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Reports, reviews, interviews, essays, and opinions about music and its connection to business and society.
How To Best Support Your Favourite Musicians
Streaming is not a viable business for most indie artists. Here are four ways you can actually support your favourite musicians.
By now, it should hardly surprise anyone that streaming services are not a viable business model for most artists, especially if they're walking outside the big mainstream path.
While streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music have made it easier for consumers to access new music, the revenue model doesn't work for the majority of musicians.
Suppose you're paying a premium subscription for any of the services. In that case, the money goes into a pool—and you're financing the big labels and streaming giants like Ed Sheeran or Talyor Swift, whether you're actually listening to them or not.
While it is completely understandable not to want to ditch the convenience of streaming, every music fan should know that simply paying for a premium service does not support their favourite artists.
However, there are five easy ways alongside streaming you can use to actually (financially) support your beloved musicians and enable them to keep doing what they do best.
Buy Their Music
Okay, this should be obvious: Buying is better than streaming. When you buy an album or single physically or digitally, the artists get a fixed amount of money.
There are even two main advantages for you as the buyer: If you purchase a physical product like a vinyl record, you have a piece of art to decorate your home (provided the cover art is outstanding).
And if you buy a digital download, the music is protected, and you actually own a copy of the file. Streaming services often remove songs from their platforms, or the artists themselves delete them for various reasons.
Buy Tickets Early
Concerts are great to support your favourite musicians. They not only earn money from ticket sales but shows provide an easy opportunity for them to sell merchandise (see next point).
However, since the pandemic, pre-sales have been struggling, sometimes even leading to cancelled shows because the financial risk was too high.
So if you really want to see your favourite artist live, buy a ticket early. And keep this also in mind: You're simultaneously supporting your local concert venue. What a great feeling!
Buy Their Merchandise
As mentioned above, merchandise aside from physical music has become an essential revenue stream for artists. While certain genres like metal have engrained it into their culture with band shirts and patches, it isn't as common in other scenes.
So purchasing merchandise like shirts, stickers, or other bits and pieces is an effective way to help artists make ends meet—especially because compared to the music itself, there are fewer stakeholders like labels, publishers, or distributors involved.
Support Them On Creator Platforms
Some musicians take advantage of newer opportunities to gain the support of their fans. They might be present on creator platforms like Patreon or Fanklub, where you pay a small monthly subscription. These platforms provide them with a steady income, often trading the money for exclusive content for their paying supporters.
Other artists seek funding for their next album on a crowdfunding platform. Also, there, you can directly support the musicians in their creative endeavours.
Spread The Word
Well aware that all of these support approaches require a certain disposable income in a time when life, in general, gets more expensive, it's also worth considering that the same is true for musicians.
It is important to remember that music, despite all the contrary signs, is not just a commodity but art created with passion and inspiration. It brings us relief, channels emotions, and sparks joy.
However, there's one thing that helps and is completely free: Spread the word! Recommend artists to your friends and multiply their reach through social media.
Angie McMahon – Light, Dark, Light Again
Australian singer-songwriter Angie McMahon demonstrates artistic and emotional sophistication in her sophomore album.
It was the song Missing Me that introduced me to Angie McMahon in 2019. The single's raw and reduced composition felt like a long-awaited return to rock music's essence.
With Salt, the Melbourne-born artist delivered a highly praised debut album, even shooting up to 5th place in Australia's charts. Eddy Lim, reviewer at the Beat Magazine, wrote: «While Salt is primarily driven by deft guitar work and a tight rhythm section, it's McMahon's stunning vocal performance that unequivocally captures the spotlight.»
Four years passed, and finally, Angie McMahon released her sophomore work: Light, Dark, Light Again. And it sounds significantly different from Salt—already anticipated with the first single release, Saturn Returning—yet arguably even better.
I have been listening to Light, Dark, Light Again for weeks at this point, yet I still struggle to fully grasp the album and put my thoughts into sentences that pay justice.
There are obvious observations like the piano replacing the guitar as the main character in most compositions—a development that originated in the 2020 compilation of Salt songs in piano versions.
Or that, suppose Salt was a raw blueprint of blues-infused rock music, the new album seems like a natural evolution: Its compositions are more complex and refined, sophisticated gems of singer-songwriter brilliance, encompassing all from rock, folk, blues, and country music.
