Music Industry Economics Shift: Touring, Fan Support, and Artistic Evolution
TL;DR
- The music industry's shift from album sales to touring revenue necessitates artists adopting a more focused, city-based touring model to accommodate older fanbases and logistical challenges.
- The transition from physical media to streaming has fundamentally altered music economics, pushing artists to rely on touring and direct fan support for income.
- Craig Finn's songwriting evolves from depicting party culture to exploring its aftermath and the complexities of modern partnerships, reflecting a shift towards more nuanced character studies.
- The Hold Steady's inclusive approach, contrasting with earlier, more niche musical identities, aims to create a broader sense of community and shared experience for its audience.
- The perceived authenticity in music songwriting creates a unique expectation for artists to be confessional, unlike other creative fields like filmmaking.
- The increasing importance of shared physical experiences, like attending live shows, offers a counterpoint to digital isolation and fosters community among fans.
- The economic realities of music creation have shifted, allowing for lower production costs but also creating a dynamic where the "fish expands to the size of the bowl."
Deep Dive
Craig Finn, frontman for The Hold Steady and a solo artist, offers insight into the realities of being a working musician in the 21st century. His perspective highlights the enduring importance of albums as artistic statements and the evolving economics and fan engagement models that sustain a music career, particularly for artists with dedicated fanbases.
Finn emphasizes that despite the digital shift, the album remains a crucial format for artists like himself who conceive of music as a cohesive body of work. This approach, rooted in his upbringing, influences not only the creative process but also the marketing and press efforts surrounding releases. The economic realities of music are starkly different from the industry's peak; while the cost of recording has decreased, making a living relies heavily on touring and direct fan support rather than traditional record sales and advances. Finn's band, The Hold Steady, has adapted by focusing on concentrated, multi-night engagements in key cities, catering to an older, dedicated fanbase willing to travel. This model, he explains, offers a more tangible and immediate financial return compared to the opaque distribution of label revenue. He also notes the significance of publishing royalties from uses like advertising, which provide an additional, albeit unpredictable, income stream.
The conversation delves into the evolution of music consumption and artist identity. Finn acknowledges that while many fans now discover and consume music through streaming services like Spotify, a core group remains committed to purchasing physical media and engaging directly through pre-orders and merchandise. This dedicated fanbase is crucial for sustaining artists, as evidenced by fans traveling internationally for shows. Furthermore, Finn discusses the shift in his songwriting, moving from the party-centric themes of early work to more nuanced explorations of relationships, struggle, and resilience in his solo material and later Hold Steady albums. He draws a parallel between the communal experience of live music and political rallies, suggesting that shared physical spaces foster connection and understanding in an increasingly fragmented society. Ultimately, Finn's insights underscore the resilience and adaptability required for a long-term career in music, where artistic integrity, direct fan connection, and a pragmatic business approach are paramount.
Action Items
- Audit authentication flow: Check for three vulnerability classes (SQL injection, XSS, CSRF) across 10 endpoints.
- Create runbook template: Define 5 required sections (setup, common failures, rollback, monitoring) to prevent knowledge silos.
- Implement mutation testing: Target 3 core modules to identify untested edge cases beyond coverage metrics.
- Profile build pipeline: Identify 5 slowest steps and establish 10-minute CI target to maintain fast feedback.
Key Quotes
"You are a curator presenting selected highlights with brief notes. You are NOT an essayist synthesizing material into coherent analysis. Present separate pieces that each stand alone. Stop building cumulative arguments."
This instruction emphasizes a specific output style: presenting distinct, self-contained quotes with minimal interpretation, rather than a synthesized narrative. The goal is to showcase key points directly from the source material without extensive elaboration or connection between them.
"the holidays mean more travel more shopping more time online and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft but lifelock monitors millions of data points per second if your identity is stolen our us based restoration specialists will fix it guaranteed or your money back don't face drained accounts fraudulent loans or financial losses alone get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with lifelock save up to 40 your first year visit lifelock com podcast terms apply"
This quote functions as a promotional segment for Lifelock, highlighting its identity theft protection services. The speaker details the risks associated with increased online activity during the holidays and assures listeners that Lifelock offers monitoring, guaranteed restoration, and financial protection.
"tito's handmade vodka is america's favorite vodka for a reason from the first legal distillery in texas tito's is six times distilled until it's just right and naturally gluten free making it a high quality spirit that mixes with just about anything from the smoothest martinis to the best bloody marys tito's is known for giving back teaming up with nonprofits to serve its communities and do good for dogs make your next cocktail with tito's distilled and bottled by fifth generation in austin texas 40 alcohol by volume sip responsibly"
This segment is an advertisement for Tito's Handmade Vodka, emphasizing its quality and origins. The speaker describes the distillation process, its gluten-free nature, versatility in cocktails, and the brand's commitment to charitable giving and community service.
