10 APR, 2025
We are four months into this new year. I’ve been working at
a new full time job for two weeks. I got longlisted for the Glastonbury
Emerging Talent Competition for the second year in a row, and didn’t get
shortlisted again. I decided to stop doing the YouTube Letterboxd Tiktoks that
made me go viral and get all those followers. I’ve been meeting and working
with a lot of music peeps. And I’m gearing up to release the mixtape I CAN’T
SELL THIS, on the 22nd of this month. Now, I know how I’m constantly going on
about how tough it is as an artist just starting out in what is now my 7th year
of making music in the wide world, however(!) since that’s kind of adjacent to
what this upcoming project, I just wanted to speak about my value, and the
value of art.
At the beginning of this year, I made a video on YouTube called ‘why I make art.’, and in it I mention that making ICST lowkey cured my imposter syndrome a little bit. This is simply due to the idea that I’d like to create excitement and curiosity in art in the same way that I get when I come across something I think is really cool! I think that’s quite a fair reason to want to do what I want to do. I was always held back by the crippling thought of trying to consider what value I add to the world of music and art as a whole, and it’s just not the right way to look at it - someone will come across ICST, or another one of my projects, and my hope is that they find a fascination in it, in the same way I found a fascination in To Pimp a Butterfly 10 years ago and it made me understand what music could be. That’s all that matters to me, that hope! It’s something that I’ve always known as I’m doing this, but it was always overshadowed by that dumbass imposter syndrome.
Art has value subjectively. To one person, a piece of art could be worth the world, to another it’s just a bit naff innit. But both of these pieces of art are being put through a system that assigns them the same system of value, that being monetary value. In this day and age, music is worth less and less money by the day. As Spotify continues to hike it’s prices and Daniel Ek (if that’s even the CEOs name, I literally can’t be bothered to google his name even though I have a google tab open up there, that’s just how I feel right now) gets richer in his Sweedishness, the artists are actually getting paid less by default. There’s a saying I came across a couple years ago: “If your pay doesn’t rise with inflation, it’s a pay cut”. And to the average listener, the price increases are unjustifiable because the service is not really improving in any tangible way. But we’ve been brainwashed to believe that this is the best way to experience music, and even though we’re paying £12 a month, we’ve lowkey been conditioned to think we deserve music for free, or at least it feels like it’s free. This is why you would never even THINK to buy an album for £15, £10 or even £5 ever again. ‘Bro, I just got an infinite amount of albums for basically the same price.’ I could listen to an album one time and never listen to it again, and to me it feels like I didn’t pay for it. My question is... what damage has that done to the perceived value of music? And I’d like to think even further back than that. Who decided that albums were going to cost £15?
Spoiler alert: I don’t know. And I don’t know if it’s right to do that either, but I do think that the way music is set up right now, between artist, listener, and middleman/provider/platform, it seems like the middleman is getting the biggest piece of the pie, when I don’t really think that should be the case. They should get a piece of the pie for sure! They’re part of the industry. But not the biggest, come on now!! I genuinely think that should go to the artists, or the people behind actually creating the thing we’re listening to. Shouldn’t it? Think about it like this: When PinkPantheress drops her new album and you go and listen to it (as you should) do you thank Spotify for letting you listen to it? Do you thank Warner for letting her release it? Do you thank Instagram for reminding you that it dropped cause you saw a post/reel? No, you thank PinkPantheress for making it! As you should, because those other two entities wouldn’t even exist were it not for the artist, and the artist has been making music since creatures figured out that rhythmically hitting a stick on a rock sounds kinda cool. So why did we allow these other entities to become such driving forces? It’s a bit of a shame, isn’t it...
Moreover, on the subject of social media, an artist nowadays has to feel like they’re selling themselves more so than ever before. And what does that mean for artist integrity? Or self confidence? Well, on the first point, it can be very easy to feel like you’re ‘playing the game’ of social media, and just try to make a song to go viral, or at least catch a wave on socials. This affects how the art sounds now. Arguably, this is nothing new - even back in the day, people were making their songs fit for radio or any sort of environment they wanted it to be played in. But at least they had staying power, and it was less about the money because there wasn’t as much money in music as there is now. And also, because it wasn’t as easy to make or even to be heard, it wasn’t seen as some kind of a scheme to just make some bucks. It is now, though. That’s why every other song you might hear online just sounds like “whatever”. ‘Might as well make music, why not!’ (Okay I’m hating now lowkey, let me chill. But you know what I mean.) And in this sea of “whatever” where there are so many artists catching strides, it’s incredibly easy to feel left behind as an up-and-coming artist. This speaks to the second point. This is what caused my imposter syndrome in the first place.
Listen... It’s just tough innit. But it can’t just all be doom and gloom. I rebuke that. I’m trying to be an artist in the industry. I might sign to a label. I might do some kind of a partnership with a platform of some kind. I don’t know, but I’m tryna get up innit, I’ve gotta do what I need to do. If there’s one thing that I’ll never take half measure on though, it’s my artistic integrity. Because music is more than music to me, it’s more than art. It has a deep emotive power within it, I genuinely believe that it can change things. That’s what I’ll try to do. Whatever it takes. It may not happen tomorrow, it may not happen in 5 years time. But I’ll try my best to start a kindling of a fire that at least someone else can maybe grow into a full arson charge. Another saying I’m a fan of: “Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.” It’s a bit biblical lol, and I’m not trying to be, like, holier than thou or whatever. I’m just thinking about how there’s a lot of sacrifice involved in wanting things to change and actually going for it. It’s never been about me, it’s always been about the art. That’s why my name is in lowercase btw, cause it’s not about me. This next project of mine, because of the way it was made and what it’s about, will only be available for free and is not on Spotify or Apple Music - that is a terrible financial decision! How could it possibly benefit me? Well, it can only benefit me. The way I see it is, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Think of what could happen here if this project hits all four corners of the earth! It’s kind of exciting :)
Ah well, we’ll see.
