Subvert Launched on 12th May
On 12th May, a new cooperative music platform projected itself into the world. More than 22,000 musicians across the world joined the cooperative to promote their own music, share, stream and buy the music of others. The initial numbers indicated how desperately a cooperative music platform was needed in this most collaborative of industries, in these most challenging times, at least collaborative at the coal face.
As with any new development, it will be met with a mix of enthusiasm, interest, delight, and not a small degree of skepticism. With anything new that’s been put together, I like to err on the positive side. So I’ve uploaded “A Proliferation Of Pointlessness”, my latest solo album released on 29th August 2025, by way of dipping my toe in the water.
Like other members of the cooperative, I’ve streamed the work of other musicians on Subvert, and I’ve bought music to check how the system works. Some of those songs will appear on The Compendium radio show in the coming months. It appears to be a seamless process, so please give it a shot.
Back in 2018, I removed my solo music from the major streaming platforms after having two albums stream-ripped. Those platforms were doing little for my music profile anyway, so it was actually no big deal. Their rates per play for streaming were and continue to be downright insulting. They’ve become much worse since.
In January 2019, Apple Music (then only iTunes) were the only streaming platform to not appeal a US court judgement which ruled that all such platforms should pay artists 44% more per play. I’m afraid I rather dumped them in the ‘baddies pile’ with all the rest, and was wrong to do so. Therefore at some point I will be restoring my music to Apple Music.
For the moment though, there are three places where you can stream or buy my music:
I am always grateful whenever someone supports what I do. Each of us has a preference where we stream and buy, and it seems better to have a presence on a few platforms that are genuinely supportive of independent and original music than to patronise the bloodsucking money-grabber bean-counters at Spotify and Amazon.
Please do give Subvert a whirl!
Peace.
John