• Newsletter
  • Jobs
  • Contact
  • 🔵 Exclusive: Universal tightens its grip around NTS Radio
    April 30, 2025
    Another grim development in the indie landscape
  • 🔵 Universal isn't winning. It is panicking.
    April 24, 2025
    Don't believe the hype: the biggest major is far from sitting pretty
  • 🔵 Finding calm amid the AI insanity
    April 9, 2025
    Why this might not prove as bad as people think…
  • 🔵 AI is reinforcing the need for artist websites
    April 4, 2025
    Why managing your artists' narrative is more important than ever
  • 🔵 Finding optimism among the next generation
    March 27, 2025
    Further proof that there's light at the end of the tunnel
  • 🔵 We need subcultures and scenes back – both online and off
    March 18, 2025
    Why small communities could be the key to breaking future scenes and talent
  • 🔵 Spotify payouts: a snapshot of what Joe Public thinks
    March 13, 2025
    I fed 900+ comments into ChatGPT to run a sentiment analysis, and the results are… telling.
  • 🔵 Unpicking Spotify's rumoured AI remixing feature
    March 12, 2025
    How this next step might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back
  • 🔵 The desperate need for optimism and action in the music industry
    February 28, 2025
    Doomsaying articles are correct… but we need get past that now
  • 🔵 Centralising data ownership for artists and stakeholders
    February 18, 2025
    A proposal for how the music industry can decrease its reliance on Big Tech and build better relationships with fans
  • 🔵 Rejecting the race to the bottom
    February 7, 2025
    Quitting Spotify and engaging with a more emotionally affecting approach to listening to music
  • 🔵 Banned from Spotify: the problem facing smaller artists
    February 4, 2025
    Unpicking the complex issue of fake streams and false claims
  • 🔵 The Indie Worker Pass: A Proposal
    January 30, 2025
    I have an idea… and I'm curious if you feel it might work.
  • 🔵 Understanding The Music Fan in 2025
    January 24, 2025
    The full presentation I gave at Music Ally's Connected event this week
  • 🔵 In the market share discussion, let's not forget the services companies
    January 16, 2025
    Why the Universal/Downtown deal affects considerably more than just indie labels
  • 🔵 Universal/Downtown: a note from Martin Mills
    January 6, 2025
    The Beggars Group head dropped me a line with his thoughts, shared in full below
  • 🔵 Our top articles of 2024… and what happened after they were published
    December 20, 2024
    Plus: some predictions for 2024
  • 🔵 Still not done buying indies: Universal now hoovers up Downtown Music
    December 17, 2024
    Another collection of indie stalwarts shifts across to the majors
  • 🔵 Not a single UK act in Spotify's Top 10 of 2024. What gives?
    December 11, 2024
    How UK music is losing a culture battle and what we can do about it.
  • 🔵 Music's Three Paths Forward
    December 9, 2024
    Unpicking Keith Jopling's vision for the music industry's future
Motive Unknown logo
Follow us on:
  • bluesky
  • substack
  • instagram
  • Privacy Policy

© 2025 Motive Unknown