Indie music and the question of what we owe to the artists whose music we love is something I don't hear discussed enough honestly.

We've built a culture around music consumption that has decoupled the experience of loving music from the financial act of supporting the people who make it. Streaming lets you listen to anything for a flat monthly fee; the artist gets a fraction of a cent per stream. The music is abundant and practically free; the artists are largely broke.

I've been trying to be more intentional about closing this gap. I buy records on Bandcamp from artists I love instead of streaming them. I go to shows when I can. I buy merch I don't particularly need. These are small acts but they're direct connections between my experience of the music and the artist's ability to continue making it.

The alternative — continuing to love music while being agnostic about whether the people who make it can sustain their work — seems intellectually incoherent and practically self-defeating. A culture that loves music but doesn't support musicians will eventually have less music to love.