If the music industry is a game, Caroline Rose is one of many musicians who are ready to play by different rules.
Rose leaked their latest album, year of the slug, on Monday (Feb. 3), four days ahead of its scheduled release, by emailing a link to fans signed up to their mailing list. But the early drop didn’t interrupt a multi-channel marketing spread like those we’ve come to expect in the social media age. As its name suggests, Rose’s latest project is an experiment in disengaging from the music industry’s largest and most controversial monoliths – Live Nation and Spotify – in favor of a slow-moving, DIY approach to album rollout. year of the slug won’t be available on any streaming services, and the artist’s tour, which kicks off in the spring, skirts the monopolizing concert company in favor of independent venues.
“It’s not really a new concept at all. I don’t think I’m doing anything groundbreaking,” Rose says. “I’m just tired of feeling bad about the way that the music industry is going and I think I, along with a lot of other people, want to inch towards doing something differently, even if it means just changing one thing about the way we tour or the way we release music [in a way] that feels better.”
Further embracing the creative freedom Rose found on their Austin-produced 2023 album The Art of Forgetting, Rose announced year of the slug a mere two weeks ahead of its projected release date via Instagram. The post outlined that the album would be released exclusively on Bandcamp, accompanied by a limited run of vinyl copies. Rose plans to tour the album solo, as self-contained as possible, playing in small, independent venues and taking time between stops “to meet new people, to actually see the city i’m in,” they wrote.
COVID-19 prompted a reconsideration of labor for many industries; music was no exception. Comments from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in 2020 – who said musicians can’t “record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough” – revealed a gap of understanding between those building streaming services and the musicians using the platform that’s nearly as wide as the gap in their paychecks. 2020 saw the correlated establishment of the United Musicians and Allied Workers, a union working to create sustainable and equitable labor environments for musicians and allied workers through cross-movement solidarity with the American Federation of Musicians, among others.
For Rose, the pandemic had a similar personal impact. “The pandemic really opened my eyes to how [the music industry] is working. It changed me. It fundamentally changed me,” they say.
Attempts to address inequities in the music industry have come from high-profile artists as well. Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift (and the Department of Justice) leveled their sights at two-headed music giant Live Nation and Ticketmaster in the latest chapter of a decades-long battle against Ticketmaster. At the Grammys on Sunday, Chappell Roan called for labels to provide health insurance for artists.
“What’s happening in the music industry is a mirror for what’s happening in the American economy,” Rose says. “The billionaires’ extreme wealth is controlling everything and no one’s getting paid fairly.”
Wrapping up their last tour, the physical and mental toll of a whiplash-inducing travel pace – plus alienation from audiences – inspired Rose to slow down and simplify their sound, production style, and schedule. There were plenty of places to look for next steps.
“I look at bands like Fugazi and other punk bands that historically have been like, ‘I don’t care about growth. I don’t care about raking in as much money as possible. I want to have a career that caters to my values and to my art.’ I look at bands like that and I’m like, ‘They made a whole career of that. I’m just dipping my toes in,’” Rose says.
Toppling the companies and practices that have come to define music even further since Fugazi’s day is as daunting as many of the problems facing America’s economy. For Rose, intentionally sidestepping them has handed the artist back a sense of agency.
“I’m actually rather hopeful,” Rose says, “because I’m experiencing what it feels like to stop stewing in my own anger and frustration and start gently stepping outside of this box that I’ve been in.”
Staring down the calendar at a sloping series of tour dates, which wraps with a three-night run at C-Boys Heart & Soul April 24-26, Rose admits: “I’m much happier already. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted just by addressing some of these problems in my life and in my career.”
This article appears in January 31 • 2025.