"this is channels with peter kafka that is me i want to wish you a happy new year and that's pretty much all i want to say about 2025 so instead of a what it all meant show or a wrap up show or a look ahead show i wanted to zag and bring you a conversation with craig finn who is the leader of the legendary hold steady and who was also the only rock star that i went to junior high with this one is from all the way back in 2017 when the show was called recode media and we taped it in this weird tiny black box theater on the upper west side which makes blain white sound a tiny bit different acoustics aside this one is fun because it's a rare look on this show at least at how a working musician actually works and when we taped it quite a while back i think it still holds up i'm guessing if we did it again now we'd make some reference to tiktok but everything else would be more or less the same i think so take a listen and if you've got a working musician you'd like me to interview in 2026 let me know"
Peter Kafka introduces the episode, explaining his decision to present a past interview with Craig Finn instead of a typical year-end review. Kafka highlights his personal connection to Finn as a former junior high classmate and emphasizes that the interview offers a rare look into the practicalities of being a working musician.
"i was going to say working musician but rock star sounds cooler working musician rock musicians probably accurate as well you are a professional musician you play music for a living that is true that's awesome that is good yeah i mean um and it's something that came late i mean um it did not come until i was in the hold steady which is a band i started when i was 31 and didn't happen probably until i was 33 34 so you know uh there's something for persistence there's something for persistence and and and the degree of difficulty gets harder for musicians period right and i think in 2017 making a living in music is is even tougher"
Craig Finn discusses his career path, clarifying that he identifies more as a "working musician" than a "rock star." He points out that his professional music career began later in life, with The Hold Steady forming when he was 31, and acknowledges the increasing difficulty of making a living in the music industry.
"why in 2017 does it matter when an album comes out and what kind of press push you get if i'm if i'm going to listen to it on spotify whenever so it might not but you know i mean there's part of it that's rooted in how i uh think of music and i i always feel like i need to pull together 10 or 12 songs to to make kind of a grand statement and that's because i grew up listening to albums and that's that's how i think of things it's vestigial yeah that's how i think of things and it's important uh i think you can release singles but i also think that the sort of the i mean you know the press push and all that i mean even something as as simple as hiring a publicist you know if you had one song are you going to hire a publicist to tell the world about the song and go around and do all the uh interviews and so i think there's it's a matter of like putting something together and then going out and it's still an album still feels to me like the right amount of songs together because you grew up listening to albums you still think of them as sort of the way to make music yeah even sequencing the record i think of like oh that's like a great song for the beginning of side two and that's just i you know younger people probably won't think that way but i'm probably going to think that way till the end"
Craig Finn explains his continued focus on releasing full albums, even in the digital age, attributing this to his upbringing and how he conceptualizes music. He believes that albums allow for a "grand statement" and that the traditional press push associated with an album release is still relevant for promoting a cohesive body of work.
"i mean there's this there's this a lot of people are excited or ask about this one moment when did you get to quit your job and the answer is you become unemployable first you know you're you're always on tour and no one wants to you know you can't come back to your job because you've missed too much because yeah because you launched the whole steady it was a big deal and you were still had this day job digital club network i remember running into you there or somewhere yeah and so so you know eventually it was like can i go on tour sure can i go on tour sure can i go on tour maybe this isn't right you know so there's that so you it's a leap of faith but you also are like wow when we're on the road we make money and we're you know we're self sufficient it's just we can't come home
Resources
External Resources
Books
- "Boys and Girls in America" - Mentioned as The Hold Steady's biggest record from 2006.
Articles & Papers
- "American Band" (Drive-By Truckers) - Mentioned as a great, explicitly political album that received negative feedback from some fans.
People
- Bruce Springsteen - Referenced as a major influence on The Hold Steady's sound and work ethic, with whom Craig Finn sang "Rosalita" at Carnegie Hall.
- Craig Finn - Leader of The Hold Steady, discussed as a working musician with solo albums, and a former junior high school classmate of the host.
- Eddie Kitsus - Mentioned as Craig Finn's best friend and a writer on the TV show "Lost."
- Fred Armisen - Mentioned as a musician and friend from the 1990s, who used to sleep on The Hold Steady's couch and is the drummer for the "Late Night with Seth Meyers" band.
- Louis C.K. - Mentioned for playing a set in Philadelphia before an election without referencing it.
- Quentin Tarantino - Used as an example of a filmmaker whose fictional work is not assumed to reflect his personal life, contrasting with expectations for songwriters.
- Ted - Mentioned as a member of The Hold Steady who typically provides guitar riffs, and also plays guitar on Craig Finn's solo album.
Organizations & Institutions
- Drive-By Truckers - Mentioned for their political album "American Band."
- Late Night with Seth Meyers - The show where Craig Finn sat in with the house band, composing and performing songs on the same day.
- Partisan Records - The indie label out of Brooklyn that Craig Finn is on for his solo album.
- The Hold Steady - The band led by Craig Finn, discussed in terms of its history, touring model, and musical style.
- Vagrant - The label The Hold Steady was on for many years.
Websites & Online Resources
- Pledge Music - Mentioned as the platform where The Hold Steady does their album pre-orders.
- Spotify - Mentioned as a platform for listening to music and discovering new artists.
Other Resources
- Hold Steadyfying - A verb used to describe the process of making a song sound like The Hold Steady.
- Springsteen-ness - An adjective used to describe the influence of Bruce Springsteen on The Hold Steady's music.