#indiemusic
These are public posts tagged with #indiemusic. You can interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
do you remember waking up? 
#music #SingerSongwriter #vocals #bass #IndieMusic #musician #BedroomIndie
Calling all musicians on #Mirlo! Have you updated your page recently? We've added more customisation, artist RSS feeds and, now, there's annual support options for artists to start their own listener clubs, as well as monthly!
#Music #Musicians #Musician #MusicPlatforms #Coop #Coops #Support #IndieMusic #FediMusic #Fedi #FediWave #Fediverse
Buy and sell music directly from musicians.
Mirlo40 Years/ ONE PIC A DAY
Die m‘s vor ihrem ersten Studio an der alten KUFA, Krefeld. Anscheinend wollten alle damals Bass spielen. In den as Räumen befindet sich heute das K22, in dem sie diesen Monat ihr neues Album ‚e‘ aufnehmen werden. Die Bassfrage hat sich übrigens schnell geklärt. Konrad ist einfach der schnellste, beste! Pic:@ruedig
#mwalkingonthewater
#indie
#indiemusic
#shortdistancepsychofolk
#krefeld
@jvw@musicians.todayMy latest album seems to have gotten a fair fine reception here on the fediverse, and for that I am grateful. 
If folks are anywhere near Minneapolis MN, come on over to the release party and concert on July 26!
PM me or sign up for my newsletter for deets.
Free, if you buy the record before then!
https://jennifervenawood.bandcamp.com/album/ill-be-right-here-too
#Folk #FolkMusic #IndieFolk #IndieMusic #Minneapolis #Minnesota #Wisconsin
Saw this piece on indie musicians and thought it was an interesting read. I don’t agree with everything being said, but it does highlight many pain points that have been discussed on here by various artists.
There is a lack of attention paid to alternative platforms such as #Mirlo or #Faircamp but towards the end it gains some steam in that direction.
Check it out here: https://www.hearingthings.co/musicians-not-on-streaming/
The independent musicians and labels who are saying…
Hearing Things
Just dropped a new episode of the Lorenzo's Music Podcast featuring @benpate discussing Bandwagon, an online platform for musicians! We talk about how it connects to the Fediverse and its connection to the online station Indie Beat. #IndieMusic #OpenSource #podcast #musicpodcast
https://www.lorenzosmusic.com/2025/04/ben-pate-of-bandwagonfm.html
In this podcast episode, I meet Ben Pate, the creator…
www.lorenzosmusic.comThe other day, I was listening to an interview of the lead singer-songwriter of a hugely successful band (that I had never heard of, see below), during which he described the difference in his view between a hobbyist and an artist.
The gist of his point was this: hobbyists mainly engage in their hobby for fun, while artists make art because they have to, are compelled to, even though making art is often an extremely fraught and painful and laborious process riddled with angst, thankfully interspersed with moments of exhilaration.
This struck a chord with me, and got me thinking (again) about the whole notion of what it means to be a “real artist” and more specifically, a “professional artist” or musician.
In a market-driven economy where you have to have something to sell in order to literally not die, it’s hard to separate making art from the problem of staying alive making a living.
And so the public, and even artists themselves, tend to think an artists’ worth is measured in sales.
Which is obviously bullshit.
Because the percentage of artists who make a decent living from their art has always been tiny. In the olden pre-internet days for instance, bands used to make pennies on the dollar on record sales, and only once they’d paid off the recording studio and marketing costs fronted by the record labels.
Musicians who have the drive and stamina to find gigs (if they actually can or want to gig in the first place), market promote themselves online and IRL, make throwaway TikTok videos and/or sell merch (no comment) in order to eke out a living are worthy of admiration and praise for their dedication and perseverance, but those activities have nothing to do with making art, and everything to do with not starving to death.
Hopefully, you’ll agree with the following claims:
There are tons of “great artists” you have never heard of (see above), sometimes because they toil in total obscurity.
All of the artists you love and admire were once one of them.
There are maybe a few true, once in a lifetime “geniuses” out there that we don’t know about because they aren’t geniuses at self-promotion, or are busy herding sheep or harvesting rice or moving furniture or selling truffles*.
When it comes to emerging from obscurity, inspiration and perspiration count, but probably not nearly as much as sheer luck (as in when and where you were born and in what milieu, and as in pure serendipity).
It follows that there is absolutely no difference in terms of artistic worth between an artist who makes a living from their art and an artist who makes a living doing something else.
None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
You can be a hobbyist with or without a day job, but having a day job doesn’t make you a hobbyist.
Being forced to find a day job sucks, the day job may also suck, and even if it doesn’t, it steals time and energy away from making art which definitely sucks, but that says everything about the society we live in, and absolutely nothing about the artist or their art.
Children create art with a passion and without compensation, beyond the feedback they crave, because their basic needs are provided for.
In a post-capitalist solarpunk utopia (or think Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, or Star Trek), an artist would be someone who chooses to devote most of their free time and energy to making art, without worrying about food and shelter (or Klingons).
Or as Oscar Wilde put it:
A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse.
Useless isn’t a pejorative. It’s a badge of honor. It’s what makes art special.
