Napster and Beyond — How We Lost the Battle With The Major Labels

So many articles about how Napster provided the disruptive spark that changed the music industry. A few about how streaming and in particular Spotify it is really bad for musicians. In this article, I want to go a bit further and posit that it is also very bad for music consumers.

It is common knowledge that the 3 major labels control spotify. Their algorithms are not designed to suggest ‘other artists you may like’, they are designed to suggest ‘other artists you may like but whom we control’. The major labels are everyones enemy. Getting signed by a major label is like consigning oneself to a lengthy spell in prison, only much worse.

The theme of this post is taken from a medium article by Jeffrey Anthony. In it he contests that:

Any future for musicians will not be found online. It must be built offline, back in the material realm, where plumbing the depths of the human condition is laborious, slow, and filled with friction. It is risky. It is painful. It is sublime. And it is fun. Only in the material realm can the vital function of meaning-making be preserved. Only there can we hold open a space for a culture that might someday serve as a beacon when society comes looking for what it senses has been lost.

Jeffrey Anthony (2025) – From Napster To Now – How We Lost The Thread: https://medium.com/@WeWillNotBeFlattened/d2fb2dcb70f5

A nice thought but could a meaningful career really be built offline? I mean I love the sentiment but surely the 2 things are not mutually exclusive. What about selling your own records in tandem with an online presence. Bandcamp maybe? The trouble with Bandcamp (for music lovers) is that it is sometimes like finding a needle in a haystack. What’s needed is a John Peel type show with source material from Bandcamp and other independents.

A radio show focused on Bandcamp artists could feature a diverse range of music, highlighting emerging artists from the platform. The show could incorporate interviews with artists, discussions about their music and creative processes, and potentially even artist-hosted segments. Examples of existing shows include “The Bandcamp Hour with Cybertronix” on KSWV Radio Shockwave and a Bandcamp’s themed weekly show on East Village Radio.
Another show I found was called On Air and hosted by The Wire magazine, so that also sounded promising.

Target Audience:
Music lovers interested in discovering new artists and genres.
Fans of independent music and the Bandcamp community.
People seeking a diverse and engaging listening experience.

So far, so good.

The Cybertronix show was on Spotify, so unfortunately that one was out as I’d rather have my eyes pecked out by Seagulls than allow Spotify to enter my life.
So only two options then, The Wire On Air show every Thursday at 9pm and East Coast Radio. New York (USA) every Monday night from 6pm EST to 8pm. Now another dilemma. We’re all boycotting USA product due to the Orange man’s attempt to collapse the world economy, but I’ll see it through to a conclusion I thought.

I wasn’t expecting much, after all this is a conduit rather than a curator type situation. Fully expecting my somewhat random method of finding new music on Bandcamp to prevail, I checked the schedules and tuned in.
My expectations were low, and before the show even started I had a sudden chill at the thought of adverts. From the off I have to say I don’t do adverts. One way conversations have never really appealed to me and although hard to avoid, I do. Sticking your fingers in your ears while driving isn’t always advisable so I made a mental note to listen at home with a finger poised over the mute button. This is already starting to make the relative warm and friendly atmosphere of the John Peel show seem like a golden nostalgic memory.

However, the East Village Radio Manifesto looks promising:
“In these times of a narrowing set of corporatized avenues for artists to gain public attention, the monopolization of virtually every singular radio station being sucking into larger platforms with profits over promotion, EVR remains committed to its original cause: a grassroots source of independent minded DJs and programmers that serves its community. Free of dictated playlists, our hosts come from a wide and diverse background, schooled and deeply knowledgable about their passion.”

So, I’m starting to get excited, just like I did before the John Peel show came on air at 10pm every week day night at first until it was marginalised with later time slots a fewer days. The BBC hated John Peel. I haven’t researched that claim but it has to be true. Perhaps being indifferent to him would be a more truthful adjective. He didn’t stick to one genre of course. Opening up vast swathes of overseas musical culture. It’s where I first heard DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), 70 Gwen Party, Ukkidukkibukkidukkizui, Moonshake, Papa Wemba, The Bhundu Boys and countless others.

Both the East Village show and On Air were surprisingly good. The Wire’s show plays tracks in 3 or 4 seamless segments before a run down of what was played and links to the appropriate bandcamp page. Similarly the EVR show, although lacking the links to the artist page, did follow a similar format and was for the moment free of any advertisements. EVR do it slightly different, focusing on a certain geographic area or scene in the first hour before a more eclectic selection in the second hour.

Listening to both shows will take about 4 hours out of your week, so I thought about this and came up with the idea of a weekly East of the Wire piece where I pick one or two selections from each show and feature them on the blog. The first one is available here.

The Wire – Adventures In Sound And Music broadcasts at 9pm every Thursday on Resonance 104.4FM
https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/on-air
East Village Radio – https://www.mixcloud.com/EastVillageRadio/
https://eastvillageradio.com/about/ Broadcasts every Monday at 6-8pm EST