“We’re moving away from a digital-only music creation and consumption approach. For musicians, this means plugging physical into (or back into) your release strategy and signing up here at Spinney Media to make selling, storing, and shipping physical easy.”

Here it is. My employee ID and rental card from Wherehouse Music, 1988. Yes, in addition to being paid minimum wage, we could also check out VHS tapes at a discounted rate!

Being in the music industry in any way or fashion was amazing. Music discovery was walking up to one of us, music retail employees, and asking about something you heard on the radio, maybe hum a couple of bars. Oh, that song? Yeah, it’s right over here. If you like that, you might also enjoy…  Then you’d pick something out and share your music discoveries with us.  And so on.

Curation was a cassette mix tape, a D-90 carefully crafted to introduce a friend to your favorite music and your new music discoveries, so that they, in turn, could reply with their own eureka moments and tracks. This is how we introduced ourselves and got to know each other.  #2 pencil required, of course.

We loved music in all its forms – my co-workers, friends, and I. We lived in Southern California, a short 45 to hour-and-a-half (depending on traffic) drive up to Los Angeles and its record stores, its clubs, its fashion. Newsstands stood on the corner, offering the exotic and often snarky music opinions of New Music Express (NME) and Melody Maker from the UK. We supported friends’ bands, paying to play at The Roxy.  Our colleges even had listening rooms where you could check out a record, put it on a turnable, and enjoy an album between classes.

Music permeated life. We paid attention to it. We shared it. We made it. We wore it in our clothing and hair choices. We chose friends that aligned with it.

Music wasn’t wallpaper – algorithmically designed playlists for background listening, anonymous consumption. It was visceral. It was a cassette tape that went everywhere with you – a constant companion that directed you to communities, shows, life decisions.

I think we’ve lost something in the streaming era. If you can’t tell, I’m currently reading Liz Pelly’s “Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.” I highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, is mourning the devaluation of music, both for musicians directly, and for us, music lovers.

So what are we going to do about it? How do we bring back and breathe life into a vibrant music culture like the one I (and many of you reading this) grew up with?

It will take time, but we’re starting at a great moment.  We’re moving away from a digital-only music creation and consumption approach. For musicians, this means plugging physical into (or back into) your release strategy and signing up here at Spinney Media to make selling, storing, and shipping physical easy.  Your fans want a richer experience, want to connect with your music at a more core level, and want to support you in a material way that helps you create more music.

For us listeners and consumers, it means leaning away from streaming services, subscribing to a good music recommendation Substack or two, going to live gigs more often, visiting the merch table, having that conversation with local musicians at the table, and buying merch – vinyl, CDs, cassettes, stickers, t-shirts: whatever your budget allows.  This is how we are bringing back, building, and nurturing today’s music community.