Or the connection to nature as a facilitator of healing with references in the lyrics and soundbites introduced in songs like the opener, Saturn Returning.
However, none of these facts scratches the depth of the brilliance Angie McMahon displays in the 13 songs of Light, Dark, Light Again. There is more to unpack here, maybe too much for a single review.
Beharie – Are You There, Boy?
Norwegian musician Beharie released his debut album, «Are You There, Boy?». The record conveys stories of a complex character.
With his debut album, Norway's indie soul hope Beharie presents twelve songs with a kaleidoscopic range of tones, sounds, and colours—tied together with his raw singer-songwriter lyrics, swinging between self-confidence and vulnerability.
In 2021, Beharie won the Spellemann prize for his second EP, Beharie // Beharie, and was nominated again a year later for the subsequent EP, Beharie, the Third. Both moments demonstrate the artist's rising profile in his home country and beyond.
In Are You There, Boy?, Beharie delves into the aspects of his identity as a queer person. Artistically abstracted into different characters, each song is a fragment of Beharie's self, meeting in their common urge for belonging. Or, as Beharie puts it:
5 Songs That Inspired Dennis Kiss
What songs and artists influenced Dennis Kiss? The musician shares five tracks that inspired his own work.
Dennis Kiss has published his debut album since he became a solo artist. Norddeich Mole was released on October 6, and it's an opus for the thoughtful, the dreamers, and the sad. Raised in Switzerland, now living in Hamburg, Dennis Kiss sings in his native language for the first time.
Janosch Troehler
Songs like Bordeaux, previously featured in Weekly5, or his latest release, Gewitterwolken, are bittersweet indie-pop songs that perfectly complement Germany's rise in something called «Neue Neue Deutsche Welle», a resurgence in post-punk-esque, melancholic sound spearheaded by artists like Edwin Rosen, Betterov, or Temmis.
At least in Kiss' case, the musical inspiration for his sound, labelled by himself as «Neue Deutsche Einsamkeit» [New German Loneliness], is, in fact, driven by the more saddened works of other artists.
We asked Dennis Kiss to share five songs and artists that heavily influenced his own musical creativity. For Negative White, he opens his treasure chest of influence and tells, in his words, how these songs and artists inspire him.
Editors – Open Your Arms
I love the first Editors album, The Back Room, for its simplicity and bluntness. There are very few other albums that encapsulate tristesse and melancholia like this one does. It always appealed to me how Tom Smith somehow manages to gather so much bitterness and sorrow in so few words.
It’s a fine art to write a song in this typically post-punk-esque manner of monotonously repeating the same line and theme over and over again and then, at some point, just slightly changing it in the most painful way. That’s what always fascinated me about this album: the that lives in monotony.
The Cure – Pictures of You
It was my mother who first showed me The Cure. Generally, if it wasn’t for my parents, I don’t know where I would have gotten my musical education. From early on, they confronted me with bands like U2, the Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and so on.
I remember trying to dislike The Cure as an act of rebellion as a teenager. Obviously, this act didn’t last long, and I soon had to give in and admit that this band probably inspired me more than I would even imagine today. Pictures of You is the second song on Disintegration, my mother‘s favourite album by The Cure, and it’s a downright masterpiece.
Melodic Heartache
With «Norddeich Mole», Dennis Kiss presents his debut album. It's a deep introspection of a young, longing, and seeking man.
My 20-something self would have devoured Norddeich Mole, the debut album of Dennis Kiss. It's a brilliant collection of sad indie songs, a descendant of Hamburger Schule tuned to churn out maximal melancholy.
But can you really enjoy this tribute to longing for love and coming of age beyond a certain threshold?
Born and raised in Switzerland, Dennis Kiss first made an impression together with his band The Sleepers. In 2021, they released the album Poco Bono. The beginning and the end were wrapped up in one as they split up right after. However, in parallel, Kiss already started to work—maybe unknowingly—at his next step.
Flaschenpfand marked a new phase for the musician: He wrote a song with German lyrics for the first time. During a pandemic, shaking up everybody's life, Kiss shook up his songwriting.
Now, around three years later, Dennis Kiss lives in Hamburg and releases Norddeich Mole. It's not only an hommage to his home, Northern Germany, but a deep introspection into the heart of a young, sensitive man—and beyond, a generation that feels lost yet yearns for connection and love.
