OUR MISSION
The musical landscape of today is vast, and yet artists and audiences struggle to connect with each other more than ever. We believe that this is because of the dominance of the ‘music-as-commodity’ model, which has led us to a situation where the entire system has been deformed by the reduction of music into product, in which markets are the only guiding light. Commerce itself isn’t the problem, it is the loss of meaning what matters most to humanity when we dissolve into commodity thinking - meaning and connection.
We believe that restoring the importance of local record stores to community gathering spaces for music is a powerful antidote to the creeping malaise of our urgent situation. For artists we seek to reframe the role of a recorded work of art away from the mass-production mentality of the commodity mindset, and to lean into the complexity, nuance and daring that makes great art truly special for its fans. In doing so we reposition the album into an ‘art object’ itself, in which the encounter with new musics leans into direct experience with the album - tailored in every way to be a special, limited edition art object. By focusing the limited resources of the artist on quality over quantity, we gain the opportunity to elevate the production at every step toward a more aesthetic and meaningful encounter for audiences.
HOW WE WORK TO IMPROVE THE SPACE:
Our organization cultivates a network of music fans, community record stores, and artistically-included musicmakers by providing a process through which the three communities can come together and flourish together for mutual benefit. What we propose is an older system in many ways, closer to the robust systems of affiliations and unions of the twentieth century than the vertically-integrated conglomerates and supply-side mindset of today. We solve the problem of dehumanization through REhumanization. Our organization works to provide an art-based model for community building through this essential work.
The commodified model uses mass production and infinite multiplicity to gain the lions share of attention, and in the process has upended the ecosystem and left the rest of the world fighting over increasingly limited scraps. The commodified model reduces the worth and value of a thing to its least challenging essence to encourage the broadest fan base possible. And yet in this pursuit every market is flooded with the money and power of this reductive system, and it becomes harder every day to engage with music meaningfully and aesthetically for all involved, from the fans to the artists to the community venues that pull them together.
What we face is a profound ‘soul death’ for the very thing that humanizes music and the arts - meaning. When meaning declines, value follows. The challenge is real, and few among us would argue that things are working well for the music ecosystem today. Join us in nurturing the role of the arts in music, and the special community record stores that put their heart into connecting artists and fans. Join or donate to FRIEND OF ARTISTS, FRIEND OF MUSIC (FOAFAM) today!
