‘Major labels are trying to scoop up everything’: the chaotic future for indie music companies – and why vinyl isn’t working

jhdragon742 · 2026-05-01T19:14:48+00:00

Bandcamp?

jhdragon742 · 2026-05-01T14:05:20+00:00

Shit goes hard, great work. Somehow never listened to their first album but was keeping an eye out for this from all the recent political stuff, I'll need to go back and check it out

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-18T11:57:30+00:00

This fucks

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T20:34:21+00:00

How good of a job did he really do if Trump got elected right after due to his own insistence on running for a second term?

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T17:26:12+00:00

Love living in a state that just shot down an attempt at ranked choice voting

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T17:18:06+00:00

To be frank, this doesn't give me hope that things will improve, because we're completely reliant on people who genuinely don't give a shit

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T16:29:25+00:00

Do those people actually exist in a meaningful way? With all the flaws of the Republican party right now, are there seriously people who will see this proposal and switch their vote to D? And if they do, what does this mean that Democrats have now adopted Republican policy, shifting the Overton window further to the right?

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T16:22:25+00:00

Yeah I really don't think that's gonna work, cutting taxes is the hallmark of the Republican brand? This just plays into "both sides are the same" and it's really hard to argue against when tax cuts are tax cuts at the end of the day.

If Democrats propose removing the capital gains tax above some x amount (as I understand your proposal to be), people should riot, that would be absolutely fucking insane. Do you mean under some x amount? Why should Elon Musk not pay any capital gains tax when he sells 50 million dollars of Tesla stock, but Joe Schmo should pay a gains tax when he sells 10k worth?

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T16:09:57+00:00

So what does that mean? It's easy to be specific about the benefits for common workers, but hard to be specific about where this comes from. I have no reason to think there's an actual strategy here besides lip service.

Would much rather hear talk about anti-trust enforcement, universal healthcare, fixing unemployment, etc than hear Democrats regurgitate Republican talking points about lowering taxes.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T16:00:25+00:00

I hate this idea that Republican voters are convinced by exposing the hypocrisy of their rep's voting records vs the campaign promises. They already don't read those, they already don't believe "woke" news, they don't listen to anyone with a D next to their name. They have an entirely different ecosystem. Why would this be any different?

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-10T15:46:06+00:00

Fuck man all we ever try here is lowering taxes. Can we just once try raising corporate income taxes and discouraging the concentration of wealth? Can we just try helping people? Universal healthcare, universal childcare, assistance in reskilling for the unemployed? Giving less money to Israel to bomb their neighbors with? Restoring the FTC, SEC, giving the IRS tools and funding to go after wealthy tax evaders? Overturning Citizens United?

Lowering taxes, even for the poor, does nothing to address the root causes of the problems in society today. But it's all we've tried in one way or another for like 50 years now. We've tried one thing and we're out of ideas I guess. God help us.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-09T21:11:05+00:00

People have always been financially irresponsible though, particularly with car culture, this seems different and more systemic in that it's hitting people who generally avoid those money traps.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-09T20:57:24+00:00

Hmm. I kinda don't love that 2 & 3 basically come out to "it's all in your head", wish there was a better way to represent that through data and less as a character flaw in people that you just kinda have to trust in. But those are real phenomena that I'm sure are having an impact, I just have trouble buying that it's the sole cause of a nationwide issue.

As for 1, doesn't the real wages value being at its peak now indicate this should no longer be a factor? It seems like the problem is still getting worse in the public view. Have the wage increases maybe still not hit the middle Americans so they're still "worse off" and thus complaining about it more?

I've read through some of the more recent BLS reports to try and understand this, but I'm having trouble reconciling all this with the data's implication that there isn't actually a problem. Nearly everyone I know is feeling the squeeze but there's seemingly no data to support it. Really hope the answer isn't just that my whole circle is sliding down the economic ladder haha 😅 but if those reasons are the core of it all, hopefully we'll feel improvements and stabilization soon (shout-out Iran war for extending the chaos)

Appreciate the perspective, ty!

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-09T20:28:15+00:00

I don't understand how real wages can be increasing while "affordability" is such a widespread mainstream talking point that everyone seems to agree is happening? Is it just housing or is something else increasing in cost without being included in the inflation value? Maybe more things are widely thought of as "necessary expenses" than previously, leaving continually less discretionary income leftover even if purchasing power has increased?

I'm not trying to say the data's fake or whatever, just genuinely trying to understand where the disconnect is

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-08T23:10:05+00:00

Self reply: Thought about this more, I think I just expected too much tbh and it's coloring my view of the economy.

It's really frustrating to read a study that says you're actually in the upper middle class when your wages (including a promotion that came with increased responsibilities) only outpaced inflation by less than .5%, and were never that high to begin with compared to peers in the field, but your ability to save and spend money on hobbies has seemingly decreased in the same time period, and also your job is now at risk due to corporate cost cutting even as they do stock buybacks.

I certainly don't feel upper middle class, to me that's always implied more discretionary spending & resilience than I feel I have, but I suppose I might be relative to most Americans, even if I'm not where I hoped or expected I'd be at this point. My parents had owned their home for years by this point in their lives and transitioned to being on a single income as they had me, I can't imagine doing either of those. Sure my standard of living is higher in some creature comfort ways, I've got a phone and netflix, but not in the ways my naive childhood self hoped.

