On creative energy & the state of "disruptive" indie music services
Hey it’s Brandon. Happy Saturday – hope you’re doing well. Here are some things I published in the past week:
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A non-exhaustive list of the entities aiming to disrupt music streaming
posted July 19, 2025
I am aware of quite a few efforts to “build a truly indie-first music service”:
Ever (whose website I can no longer find, so maybe they folded?)
At least 3 different blockchain/web3 things, such as Bitsong
A wholly different thing the Transcendant guy is exploring
Likely others
Plus say what you will about Bandcamp, they’re still building things.
While I don’t think any of these in particular will “win” (or even make a dent in streaming on their own), I love that innovation is happening.
There are options now. This is good.
Try them, help them out, give them feedback, use the one you love enough to point fans to instead of a streaming service.
Don’t think of them as saviors. Don’t expect any one to win or meaningfully change consumer behavior from the streaming model of today. That’s a massive task. I see it as a gradual and fragmented shift, one where they enable the artist to shift behavior themselves. Innovation often happens slowly and without most people noticing.
As an aside, it’s fascinating to me how grossly pervasive the idea of streaming is outside of the small independent music community I’m in. I tried Googling “best web services for independent music artists” and all I got were lists of the 7-8 streaming services everyone already knows.
Intense creative energy shift
posted July 19, 2025
I haven’t felt much motivation to write prose lately. I thought this was because of the constant reading I’ve felt a need to do lately to ensure I’m up to date on the state of the world, but now I’m realizing it’s also because my creative energy has shifted toward other things in the last while in a very intense and focused way.
My work at Buffer, especially in the past 4-5 months, has taken a lot of creative energy. This alone would have made it fun, but the creative work we’ve been putting in is paying off – the company is growing as it hadn’t in years, and I have the unique privilege of building something my friends and people whose success I care about is helping to support. No job is perfect but this is by a long shot the closest I’ve gotten.
In parallel to that (despite pushing myself to take my time with it), I’ve very quickly put together the bulk of a new Kid Lightbulbs album. I did not plan for it to come together this quickly, but again, creative energy is wild. There is still a lot to do, and I need to think about the degree to which I want to promote this supposed album, but it’s happening.
I don’t know how I’m making time for these things.
If any of these resonate with you, I’d love to talk about it! Drop me a message on Bluesky or Threads.
Talk soon ✌️Brandon