IS IT STILL WORTH RELEASING MUSIC FOR DIY/INDEPENDENT ARTISTS?

Short answer is yes. Some context – I made a poll in Mastodon in February and so many insightful answers came up, which prompted me to write this. The poll is linked here: https://tldr.nettime.org/@elifyalvac/116133239185767164

‘Is it still worth releasing music for DIY/independent artists? Why? I don’t have a yes or no answer yet. I’m questioning… if you have an answer please can you explain it? Thanks!”

The above link should show you all the answers: Please check them out. They gave me so much hope and so many insights. I would like to credit everyone who contributed to my conclusions here, with highlights from Morten Mosgaard, Alison Wilder, C. Reider, Guy Birkin, Robert Logan, Kristoffer Lislegaard, Fugue State Audio.

I will start with quoting responses from Fugue State Audio:”it’s part of building the world we want to live in” and C. Reider: “sharing music is actively participating in the community and culture you want to exist in this life.” For me, this goes beyond anything and it is so powerful. It is empowering in the face of others who choose to feed the tech that abuses their creativity, conforming to something that I find destructive. Eventually, masses of groups end up seeing a handful of people who are “better” at sharing their “content” on those platforms while there are actually others that don’t get seen but is the value of what you do determined by that? For me, no. I will give some background to share what prompted me to ask this question after many years of being in independent music scene. 

I felt I was becoming less proactive in telling people about my music for a number of reasons.I come from a country where a culture of competition starts from a very young age with a system that determines your future with a single high-stakes exam. This kind of stress and pressure leaves a mark on you. It takes time to unlearn it and reparent yourself to come up with your own coping mechanisms in the face of toxicity. This is true when you work, or when you make music as well. My more than a decade long artistic presence marks mostly laid-back DIY efforts. I am currently an educator, “Lead Professor of Electronic Music” in a conservatoire so my commitments and engagements range from this to organising events and trying to slow down. In this journey I have learnt that there is so much value in being able to connect with others with authenticity and genuine interest in music scene. I met some of my best connections in concerts that I traveled to see or gigs that I traveled to perform in. All of these, alongside problems, eventually lead up to where you arrive now and it is you that can measure whether doing something is “worth” it. Releasing music and doing gigs, whether they were DIY or with support from others through organic connections, have helped me change my life. I have many examples that I can list but I will share just two things for now. 

Back in 2019, being discovered by Brooklyn-based NNA Tapes — whose representative found my self-released EP “L’appel Du Vide“(2018) — was a turning point for me. It was a real boost, eventually leading to my 2020 album “Mountains Become Stepping Stones” they released, which played a key role in my move to London with an artist visa. It showed me that putting work out consistently, even quietly, and doing gigs with your efforts can lead to something valuable. Or doing a DIY tour for that 2018 album (L’appel du Vide), including performing in Mengi in Reykjavik in 2018 resulting in some of my most valuable connections leading up to being invited to perform in other spaces. Now that I shared some highlights from a long time ago, let’s go back to the main question. For me, the answer is still “yes, it is worth releasing it” but I was questioning it recently… 

Is it still worth all the efforts, all the energy? The question I asked did not want to measure any commercial success, just to be clear. Around 99,000 to 120,000 tracks are being released every day: releasing music was feeling like dropping a stone into an endless ocean. I was wondering if there would be any point in adding my voice to that. Given that 97% of respondents voted “yes,” the answer seems to be clear. In a way, this framework is not the best idea when you check the responses, which offer an overwhelming “yes” with a collective redefinition of what “worth it” means here. Most of the responses did not even try to counter my concerns and they did not argue that visibility/recognition is achievable. No one has argued that platforms are fair or the massive crowd is manageable. The worth is not measured by any of this.

For some people that responded to my question, releasing music is about participation in a culture and in a community of “sonic universe”. Music that is stuck in your own speakers will not communicate. When you share it, even with a much smaller audience, you still complete the creative work and take part in that community and culture, especially in spaces like Mastodon and Bandcamp (although there are concerns about this), or Faircamp. There is genuine human connection, going beyond the parasocial aspects and dynamics in mainstream centralised spaces, which reflect to even the niche independent spaces like the Wire Magazine (By the way, I did get reviewed by them which feels like a hack of system and shows that they still have writers who value organic independent efforts)! 

Also to emphasise in the responses: self-documentation. Many of the respondents referred to releasing music as a journey of marking where they are in their life and their artistic development. In a beautiful response from Morten Mosgaard, a release pushes you to ask yourself where you are and what matters to you. Morten then gave an excellent example for this: Tekla Griebel Wandall, a Danish composer and music educator who had published her own work, with nearly a century of archives, before her work was eventually performed. This example highlights something deeply hopeful: releasing your music can show that your creative instincts are worth following. The work will hold up, even after decades. For me, this example feels like surrendering to the future: It relates to acceptance and focusing on what you create and the beauty of potential results.

Obviously, the answers are not removing any of my concerns. Rather, they feel real and acknowledged. Too much content does not mean there can be “too much art”. Creating this kind of work helps make the world a better place, with the little we can do. Releasing music is not about reaching the masses. For me, it has never been that anyway. My concern was being prevented by gatekeepers whose presence invades the non-contaminated areas as well. But then again: it is about finding your own people or tribe as they call it, based on some of the responses I got. Releasing music (and also performing it) can be connecting with that community on your own terms. You are building a music community you want to be a part of. Not everyone can afford to opt out of financial results of this especially when they don’t have a day job or another financial asset. But even in that case, there can be a very real journey full of rewards, despite all the worries and tension. There is also the mental cost of it: putting something out there and then no one responds to it in an overwhelming noise. However, even this discomfort is actually part of that process, that tension, which might result in something rewarding in your journey and development.

Another conclusion, which is compelling, is that independently releasing music can be an act of resistance on its own right when gatekeepers control who might get heard. That’s why, in my own experience, organically and genuinely connecting feels like hacking that system, bypassing it. Obviously, you may not end up in Rewire festival or whatever all the time but the connections you build with your very own efforts are valuable and rewarding. And yes, they are yours. Being in fediverse reminds me of an extension of this in the online world. And I am thankful to my friend and collaborator Kristoffer Lislegaard for encouraging me about this platform when I was inactive for a long time.

Once again, thanks to everyone who shared their experience and insights. It is so nice to see it coming from a wide range of artists whose presence is so valuable with what they try to do. Highlights include seeing this as part of a musical journey, with reflections on your life journey and documentation of this, as well as participation in a community and culture, bonding with others.