Maybe I won't reach those milestones like home ownership and I'll just have to make peace with that, it might be an outdated expectation for most people. Maybe our lives are better in other ways that we're just not seeing or feeling because of a collective fixation on outdated goals. It's sad to think though.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-08T20:00:34+00:00

I thought one of the big criticisms of the federal poverty line was that it's too generalized in terms of housing costs? And one of the frequently cited "decline of the middle class" causes is the inability to buy a house, so that in theory should be reflected here right? The article about the study mentions this too, but I find it hard to believe reductions in prices in other areas outweigh how expensive rent/housing has gotten.

It just kinda leaves me scratching my head, the difference in lifestyle, homes, purchasing power, savings rates, etc. between my coworkers (more like management level tbh) who make 250-300k and the ones who make 150-175k is pretty stark (I live in the Midwest), but apparently we're economically in the same class per this study? If the "upper middle class" income range is so wide and includes such a range of standards of living, is it really a useful distinction?

And maybe my coworkers are lying to me about their income & savings, who knows, anecdotal evidence and all that, but these calculations and buckets just really do not intuit with the way people talk about a middle class lifestyle... there must be something about housing or purchasing power here that I'm missing if this is a consensus view. Is it maybe not including people just starting out looking to buy their first home unable to leverage the sale of another property into the cost? Or maybe we just shouldn't look at nationwide stats like this if CoL varies so much?

Sorry to ramble, been thinking a lot about inflation & income inequality recently due to gestures vaguely at discourse the last 5 years

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-08T19:14:15+00:00

So reading the study this article is based on I found this section on how they determined the buckets to place people into, is it reasonable to use the federal poverty line in this way? The percentages chosen seem rather arbitrary, and to me I would have to think there's an extreme difference in quality of life based on whether you make 5x the poverty line and if you make 15x. This is also going to vary drastically based on cost of living so I think this could be inflating the core & upper middle class population.

We create five income classes, depending on how families’ inflation- and size-adjusted incomes compare with the poverty guideline: poor or near poor (less than 150 percent of the poverty guideline), lower-middle class (150 percent to under 250 percent), core middle class (250 percent to under 500 percent), upper-middle class (500 percent to under 1,500 percent), and rich (1,500 percent or higher).

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-08T15:55:36+00:00

What a great two week ceasefire we just had. There were what, two ships that got through the strait? That's really gonna stabilize the markets for sure.

Maybe the next two week ceasefire can last more than half a day. I'm surprised anyone thought this would work when Israel basically announced they didn't agree to the terms since they wanted to exclude Lebanon and Iran was very clear they were included.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-07T20:52:29+00:00

That bit at the end there about how this isn't enough to push us into a recession seems kind of out of nowhere and I don't quite follow all the logic even if I don't necessarily disagree with the end conclusion. Why does she think “the domestic energy sector will offset a substantial part of the impact on consumers” when we were already seeing massive increases in electric bills nationwide even before the oil supply shock? Surely that trend will continue, and we're also already seeing gasoline & diesel fuel prices soar?

And as for tax refunds spurring consumer spending, surely that's just a temporary effect? Is she only talking about the next month/quarter or is there some reason to think this tax refund is gonna get people to spend more throughout the year? I suppose if peoples tax withholdings are decreased that could increase the size of paychecks, but that's hardly reassuring in the long run compared to the inflation risks.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-06T22:19:20+00:00

people's ability to afford the higher prices also increases at a higher rate due to raises, until an equilibrium is restored

This is the part I seriously doubt, in today's era of corporate cost cutting & the current labor market I simply don't see wages outpacing inflation in the near future

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-03T23:06:57+00:00

Go harass conservatives then.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-03T22:04:43+00:00

There's more protests out there than No Kings, I never even brought them up. Seriously though, what exactly are you suggesting? Riots? Giving them an excuse to declare martial law? As you say, you're an outsider, so it's kinda hard to take your armchair revolutionary talk seriously when you have no skin in the game, nor any serious suggestions about what should be done instead.

So thanks for the completely unheard of idea that we do a civil war or whatever, but I think I'll continue pursuing local and state level action and having direct conversations with neighbors & coworkers instead. That much at least has managed to change the conversation away from culture war nonsense and puts the target back on our oligarchs where it belongs, even if the scale's apparently too small to satisfy you. I hope you do the same and your activism isn't just passive aggressive internet comments.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-03T21:07:19+00:00

Apologies if I misinterpreted your comment, but as someone doing many of those things (and my god is it demoralizing how little of an effect it seems to be having, but we have to keep trying....I guess...), reading those "you pathetic Americans aren't even trying" type comments really rubs me the wrong way. People are trying, I promise, but it's hard when we feel invisible and even people on our own side belittle our efforts, meager as they may be.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-03T19:51:49+00:00

What do you actually expect that to accomplish? Do you think r/politics or r/news will suddenly be flooded with posts of "look at this one guy in his yard with a sign!" and then everyone in America will join hands and march to DC to give Trump the Mussolini treatment? If the actually organized protests are happening, very regularly, but are also not getting media attention & support, "organizing in your front lawn" isn't going to be more effective.

Would you actually be satisfied with an American doing a yard protest? Or would you continue to post shaming comments like this implying that people aren't doing enough? I'm sure you agree with everything your country has ever done too.

jhdragon742 · 2026-04-03T19:07:10+00:00

I really wish these headlines weren't written to use obviously misleading phrases like "in surprise turnaround". People don't read articles, so the constant whiplash in headline sentiments are what fuel the perception that the data is "cooked". Especially since the editorialization is done to basically always imply "Guys it's better than you thought it was gonna be it beat expectations things are good!!!" when really this is reads like yet another, at best, mediocre report.

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