And to keep rolling with Oscar’s metaphor, you could say that an artist with a day job is a gardener with a day job, while a “professional artist” is a gardener whose day job is working as a florist. I really have a hard time seeing a meaningful difference, even if both arrangements have particular pros and cons. Some “professional artists” will be full-time, full-blown horticulturists or even farmers who have to cultivate (at least in part) whatever will keep their business afloat, while artists with a day job can tend to their flower beds or vegetable gardens without any such market pressure, time and energy permitting of course.
Don’t get me wrong: it took decades of music-making for me to get rid of my imposter syndrome and to be able to call myself an artist without adding air quotes, even though (or maybe because) I never dreamed of fame and glory.
So, freed at last from market-induced imposter syndrome, but not from the need to survive, the one extracurricular activity that artists probably should be involved in, is educating the music-loving public:
So they stop confusing fame or notoriety with artistic merit.
So they stop valuing quantity (of sales, views, plays, followers, etc.) over quality.
So they stop seeing indie artists specifically as “mere hobbyists” who make “amateur” and presumably crappy art (do I actually need to convince anybody that there’s plenty of crappy “professional” art out there?).
And ultimately, so they come to realize that indie artists are in fact the cool kids on the block 
.
This is a cultural battle, that can be won, collectively, because the tools and infrastructure and public do exist to circumvent toxic intermediaries.
Only then will music lovers be able to entertain the notion of supporting indie artists directly on fair platforms in sufficiently large numbers to make it possible for a lot more artists to make a modest living, or at least enjoy a fancy meal once in a while.
*After finishing the first draft of this post and while searching for a link to the story about how John Cage financed his music-making by finding and selling truffles, I stumbled on this fabulous article that I had totally forgotten about (and had I remembered it, I probably wouldn’t have bothered writing this one 
) and which I heartily recommend: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student by Max Alper.
The other day, I was listening to an interview of the…
NHAMArdour, the free and open DAW, is better than ever – and Ardour 9 is coming https://cdm.link/ardour-9-is-coming-and-8-is-great/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_content=muz4now%2Fmagazine%2FIndie%20Musician%20Tips&utm_medium=mastodon #MusicianTips #IndieMusic
Ardour, the criminally underrated free and open source…
CDM Create Digital Music“These measures threaten the economic and cultural impact of U.S.-made musical instruments”: NAMM president responds to Trump's tariffs – urgently urging the administration to exempt the musical instrument market https://flip.it/Ue9nPL?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #MusicianTips #IndieMusic
NAMM president John Mlynczak warns that current tariff…
Guitar World @jvw@musicians.todayWelp. Pushed the wrong button and accidentally released my record a couple of weeks early...
Might as well download it yourself!
For all that, I'm very proud of this record. I hope you enjoy...
I'll Be Right Here, Too!
https://jennifervenawood.bandcamp.com/album/ill-be-right-here-too
Edit: Weird that the temporary album cover is cached or something. Low-res of cover by @JennyJaybles now attached
Y’know it’s Monday today. There’s 10 minutes to launch. That’s plenty of time for another space-themed song.
It’s Always Monday On The Moon
~ #Dgar
Choose your preferred music service
ffm.to
Choose your preferred music service
ffm.toJeff Bezos is launching Katy Perry into space.
Space Pop (ft. Kaaren Elizabeth Smith)
~ #Dgar
Choose your preferred music service
ffm.toRELEASE ALERT! “SPACEBOUND" by Mighty One Man Band is now available EXCLUSIVELY on Bandcamp and nowhere else!
Pay what you want / Name Your Price!
https://mightyonemanband.bandcamp.com/track/spacebound
#alternativerock #mathrock #indiemusic #newmusic #spacesong
#mightyonemanband #spacebound #bandcamp #bandcampfriday
It's alive! My band's first "EP" is out now on BandCamp. Cheekily titled - Eponyme?
Tansania, Daressalam. Soundcheck auf dem Dach des Goetheinstituts. Das war dann am Abend stimmungsmässig ein geiler Gig. Die Hälfte des Konzerts saß das Publikum konzentriert auf den Stühlen und klatschte freundlich. Und je mehr die Band ausflippte, desto mehr rasteten auch die Leute aus. Herr Jansen balancierte auf dem Dachgeländer und die Leute stiegen auf die Stühle. Die Hände in die Luft und ab ging es…..
Pic:@ruedig
#mwalkingonthewater
#indie
#indiemusic
#shortdistancepsychofolk
Herr Jansen freundet sich auf Madagaskar mit einer Lemurendame an… Pic:@ruedig
#mwalkingonthewater
#indie
#indiemusic
#shortdistancepsychofolk
#krefeld
Inoculating the Odd in AuDHD @pixouls@post.lurk.orgMy friend Noremi, a Korean American artist, released their first album after graduating college and essentially quitting music for five years. Their music is so gorgeous and I always looked forward to when they'd drop an impromptu release of a live performance.
The album is called "i am very young and i am learning how to live"
It would mean a lot to me if you checked it out, and I think people on here might be the type to enjoy it. This is an album to let you know that you're not alone, and an album to tell others that they're not alone!!
by noremi
noremiI have a playlist on Soundcloud of my own original rock music and I’d love for you to check it out, preferably on some good speakers, up loud.
I’m really proud of this, and would love to hear what you think.
