Building A Sustainable Future For Grassroots Music In The Streaming Age
- Dec 19, 2025
- 4 min read
For bands and artists, streaming is a necessary way to grow a following and build a fanbase, from announcements right up to release day, from presave to playlist. But as Spotify continues to make it harder for independent musicians, is it time to look to more supportive alternatives?
Whilst there are a variety of streaming platforms available for audiences to consume their favourite artists, it’s undoubtedly Spotify that has become synonymous with the term. Their yearly review, Spotify Wrapped, saw 250 million users engage in less than three days, a record number for the platform, all sharing their top listened songs and artists. If anything, this suggests that Spotify is more popular than ever, providing a magnitude of genres and songs at listeners’ fingertips. You want 80s electro? Cool. You want death metal? Sorted. It’s this accessibility that makes it popular - no need for a CD player, no need to buy physical records - you’ve got everything you need in your pocket.
"Digital space is very seductive"
For bands, it’s easier than ever now to record an album at home, sat at your desk, guitar in your Focusrite. Cobble some artwork together on Photoshop, choose a release date, and then click ‘submit’. Your music lands on Spotify, alongside all the other streamers, and you’ve finally made it, sharing your music to a wide audience.
However, the reality is a bit more complicated.
Whilst no streamer is perfect, Spotify is constantly under scrutiny from musicians - a lack of financial support to newer artists means you’ll rarely ever see anything for the music you’ve poured hours of time into, and with some promoters caring more about numbers than quality, your "breakout" track might actually not break out at all. It can often prove a challenge getting your music in front of the right ears, let alone profit off it, when you’re competing with millions of artists who are doing the same.
“I don’t get bogged down with numbers,” Jay Burnett, founder and roster manager at Reaction Management, begins over a short Zoom call. “But I do think overall, when you’re trying to pitch for supports or pitch for festivals, people are looking to see if there is any following, any visibility. Spotify is still the top dog there.”
Based in Glasgow, Reaction Management is a grassroots management company, helping bands and artists boost their recognition through knowledge and backing.
Despite its pitfalls, Jay sees the uses Spotify has for supporting artists, and is aware of people’s reliance on it for band stats, even noting how he liked it in the past as a means of using stats to organise shows. “People are going to look at your stats to decide, maybe at a glance, is this band good enough? Before even listening to the music sometimes, which is a shame.
“I’m hearing great things about what SoundCloud are going to be doing next year to take on Spotify, which is going to be interesting.”
Social media boycotts for Spotify are increasing in volume, and whilst Jay notes that this is largely amongst bands themselves rather than audiences, it is clear there is a shift for artists wanting better support.
“I think people are realising now that streaming is unhealthy,” Simon Bailey, co-founder of the DIY record label Socks On Records and guitarist in Dead Leaves, discusses. “It’s not good for the artist, that’s quite clear, but also it takes away that personal touch of music.”
Dead Leaves are a new band in the Peterborough scene, consisting of Simon, former Dogs Teeth musician Matthew Aylen, Andy Dearlove, and drummer Mark Fennelly. After finding out that they were choosing to forego Spotify altogether, I took the time to speak to them and find out their reasons behind this.
“Digital space is very seductive,” Matthew explains, sitting in a rehearsal unit just outside of Woodston, Peterborough. The band are tonight playing at Tacos and Flipflops, a vegan restaurant, as part of an inaugural acoustic open mic night run by Socks On.
“The draw of it is, oh god, anyone could listen to us. Everyone could listen to us. But you kind of get lost in this huge amount of music that’s just this massive pile up. But Spotify in particular, they don’t value grassroots musicians at all. They don’t pay them.”
One platform the band have kept their music on is Bandcamp, which Simon explains is more justifiable in their eyes. “It’s about downloading music from Bandcamp,” Simon explains, “It gives you the opportunities as an artist to message your followers, your fans as well, there’s a bit more interaction.”
"I’m hearing great things about what SoundCloud are going to be doing next year to take on Spotify"
Simon pauses though, and notes that there may come a point where the band remove their music off all streamers.
“Something different will happen,” Simon reflects, looking to the future of streaming. “We don’t know what it is yet because it’s not there yet, but something different. We couldn’t imagine when Napster first happened, you’d be downloading music. I’m sure when CDs first came along, people were amazed these things could exist. I just hope it’s a bit more genuine and a bit more heart and soul.”
“But this is why community is so important,” Matthew describes. “We’re forced together as musicians. So if we club together, maybe we can support each other at least.”
I will conclude this with a cruel irony - sitting here, writing an article about the pitfalls of streaming, whilst also consuming it. I’m not unaware of the mild hypocrisy here, but rather the ‘necessary evil’ it plays as part of the music industry. It’s 2025, and the PlayStation 5 still can’t play CDs.
If you have a favourite band or artist, support them directly - spread the word, wear their merch. It’s this support that goes way further than you think, and truly builds that connection between artist and fan, producer and consumer.
Dead Leaves' new song, "Bright Lights on Fire", is available now on Bandcamp
Comments