe, healthy lives free from economic precarity. I believe this is possible, but the first step is to begin connecting our struggles so that we can work together to find solutions. We’re all exploited under this system; it’s time we united to fight back.
Citations
Moog Music releases statement on layoffs
Epic Games Sells Bandcamp Amid Layoffs
Moog employees are unionizing for better wages and job security
Bandcamp United update May 19th, 2023
Social post from Bandcamp United regarding the sale to Songtradr
The Depth of Live Nation’s Dominance
If you liked this piece and would like to make a donation to help me continue writing more pieces like it, you can do so here.