IC Community Newsletter #73
A few IC updates + our roundup of indipendent music news & the releases from the community we're digging this week
It’s a short and sweet one this week… no big think piece from me, but we did want to let you know about some IC news (plus the Indie Intel roundup and a few releases from the IC community we’re digging this week).
Three big things happening in the world of IC:
We updated our pricing to make it easier to understand & more predictable, and added a new discounted annual option if you want to commit to a longer term. Plus, you can now import all of the data you want during your free trial so you can catch up on historical royalties for no extra charge.
Hunter laid out all of the new pricing details for you here.Our Summer Special is on! It didn’t feel right to drop a pricing update without a little something extra in it for you, so we’re running our first ever mid-year discount.
You can try IC free for 14 days and get 20% off with code SUMMER
If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading your royalty situation, now’s the time. The sale runs through June 30.
We’re at Indie Week! It gets into full swing tomorrow and the IC team is here. Want to say hey? Drop us a line and we’ll find a time to link.
BTW, Hunter is holding down the Follow the Money: Data, Content ID & UGC Monetization panel at 10:30 on Thursday. Go put it on your schedule!
We’ll be chronicling our journey over on Bluesky if you wanna follow along.
—Mark
Indie Intel
All the news that’s fit to summarize.
On Network Notes, Darren Hemmings makes a compelling case for the music industry to divorce itself from social media dependency. Inspired by OnlyFans creators successfully using billboards, he warns that platforms aren't interested in helping artists build fanbases (and may eventually replace them with AI-generated alternatives).
Stuart Dredge at Music Ally reports on a new UK parliamentary committee report aptly titled "Misogyny in Music: On Repeat." One year after their initial findings, the new report slams the industry's continued use of NDAs to silence victims and highlights the desperate need for freelancer protections that actually work.
Also via Music Ally: Goldman Sachs is feeling less optimistic about music's immediate future. Their latest report cuts 2025's recorded music forecast by $2.5bn to $31.4bn, citing a "marked slowdown" in 2024. Still, they're betting on the industry reaching $196.8bn by 2035. AI music? Just 0.1% of royalties so far.
Josh from The West Report exposes Spotify's AI shenanigans in his latest video. Real artists are finding AI-generated tracks hijacking their profiles, while Spotify's history of using "ghost artists" continues unchecked. The platform has little motivation to fix a problem that's padding their bottom line.
Digital Music News reports vinyl subscription service Vinyl Me, Please has been rescued from liquidation by competitor VNYL. New CEO Nick Alt promises to restore the "Best Damn Record Club" while implementing a segmented approach to target different collector demographics—all as vinyl's growth shows signs of cooling.
New Releases
Music from catalogs in the IC community that caught our attention since last time.
🎧 Phoebe Rings' "Aseurai" on Carpark Records fuses celestial dream-pop into earthbound disco with Korean poetics. →
🎧 Pn à La Carte Records, Austin's Holy Wire surrenders their compositions to ten electronic rerubs on "The Ending of an Age Remixes." →
🎧 On Chaka Chawasarira's "Useza" via Nyege Nyege Tapes, the maestro's matepe overdubs defy evangelical suppression of Zimbabwe's spiritual music. →
🎧 Naya Beat Records immortalizes its digital-only gems on vinyl with "Select Remixes and Reworks." →
🎧 "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away" marks Hayden Pedigo's farewell to Amarillo through warped instrumental Americana on Mexican Summer. →
🎧 After his narrative debut, Theo Haber pivots to microtonal experimentation on "While we wait," cmntx's latest avant-folk offering. →
That’s all for #73! As always, if there’s something you’d like to see in the next edition, give us a shout.
Until next time!
- Mark & the Infinite Catalog crew