The music industry is built on mediating the exchange of musical ideas. The underlying assumption being that musicians do not have access to the means of production, distribution, and promotion. It is now clear that musicians do, in fact, have these means. And in cases where musicians may find themselves in need of skills and services which they do not personally possess, those may be found and purchased a la carte by any number of independent providers. And that list of small providers will only grow.

The underlying assumption at the heart of the modern musico-industrial complex is crumbling. Part and parcel with this musico-industrial complex is the accompanying system of venues and their various bureaucratic gatekeeping structures. Gatekeeping bureaucracies that claim to possess various degrees of talent in filtering out “bad” music and allowing “good” music a platform in the public square. The basic idea here being that in a meritocratic system, one is withheld from the public eye until various authorities have deemed it appropriate that an artist has reached a sufficient “x” factor and is now ready to be allowed an audience. At the heart of this lies an insidious reality: as a musician, you are not the final arbiter of your own path to exposure. If you’re lucky, you may be aligned with those forces that may seek to help you or those whose tastes are fatefully aligned with your own. But often you will be turned away.

There is a different path. It pushes on boundaries, comfortabilities, and large-scale perceptions of our society. BUT. Once this space is opened up, I truly believe it will provide a platform that, if not meritocratic, will be far more democratic than the nepotistic, solipsistic merchant class that has controlled us for too long.

We have been sold a bullshit idea that we are supposed to be happy to struggle to play in some shitty bar where everyone is talking, there is no direction or hosting being provided by the establishment, i.e. there is no EXPERIENCE. Meanwhile thousands of dollars are being made in liquor sales mere feet away and we will be told that our work is worth less than the wait staff that serves the folks for whom we perform. Rarely is there any effort put into the setting of a bar. It is a machine set up to be disruptive, profitable, and low-effect. WHICH IS FINE, but fuck that as a viable location to contain musical expression when it can be avoided.

Why? Why is there only one place to go? Venue. Permitted, inspected, fully vetted, totally FUCKING STUPID. This is America. We’re not allowed to play music in our own streets? Have concerts in our own homes?

So here we are. The Thesis. The Record Label and the Venue occupy an oversized role in modern musical life. The streets and the home are spaces that require new legal and social structures to be created around them to legitimize them as truly democratic institutions of free expression. When musicians at last abandon the musico-industrial complex and move beyond sanctioned venues, then society will realize how seamlessly musical performance can be incorporated into everyday street scenes. And people will begin to realize that we aren’t just a subclass of performers hanging out in exclusive music studios or performing at set times in rowdy bars. They will realize musicians—along with artists, comics, actors, and poets—are everywhere.