☄️the IC Community Newsletter returns!
ft. UMG/Downtown, what does independent mean, LA fire relief, IC's New Year special, detecting AI generated music, Mood Machine, new releases from True Panther, Bent Rhythm, Soul Clap Records & more.
👋 Since it’s your first time seeing me in this newsletter, let me introduce myself. I’m Mark Johnson, Director of Marketing here at Infinite Catalog. I joined the IC team last August, and like many of us at IC, I’ve been steeped in the independent music world for years—as a DJ, producer, and co-founder of the record label Fortune Signal.
We closed 2024 with yet another round of consolidation in the music landscape as Universal’s Virgin Music Group announced it would acquire Downtown for $775 million. In one fell swoop, the behemoth (whose share of the global music market already topped 35%) gobbled up a suite of companies that indies rely on, including distribution platforms (Fuga, CD Baby, Soundrop), martech (found.ee), publishing administration (Songtrust), and IC’s own royalty accounting competitor (Curve).
That news, predictably, lit the fuse for a string of missives from the industry: questions about what Universal will do with their newfound access to data, prognostication about the future of independent music, concerns about the risk of consolidation, calls for regulatory intervention, and philosophical musings about what it means to be independent. IC’s Hunter Giles had his own thoughts about the latter:
What makes an independent in 2025?
Surely it's not what distribution or services you use, or who happens to own those businesses.
It's probably not about funding, though that can be a factor.
It might not even be about ownership.
Maybe it's as simple as: independents express themselves.
I’m inclined to agree—and not just because Hunter is my boss.
While the infrastructure of the music industry continues its march toward consolidation, the notion that “independents express themselves” gives me a glimmer of optimism. Independents can’t help but express themselves. And we’ll keep finding ways to do just that. The 13 new releases featured in this issue are living proof.
-Mark
Love for Los Angeles
Our hearts are with all the members of our community affected by the unprecedented fires in Los Angeles. IC’s Elene wanted to elevate the efforts of MusiCares to support all the music people in Southern California impacted by the wildfires:
You can donate to MusiCares here. For those seeking assistance or able to contribute supplies, Mutual Aid LA Network is compiling a list of resources.
Our New Year Special is On
Why now is your time to shine re: upgrading your royalty situation:
Royalties are hard and probably holding you back and/or stressing you out (this used to be us too)
IC makes royalties easier and helps you grow better together with your payees
You can try IC free for 14 days and get 50% off your first 3 months using code JAN50
Happy new year everyone, remember this offer expires Jan 31st! Try IC free today and future-you will be thanking current-you for changing your catalog for the better.
Indie Intel
🤖 Musician/YouTuber Benn Jordan created a tool to detect AI generated music with 100% accuracy and found which streamer pays the most. Spoiler: it's... Peleton?
📝 Network Notes published a letter from Martin Mills in which the Beggars Group founder asserts that UMG's latest independent cosplay threatens actual independent labels' market access.
🗺️ Water & Music shared their updated Music Tech Ownership Ouroboros, a visual representation of the multi-billion-dollar cage match for control of independent music infrastructure.
🙌 Drowned in Sound shared 25 ways that music fans can support a struggling indie ecosystem in 2025. Their guide gives fans concrete steps to keep venues open, artists touring, and independent media breathing.
📗 First Floor's Shawn Reynaldo spoke with Liz Pelly about her new book "Mood Machine," diving into Spotify's ad-tech origins, systematic exploitation of artists, and major label collusion (all with a facade of artist opportunity).
🤑 While artists battle against AI slop for pennies per stream, MBW reveals Spotify's executives banked $1.25B from stock sales in 2024. Daniel Ek closed out December with a $93M holiday bonus to himself.
New Releases
New music from catalogs in the IC community.
🎧 Oklou's anti-club anthem "Harvest Sky" gets gleefully club-ified by Danny L Harle and Milkfish on True Panther. →
🎧 Florian Hecker's Resynthese FAVN on Blank Forms lets machines listen to themselves across ten CDs, reimagining Mallarmé's 1876 poem. →
🎧 B8E serves up "Gold Clap," a psychedelic house thumper on Bent Rhythm that's tailor-made for intimate dance floors. →
🎧 On Soul Clap Records, Mike Agent X Clark and Paul Hill merge Motor City house with P-Funk soul on "I Don't Know Why," born from an electric Movement Festival performance. →
🎧 Korode channels London's murky underbelly into his Too Much Collective debut, the 'Muscle’ EP for five tracks of 140bpm grime warfare. →
🎧 Richmond post-rock pioneers Gregor Samsa's first two EPs finally hit vinyl as 40:13.5 on Iodine Recordings, freshly remastered by Deafheaven producer Jack Shirley. →
🎧 Double Mute's "Corporate Culture" on Gymnocal Industries features Fire-Toolz in a sardonic blend of industrial and chamber music, packaged as a business card CD. →
🎧 Tartelet Records celebrates five years of Jitwam's genre-bending Honeycomb with a deluxe edition, adding fresh remixes to the Indian-born Brooklyn artist's psychedelic soul masterpiece. →
🎧 Gold Coast post-grungers The Future According to Eve craft a relationship-focused song cycle on Inside Out, their latest for Dark Escapes Music, bookending hope between "Hello Sun" and "Hello Moon." →
🎧 Awesome Tapes From Africa celebrates its 50th release by unearthing Nahawa Doumbia's stripped-down 1982 masterpiece Vol 2, restored from vinyl after the masters vanished into Malian history. →
🎧 London's J. Caesar returns to Secretsundaze with "Another Day, Another World," a street soul-meets-deep house gem crafted with Rhythm Section's Mali Baden-Powell, pressed to just 10 lathe cuts. →
🎧 Coast LoCastro & Nohokai's "Pon Di" features Johnny Slash and Blind Vizionary together on Broken Complex for a grimy hip-hop fusion with reggae undertones. →
🎧 K+Lab's five-track Muuve EP on Philos Records brings Lyrics Born and The Mic Smith along for a genre-bending ride through bass music, DNB, and funk territories. →
From the IC Team
Each edition, the IC team shares the gems they’re into right now
📅 Lauren is planning her 2025 gig calendar (tix to 7 gigs and 1 fest so far). Highlight: seeing The Baboon Show for the first time in Bristol, UK in February.
📗 Nenet is headed to the release event for Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine (it’s about to be required reading for the IC team).
🧘 Dev shouted out Robert Ashley's - Private Parts “because I want a wellness guru to tell me: ‘My mind turns to my breath, one / My mind watches my breath, two / My mind turns and watches my breath, three’
🔁 Christopher has this Kalenjin Kenyan song on heavy repeat
😵💫 Josh is hypnotically listening to Sinead O'Connor's version of “All Apologies,” as prominently featured in the titles sequence of the film "Queer"
💽 Hunter is enamored with this song, about what happens when technology steamrolls over people with no regard for whats being lost.
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you again next week.
- Mark & the Infinite Catalog crew
Nice to see the ICCN back again!