Staff
Testament To Body And Soul: Sensu – AM___PM
After last year's EP «Numéro LDN», Swiss producer Sensu released another small collection called «AM___PM». Let's listen.
Sensu's career shows an undeniable upwards trajectory—not only regarding exposure but very much artistically. The Swiss producer has come far since 2017 when she debuted with the EP Lose Sight.
The early work is heavily inspired by hip-hop's slow beats and a soul-like vibe, clearly audible in her debut album Embrace, released in 2019.
One year later, Sensu was nominated for a Swiss Music Award—as the first woman who «only» produced sound, not as a singer. The jury at SRF 3 Radio wrote in its nomination: «The electro producer breaks down clichés of electronic club music and has created her own music genre.»
Jasmin Peterhans, aka Sensu, started playing the piano at seven. 2010, she began producing her own music. «I wanted to contribute something to hip-hop culture,» she said in an interview with The Pit London. But she gradually shifted towards more intricate electronica, prominently marked by the 2021 single Drawn and the EP Inner Monologue, which draws from both sonic worlds.
The transformation to one of the most lauded electronic acts Switzerland has to offer was completed with last year's EP Numéro LDN. While hip-hop vibes are still present in tracks like Both Sides, a collaboration with rapper Denyher, or Pink with Jamal Bucanon, Sensu's sound now was clearly inspired by UK garage and jungle.
After releasing Numéro LDN, Sensu shared five tracks with us that inspired her in the process, like Overmono's So U Kno. «When I first heard this song in London, I was utterly blown away by the euphoria it triggered in me. […] The details and the build-up are absolutely insane. Overmono are definitely one of the most inspiring acts in the past half-year,» she wrote then.
Janosch Troehler
2023 marks another milestone: AM___PM, released on June 9th, is a small but precious four-track collection showcasing another progression.
While three of the songs have already been released as singles, the collective gathering on the EP prompts a deeper reflection on Sensu's latest work.
Opening the sonic experience is Fuse, featured in one of this year's Weekly5 editions. The track fiercely raves although the UK garage vibe is less present.
However, the gap gets filled with a constant rush of beats, foggy synthesisers, and an alarming melody. Fuse spreads excitement without indulging in cheesy cheerfulness.
Instead, Sensu's sound often sounds more melancholic and thoughtful, compellingly contrasting electronica's pumping nature.
The sombre, almost sinister atmosphere continues in Perfect Life—a collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Lawrence Hart. Here, UK garage makes a comeback, referencing a beat similar to 2022's Hypnotize Me Baby, just faster and crisper.
Perfect Life advances and retracts repeatedly; sometimes, the composition is reduced to its bare minimum, only displaying the beat or the melody, making it even more impressive when Sensu and Hart open all the tabs to unleash the entire arrangement.
Clear My Mind then pushes the pedal to the metal: The hyperactive beat alongside the heavily pitch-shifted vocal sample creates a frantic, restless track, yet grounded by a deeply humming bass in the background.
However, the song's nervousness cannot drown out the fact that Clear My Mind remains the track that requires the most getting used to and is probably the EP's weakest entry.
AM___PM's only previously unreleased track closed the EP. Night Drive features an upbeat ambience; it's almost galloping in its breakbeat.
But at first, the track misleads you: «At the beginning, it appears to be a somewhat harder rave track that could be played in a dark cellar. But then the Arp sounds suddenly pull you into a kind of dream world, and it gets brighter again,» explains Sensu in the press release about one of her favourite tracks on the EP.
«The energy stays until the break and then it feels like a free fall. In the second drop, the euphoria sets in.»
The song feels like a shimmering reconciliation, a sharp handbrake turn away from the gloomy vibe AM___PM features in its other tracks.
«Night Drive is a journey, just like all the different phases of life that we go through,» says Sensu. «The energy stays until the break, and then it feels like a free fall. In the second drop, the euphoria sets in.»
With AM___PM, Sensu again highlights her entitlement as one of Switzerland's most intriguing electronic artists, one that pushes boundaries and explores new territories. Her compositions are highly detailed, precise yet playful, often unconventional and complex.
But what truly sets Sensu apart is her ability to infuse her music with genuine feelings. Whether it's the melancholic atmosphere or the euphoria of a soaring melody, her compositions are always emotionally resonant.
AM___PM is a testament to Sensu's musical skill and commitment to creating music that speaks to the soul and body.
