Walter Hargrave
Building an Audience Without Touring
Not touring removes travel, booking, and road logistics. It does not remove the need for discovery, connection, fan contact, and direct support. Those jobs still exist, but the artist has to organize them differently.
AI Is Bringing New Creators Into Music. They May Need Musicians.
People who could never get very far into music creation before can now use AI to develop surprisingly complete songs and demos. Some are already turning to real musicians, singers, arrangers and producers to take those ideas further. If that market grows, will musicians be ready for it?
Indie Folk Music
Why Folk Music Is Special Folk music is special because it does not need much distance between the artist and the listener. A voice, a guitar, and a story can be enough. The songs often come from ordinary life: work, family, travel, loss, love, and the places people call home. It also carries memory. Old…
AI Could Make Musicianship More Valuable
As generated music becomes abundant, the people who can actually write, play, sing, and perform may be able to charge a premium. Streaming-first artists can build a different premium around visible authorship and craft. I only recently started thinking seriously about what AI music might give back to musicians. As generated recordings become abundant, AI…
The Modern Independent Artist’s Guide to Local Gigs and Mini-Tours
How to find the right rooms, book fair shows, route efficiently, control costs, grow real audiences, and turn every performance into future opportunity. Playing live can still create something that streaming and social platforms cannot fully reproduce: the artist and listener sharing the same songs, in the same room, at the same time. A well-built…
Jill Govan – “GALAXY”
Jill Govan’s “GALAXY” is a relaxed love song built around the rush of becoming completely absorbed in someone. Released as a single in 2026, the four-minute track uses stars, heaven, and outer space to describe a relationship that has lifted the narrator out of her ordinary surroundings. The song moves at a fairly slow pace…
Music Substack
Substack has become a real place for music discovery. Writers, artists, listeners, labels, and small publications are sharing records they care about, often with more context than a quick post can provide. This collection gathers artists and releases I discovered through that community. Some came through a recommendation, some through an article or conversation, and…
Music Favorites July 2026
Listen, discover something new, and support the artists directly when you can.