At the beginning of this year, I made a video on YouTube called ‘why I make art.’, and in it I mention that making ICST lowkey cured my imposter syndrome a little bit. This is simply due to the idea that I’d like to create excitement and curiosity in art in the same way that I get when I come across something I think is really cool! I think that’s quite a fair reason to want to do what I want to do. I was always held back by the crippling thought of trying to consider what value I add to the world of music and art as a whole, and it’s just not the right way to look at it - someone will come across ICST, or another one of my projects, and my hope is that they find a fascination in it, in the same way I found a fascination in To Pimp a Butterfly 10 years ago and it made me understand what music could be. That’s all that matters to me, that hope! It’s something that I’ve always known as I’m doing this, but it was always overshadowed by that dumbass imposter syndrome.
Art has value subjectively. To one person, a piece of art could be worth the world, to another it’s just a bit naff innit. But both of these pieces of art are being put through a system that assigns them the same system of value, that being monetary value. In this day and age, music is worth less and less money by the day. As Spotify continues to hike it’s prices and Daniel Ek (if that’s even the CEOs name, I literally can’t be bothered to google his name even though I have a google tab open up there, that’s just how I feel right now) gets richer in his Sweedishness, the artists are actually getting paid less by default. There’s a saying I came across a couple years ago: “If your pay doesn’t rise with inflation, it’s a pay cut”. And to the average listener, the price increases are unjustifiable because the service is not really improving in any tangible way. But we’ve been brainwashed to believe that this is the best way to experience music, and even though we’re paying £12 a month, we’ve lowkey been conditioned to think we deserve music for free, or at least it feels like it’s free. This is why you would never even THINK to buy an album for £15, £10 or even £5 ever again. ‘Bro, I just got an infinite amount of albums for basically the same price.’ I could listen to an album one time and never listen to it again, and to me it feels like I didn’t pay for it. My question is... what damage has that done to the perceived value of music? And I’d like to think even further back than that. Who decided that albums were going to cost £15?
Spoiler alert: I don’t know. And I don’t know if it’s right to do that either, but I do think that the way music is set up right now, between artist, listener, and middleman/provider/platform, it seems like the middleman is getting the biggest piece of the pie, when I don’t really think that should be the case. They should get a piece of the pie for sure! They’re part of the industry. But not the biggest, come on now!! I genuinely think that should go to the artists, or the people behind actually creating the thing we’re listening to. Shouldn’t it? Think about it like this: When PinkPantheress drops her new album and you go and listen to it (as you should) do you thank Spotify for letting you listen to it? Do you thank Warner for letting her release it? Do you thank Instagram for reminding you that it dropped cause you saw a post/reel? No, you thank PinkPantheress for making it! As you should, because those other two entities wouldn’t even exist were it not for the artist, and the artist has been making music since creatures figured out that rhythmically hitting a stick on a rock sounds kinda cool. So why did we allow these other entities to become such driving forces? It’s a bit of a shame, isn’t it...
Moreover, on the subject of social media, an artist nowadays has to feel like they’re selling themselves more so than ever before. And what does that mean for artist integrity? Or self confidence? Well, on the first point, it can be very easy to feel like you’re ‘playing the game’ of social media, and just try to make a song to go viral, or at least catch a wave on socials. This affects how the art sounds now. Arguably, this is nothing new - even back in the day, people were making their songs fit for radio or any sort of environment they wanted it to be played in. But at least they had staying power, and it was less about the money because there wasn’t as much money in music as there is now. And also, because it wasn’t as easy to make or even to be heard, it wasn’t seen as some kind of a scheme to just make some bucks. It is now, though. That’s why every other song you might hear online just sounds like “whatever”. ‘Might as well make music, why not!’ (Okay I’m hating now lowkey, let me chill. But you know what I mean.) And in this sea of “whatever” where there are so many artists catching strides, it’s incredibly easy to feel left behind as an up-and-coming artist. This speaks to the second point. This is what caused my imposter syndrome in the first place.
Listen... It’s just tough innit. But it can’t just all be doom and gloom. I rebuke that. I’m trying to be an artist in the industry. I might sign to a label. I might do some kind of a partnership with a platform of some kind. I don’t know, but I’m tryna get up innit, I’ve gotta do what I need to do. If there’s one thing that I’ll never take half measure on though, it’s my artistic integrity. Because music is more than music to me, it’s more than art. It has a deep emotive power within it, I genuinely believe that it can change things. That’s what I’ll try to do. Whatever it takes. It may not happen tomorrow, it may not happen in 5 years time. But I’ll try my best to start a kindling of a fire that at least someone else can maybe grow into a full arson charge. Another saying I’m a fan of: “Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.” It’s a bit biblical lol, and I’m not trying to be, like, holier than thou or whatever. I’m just thinking about how there’s a lot of sacrifice involved in wanting things to change and actually going for it. It’s never been about me, it’s always been about the art. That’s why my name is in lowercase btw, cause it’s not about me. This next project of mine, because of the way it was made and what it’s about, will only be available for free and is not on Spotify or Apple Music - that is a terrible financial decision! How could it possibly benefit me? Well, it can only benefit me. The way I see it is, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Think of what could happen here if this project hits all four corners of the earth! It’s kind of exciting :)
Ah well, we’ll see.