Chappell Roan & How Mu-Anon Hurts Musicians

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On the day after the Grammys, we could have been discussing many important issues, but as usual, the For You Page promoted the dumbest discussions possible. After all, the artist with the most enthusiasm in music stood up for musicians being given a living wage to develop their art by their supposed benefactors. This concept is long forgotten in a world where billionaires have hoarded wealth at the top, causing wages for creators to decrease since labels need to show quarterly growth at any ethical cost. Let's start with what Chappell said.

This is an important point that extends far beyond artists on major labels, as that increasingly becomes a model artists don't need to succeed. But since Spotify funnels listener value into ventures like Joe Rogan's $250 million paycheck (that’s 2.5% of what they paid ALL musicians last year to a single podcaster) and steers listeners toward podcasts and audiobooks, reducing music listening hours to increase profits that flow upward to their shareholders and away from the creators. This decreases income from one of musicians’ main revenue sources before major labels even see it. Not to mention the blockbuster revelations from Liz Pelly’s upcoming book, Mood Machine, that Spotify is pre-paying artists to write songs and waive royalties that Spotify favors for playlist placements to avoid paying musicians for the consumption they would generate (If you are not up for reading this article or the book I HIGHLY recommend you listen to today’s episode of Switched On Pop which is a riveting discussion of the subject with the author).

We need to have the discussion Chappell started. The halls of Spotify, YouTube (which is often left out of the poor payment discussion), and every major label should be filled with post-Luigi Mangione¹ fear that the masses will rise against their exploitation and demand fair treatment. Spotify's practices can change if musicians organize and focus the momentum Chappell started. Many will defend the status quo and claim Spotify has no room in its profit margins. It is undeniable that its revenue model could be adjusted to be less exploitative and have a border that prevents the further exploitation of those the company is built on, one where they find more creative ways to increase profits (For example, their ad studio is widely mocked as one of the most ineffective products on the market that could easily increase revenue). They should accept that the drive for increasing profitability should have limits, especially when it comes at the expense of creators who fuel their platform's growth. For now, the organizing around this pressure for better compensation for musicians is being done around UMAW if you want to go deeper.

How Mu-Anon Destroys This Discussion

Last year, Max Read’s brilliant newsletter coined a term for one of the stupidest corners of the Internet, “the Zynternet,” and Eli Ennis continued the discussion by coining the name for this corner of brain-dead discussion in the music world, “Nusic.” After years of producing The Daily Beast’s podcast Fever Dreams, where I worked with the top journalists on the subject of Q-Anon and other deranged conspiracy theories, I came to realize Nusic is not just clueless n00bz baselessly speculating what is happening behind the scenes at major labels with no experience inside their walls. Instead, they hypothesize things similarly to Q-Anon, a fever swamp of the most conspiracy-ridden magical thinking about how the decisions of major labels and the artists they love (or hate) work.

Having worked with major labels for 26 years in various capacities, I've witnessed the brain-dead thought inside them. The minds within these walls are hardly capable of mustering up the conspiracy-level thought that is widely discussed on the Internet. I've dubbed the Internet’s realm of wild speculation 'Mu-Anon.' Like its Q-Anon namesake, these theories spread rapidly and serve as disinformation that often overshadows reality, derailing progress on necessary societal changes—specifically the issues Chappell discussed Sunday night at the Grammys. Let me clarify what I mean for those who think I'm being dramatic, since many of you don't experience the misinformation accelerators known as 'For You' pages on the internet.

The first tell in this post is the classic misleading line popularized by our current president: 'Many people are saying,' which has become code for 'I am about to share baseless thoughts I made up.' The poster reveals they are not in the industry, which becomes very clear when they mention a blacklist. Anyone in the music business knows that the power to blacklist is nonexistent, as labels have essentially surrendered to the power of short-form video apps breaking songs rather than their own actions. Moreover, the various competing forces in the business between rival labels and management companies are always eager to undermine one another and work with artists others have supposedly 'blacklisted.'

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And while The Internet, and particularly Mu-Anon, is filled with this level of baseless conjecture, the problem becomes that the algorithm rewards this far more than the discussion of what is important: THE EXPLOITATION OF THE CREATORS WHO BRING YOU JOY! The problem is that Mu-Anon starts a discussion that doesn’t exist and shifts focus away from the one that we should be having. We unfortunately now exist in a world where the richest man in the world bought a social media app that utilizes the strategy of Hypernormalisation, where if you “Flood The Zone With Shit” people will feel so confused they will turn to the loudest voices to lead them. These voices are often spewing lies that they are incentivized to tell, as it keeps them in power or with continued gain of clout. The rest of the social media apps know that ragebait and misinformation keep users on their platforms watching ads longer, so they will do nothing to curtail this as long as it works.

The essential book on this subject is one of my favorite books in recent years, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell. It details how our society has become obsessed with making up hypotheses about subjects of which we have very little knowledge as if we are experts. Whether that is to feel smart, get clout or attention, we’ve created an incentive structure to share baseless theories at breakneck speed. But this practice is often a line between the audience and the creators, and the creators mock the fans who partake. Last week, while in LA, I had dinner with a producer of a controversial podcast that is often the subject of this magical thinking and accused of conspiratorial actions. We also dined with a musician from a popular group, and we all had a common discussion that occurs around these tables: once you experience any level of fame, what fans discuss on the internet and hypothesize about your motivations and behind-the-scenes actions is far beyond the reality of what you actually did. It is, in fact, often the opposite of what happened, or, just as commonly, a detail they fabricated that the people involved can only laugh at the absurdity of.

This does not mean you need to partake. I imagine you don't want to be a fool that your favorite creators laugh at, so any time someone engages in magical thinking about a subject, it's very easy to interject with a simple, 'What information do you have that would give you any evidence this is true?'

So if you want this discussion to be less riddled with nonsense and focused on the most important subjects that can progress our creators and improve the world, first start with yourself: if you want to post and speculate baselessly, maybe think twice. If you see accounts doing 'magical thinking' for engagement, consider blocking them, DMing them your thoughts on why this is baseless (feel free to share this article with them 😀), or use the Not Interested button. Consider using your “follow feed” more often so the magical thinkers get less engagement, and curate your own experience of knowledge. Most of all, amplify, repost, and comment on those doing good work to keep the discussion on course.

What Chappell said is important. Let’s raise that discussion and keep pushing it until the powers at be listen so that your favorite musician has the funding to put out your next favorite record rather than giving up when they can’t take letting their partners, friends and family down anymore. When they can’t afford medical bills, they stay home instead of playing in your town. We can have a better world without those scenarios; we just need to stop engaging with the bullshit and focus on the reality of what is happening.

1  I’m not suggesting I condone what Luigi is accused of, but rather that it's an undeniable symptom of a rising tide of aggression toward unaccountable bodies making decisions without them having recourse to discuss it.