Don't Build Your House on Rented Land
Streaming platforms can introduce listeners to your music, but a lasting career is built on relationships, community, and places artists truly control.
There is an old saying about not building your house on rented land. It is advice usually applied to finances or property, but I think it has something to teach independent musicians as well.
Recently I shared a video by an artist who had decided to leave Spotify. The discussion that followed wasn’t really about Spotify itself. One comment in particular caught my attention. An independent artist pointed out that walking away is much easier for someone who already has an established audience than it is for someone with only a handful of monthly listeners. For those just beginning to build an audience, streaming platforms may not be ideal, but they often feel essential.
I thought that was an honest observation.
It also reminded me that conversations about streaming often become too polarized. One side argues that artists should abandon platforms that pay so little. The other insists that streaming is simply the reality of today’s music business. Like many complicated issues, the truth probably lies somewhere in between.
I don’t believe artists need to leave corporate streaming platforms entirely. Nor do I believe they should place all of their hopes in them. Both positions overlook an important reality. These platforms can be valuable tools, but they should remain just that: tools. They should not become the entire foundation upon which an artist builds a career.
For many independent musicians, especially those working in ambient, electronic, instrumental, and other niche genres, Spotify is not primarily about income. Few expect meaningful financial returns from streaming royalties alone. Instead, the platform functions as a place where listeners might accidentally discover a new artist. A playlist placement, a recommendation from the algorithm, or a search result can introduce someone’s music to listeners who otherwise would never have encountered it.
There is genuine value in that. Discovery has always mattered.
Long before streaming, discovery happened through record store employees, college radio stations, magazine reviews, late-night radio programs, or recommendations from friends. Today, some of that discovery takes place through streaming services. It would be unrealistic to pretend otherwise.
The problem begins when artists mistake discovery for connection.
A stream is not the same thing as a listener who eagerly awaits your next release.
A playlist placement is not the same thing as a community.
An algorithm is not the same thing as trust.
Algorithms are designed to maximize engagement with a platform. They are not designed to build lasting relationships between artists and listeners. If those interests happen to overlap, everyone benefits. But they are not the same objective.
That distinction becomes especially important for artists working outside the mainstream.
Ambient music has never depended solely upon mass exposure. It has grown because listeners shared albums with friends, reviewers championed overlooked releases, radio hosts devoted airtime to unusual music, websites introduced readers to unfamiliar artists, and dedicated listeners recommended albums they genuinely loved.
Human beings built those communities. They still do.
Over the past several weeks, I have written about the importance of human curation and the unique relationship that often exists between ambient artists and their audiences. This conversation feels like a natural extension of those ideas.
Streaming platforms may help someone discover your music. People are usually the reason they stay.
That is why independent artists should think beyond streaming from the very beginning. Every new listener should represent an opportunity to build a deeper connection somewhere else.
Perhaps they visit your website. Perhaps they follow your newsletter. Perhaps they purchase your album on Bandcamp. Perhaps they join your Patreon community or simply begin following your work closely enough to support future releases.
Those relationships belong to the artist. Algorithms do not.
History offers plenty of reasons to be cautious about depending entirely upon corporate platforms. Every few years the rules change. Algorithms are adjusted. Business priorities shift. Features appear and disappear. Companies merge. Audiences migrate elsewhere. Artists who have invested everything in a single platform often discover they have very little control over what happens next.
None of this makes those platforms evil.
It simply makes them businesses.
Their first responsibility is to their shareholders and long-term business strategy, not to the career of any individual musician.
That reality isn’t likely to change.
The healthier response is not anger but diversification.
Just as financial advisors recommend diversified investments rather than placing all of one’s savings into a single stock, artists should diversify the ways they reach listeners. Streaming can be one avenue. Social media can be another. Bandcamp offers direct sales and communication with supporters. Personal websites remain valuable. Email newsletters continue to be one of the few ways artists can communicate directly with people who have chosen to hear from them. Live performances, interviews, podcasts, YouTube channels, online communities, and collaborations all contribute to building a stronger foundation.
No single path is likely to be enough. Together, however, they become far more resilient.
This requires work. There is no denying that. Independent musicians today wear more hats than ever before. They are composers, performers, recording engineers, designers, marketers, photographers, social media managers, and business owners all at once. Asking them to build community in addition to creating music can seem like asking too much.
Yet community has always been one of the greatest strengths of independent music.
In many ways, the ambient community has quietly demonstrated this for decades. Listeners recommend albums to one another. Independent reviewers spend countless hours introducing readers to music that algorithms may never highlight. Small labels nurture artists whose work might otherwise remain unheard. Radio presenters create carefully curated programs built around passion rather than market research.
These are not relics of an earlier era.
They remain some of the most effective ways music continues to travel from artist to listener.
Perhaps that is the lesson worth remembering.
Streaming platforms should not be viewed as destinations. They are crossroads.
Someone may discover an artist there.
The artist’s challenge is to give that listener a reason to continue the journey.
Ultimately, success in independent music has never been measured solely by numbers. An artist with one hundred genuinely engaged listeners who buy albums, attend concerts, support new releases, and recommend the music to friends may have something far more valuable than thousands of anonymous streams that never develop into lasting relationships.
Community cannot be measured by monthly listener counts alone. It is measured by trust.
As listeners, we have a role to play as well. If we discover an artist on Spotify or another streaming service, perhaps we can take one extra step. Visit their website. Buy an album through Bandcamp. Subscribe to a newsletter. Tell a friend about the music. Leave a thoughtful comment. Attend a performance if the opportunity arises.
Those small actions help transform passive listening into active support.
Corporate platforms are likely to remain part of the musical landscape for years to come. Independent artists should absolutely take advantage of every opportunity they offer for discovery. But discovery is only the first chapter of a much longer story.
The strongest careers are rarely built upon borrowed platforms alone.
They are built through relationships, trust, and communities that no algorithm can manufacture and no corporation can own.
In the end, that may be the difference between simply being heard and truly being remembered.
If you are on the east coast stay cool today and don’t head out into the extreme heat unless you really have to and even then remember to stay hydrated and out of the direct sun as much as possible. I’ll see you here next week with more of my musings about the music we all love. Take care.
Michael Foster, editor
Ambient Visions