10 Ways To Support Independent Music And Culture in 2026

Some practical suggestions to take responsibility as a listener

I had a long essay lined up in December listing all the things I found particularly bleak and discouraging about the music industry in 2025.

I never pushed the send button on that article. In fact, I deleted the draft after a couple of attempts at a rewrite. I just didn’t want to feed into the negativity anymore.

Recently I’ve seen a few articles spreading this convenient defeatist narrative, basically saying that streaming might be bad, but there’s nothing we can do about it, because there’s nowhere for us to go.

That line of thinking is tempting but lazy – and wrong. It doesn’t help anyone except the powers that be.

So what I’ve tried to do instead is to list a couple of things we all could do to support independent music and culture more sustainably in 2026.

Look, I’m aware these things aren’t going to “save the music industry”.

Maybe the music industry can’t even be saved. I don’t know if it actually should be saved. It might be time to delink and rebuild instead.

One thing’s for sure though: As parts of the listening audience, we need to start putting our money where our mouth is. Just decrying the evil music business without checking our own complicity isn’t going to cut it in 2026.

I’m not saying you’re a bad person or an irresponsible listener if you don’t adhere to my “demands” below. This is not about claiming moral superiority. Just take this piece as food for thought, and as an encouragement to take actual steps to align your values with your listening habits.

Be aware your decisions and practices may seem incoherent and messy to others. You will risk getting ridiculed. People might call you a ‘luddite’, or an ‘enemy of progress’, or they’ll find other ways why you’re wrong and nothing you do will change anything. Ultimately, that doesn’t matter at all. Passivity, fatalism and ignorance are definitely not the way forward either.

I’m not saying the journey will be easy, but it might be worthwhile. Let’s start.

Ullén, Aardestrup, Borges | Kühlspot Social Club Berlin, 16.03.25

10 Ways To Support Independent Music And Culture in 2026

1. Get off streaming. For a large portion of the artist and listener community, the current model is broken beyond repair. Platforms are only going to become more enshittified and unusable from here. I’ve canceled my Spotify subscription in August 2024. So far it’s been a net positive decision. I’m talking about it in this in-depth interview with Bas Grasmayer. I’ve also found this article by Emily White about the resurgence of the iPod quite interesting.

2. Look into alternative models. You don’t need to sign up or switch right away, but at least take some time to understand how they work, why they benefit culture and possibly align better with your values:

   1. Qobuz offers an interesting combination of a streaming subscription with paid download benefits and quality music editorial. Their relative payouts are much higher than those of the big services, and they offer HQ audio files. Definitely an option to consider when you want to keep a traditional streaming subscription but change your impact.

   2. Subvert, a collective-owned platform branding itself as “the next Bandcamp”, seems like an interesting initiative in this space. It’s in alpha-test stage right now. I found this Fader interview story with founder Austin Robey from October 2025 quite promising.

   3. I’ve read many positive things from trusted sources about Cantilever, a curated indepedent streaming service with an editorial offering. While being UK-only for 2025, it’s launched in the US and EU on January 13, 2026. I will definitely take a deeper look at this soon.

3. Buy music. I still stream music on Bandcamp (yes, they have a streaming option) and YouTube for research and discovery purposes. But I have this rule: if I go back to a piece for the third time, I will pay money to add it to my digital or physical collection. We could redirect our monthly streaming budget towards buying two albums we actually enjoy. Ideally, we’re able to shell out a bigger budget for music and culture – depending on our disposable income of course, but the days of paying a tenner per month and thinking that’s enough should be over for most of us.

4. Buy physical. The easiest way to support artists whose work you enjoy and make sure the majority of that money really lands in their pockets: Order that limited vinyl record, that hand-numbered CD-r from a small print run or that beautifully coloured cassette tape – even if you don’t own a tapedeck (yet). It’s nice to surround yourself with these beautiful physical objects. They will remind you of your connection to the music. Data in a cloud will not.

5. Buy off independents. If you buy an album through Amazon or Apple, these corporations will keep an unreasonable percentage of the money. Instead use Bandcamp or other indie retailers (Bleep, Boomkat etc.) who only deduct reasonable fees. Check if you might be able to buy the music from an artist-owned site. Sidenote re: that iPod comeback: Even huge artists like Bad Bunny are going back to offering paid downloads through their own fan stores, essentially as digital forms of merchandise.

6. Avoid gigantic events. Arena and stadium gigs and huge festivals are bad for culture and the environment. They weigh heavily on the carbon footprint of artists and audiences, and they funnel money and attention towards the top of the pyramid – artists that are already wealthy and overexposed. Let’s rethink our audience practices to sustain independent artists and grassroots venues. Personally, I’ve decided to not set foot on a plane in 2026, which at least in my case is directly connected to this topic, as I’ve often traveled to other places in the past mainly to see a concert or visit a festival.

7. Go small and local. Economically and ecologically, small and medium-sized venues will be the future of live music – not gigantic, brand-sponsored concert halls and carbon-intensive global touring. Support your local DIY venues and clubs. They need it. I aspire to go see at least one small or medium-sized concert per week in my hometown this year. You can find out more on this important political topic on the Better Live Music advocacy site.

8. Boycott evil empires. Right now many call for a Spotify boycott because of Daniel Ek’s investment in military tech. Regardless of where you stand on that matter, we should apply that same scrutiny to other entertainment corporations and their dubious founders and investors. I’ll just stay away from festivals owned by a private equity company which funds some of the most despicable businesses in the world, as well as from festivals and venues owned by an entertainment corporation whose founder is a Christian fundamentalist who donated to the Trump campaigns and various anti-LGBTQ*+ rights groups.

9. Open up your inbox. If you just follow your favorite artists on social media, you probably won’t see their posts in a flood of corporate messaging, influencer ads and AI slop. Just write down your top 20 bands and musicians (no need to overthink this), search for their homepages and add your email address to their newsletter mailing lists. That way you’ll be hearing directly from them about ways and opportunities to support them.

10. Show your passion for music and culture. Allow yourself to be a fan. I’m not talking about the “superfan” that forms parasocial relationships with celebrities. But it’s important to let other people know what’s relevant to us, if just to counter the wrong narrative that “there’s no good new music anyway”. So tell all your friends that you like that new band or bought that new album. Get on a Bandcamp listening session and shower the artist with love. Make a zine. Start a blog. Resist the urge to become that cynical person that doesn’t enjoy new music anymore and keeps telling everyone about it. It’s boring and unattractive.

In my archive, you’ll find some more articles about my changed perception of streaming and my shift back to physical media:

• Listening More Slowly

• I’ve Given Up On Music Streaming

• Life Without Streaming: An Update