BARNEY COLLINS NEWS.

By Matt D.

Off the bat, just so that you know where I stand: Joe Rogan is a blowhard. Occasionally funny, often inadvertently entertaining and the UFC-muscle car-thick neck-thin dick-spokesman for incels and reactionary conservative snowflakes.

The fact he has an audience doesn’t surprise me, but the fact that Spotify can justify paying $100m for his presence when they can’t find more than 0.000001 cents for an artist on their platform – well, do I even need to finish that thought?

I fully endorse the idea of voting with your dollar. First-world arguments like this are always best sorted with this type of protest because it’s the currency we deal in (literally). The idea that a pack, led by boomers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, can shake a company’s stock by millions; just by removing themselves from it is telling and inspiring.

So why, if I’m so passionate, don’t I put our businesses money where my mouth is? Simple. Barney Collins include all means of listening to the artists we represent because they deserve to have access to your ears. If you find something new, regardless of how you’ve discovered them, actively seek them out on other more artist-friendly mediums.

No business in the current digital/streaming landscape is perfect, but there are some; Bandcamp for instance, where you can pay a small fee to own a copy of your discovery, and as indicated above, paying ANYTHING more than 0.00001 cents for a track will be of actual support to that artist.

Spotify and platforms like it merely make it possible for you to discover things for free. Just because there isn’t a Brashs or HMV anymore doesn’t mean you can’t still buy your favourite stuff. You can support your friends, engage with music in a personal manner (for which it is largely intended) and avoid shit you don’t want to hear; like Joe Rogan.