Them Changes
.....long time coming......
When Echo Locator started, like 2 years ago (!), one goal of mine was entirely selfish: To see if I could develop a “beat" devoted to music discoveries and short essays about the creeping impact of digital technologies on the distinct-but-related experiences of creating, finding, and immersing in music.
One friend told me I’d run out of topics in six months. (He obviously wasn’t following the explosion of interest in previously-unreleased recordings.)
Another person advised me to make the newsletter free and its archives as accessible as possible — because the newsletter model would flame out like a vaporous NFT cartoon in a year.
[The above included for graphic purposes only! No endorsement implied!]
I followed that advice on free, and I’m happy that prognostication was wrong. But I’ve never been fully comfortable in our new surreal pro/amateur gig economy. Having contributed to NPR, Rolling Stone, The Philadelphia Inquirer and other media outlets for years, I never loved the idea of expending effort to develop an essay only to send it out gratis. Work is work. The contribution of this little effort — and the many like it, across all artforms — is to insist on the importance of an ongoing conversation involving artists past and present, their potential audiences and (yes) critics and chroniclers. Those participants, many longtime professionals, should be compensated, full stop.
The prevailing market conditions of this weird moment — the fact that fundamental notions of “value” surrounding music and music journalism have unraveled (see: Spotify et al) — arguably make it more important to pay attention to what’s here, what’s being unearthed, what’s missing. That’s not free. We pay in eyeballs. We pay by enduring advertising before the video starts. We are witnesses to an incredible and turbulent moment for art and attention (please please please read this Opinion piece from today’s New York Times): Every day, over and over throughout the day, we find ourselves deciding whether to engage with a work or an opinion or some AI hypebot — or burrow back under the covers.
To my enduring amazement, the absolutely free model did not sit well with some EL readers, either. Way (way) before I paused long enough to really think about putting out a tip jar or agitating via other fundraising devices (to say nothing of the backoffice stuff), some readers pledged support. These people were way ahead of me. They inspired me to think about the mission of this endeavor from different perspectives. Not gonna lie: This was the kind of encouragement writers live for. Deeply grateful, beyond words.
So, starting December 1, Echo Locator will begin its Paid/donations accepted phase. That means more and different buttons between paragraphs and related stuff, and hopefully a few more posts and more activity in the comments section. (Full disclosure: Not my wheelhouse but I’m learning….). I’m not interested in the marketing that some people are doing to drive subscriptions on this platform — Echo Locator relies on word of mouth, so please spread the word if you are so inclined. I’m also allergic to the various tiers and experiences that some offer: I’m here to explore ideas around music, not to hand out Participation Cookies to Most Valued Members!
Also, and this is important to me, the archives will remain accessible and searchable to those who support and those who don’t. It’s been an enormous wonderful experience sharing these recordings — if you’re new, please trip on back through some of the old posts. Hope you find some unexpected audio inspiration.
Thanks for reading. If you want more, eons ago I wrote a book called 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die (Workman Publishing), that is, amazingly, still available.
Tomorrow: A Record Store Day trip through the marvelous hiding-in-plain-sight discography of an underappreciated titan of Latin-jazz.
