What the different ways we listen to music mean for local musicians

The ways people listen to music are always changing. In the past century, music lovers have gone from buying vinyl, to cassette tapes, to CDs, to digital streams and downloads from sources like Spotify or iTunes and back again.

These trends affect local artists when it comes to marketing music and turning profits.

Musician Amber Goodwyn, who performs as Natural Sympathies, started the music project after moving to Regina and becoming a mother. Her music is available on all streaming services, but she says she barely makes any money from platforms like Spotify, or even Tidal — which pays artists better. 

"While I'm really happy [those platforms] are there to help promote and get the word out, it doesn't really make sense financially for the artist and it kind of feels like the trend toward devaluing art and thinking of it as disposable content," Goodwyn said.

Goodwyn said she is navigating these issues within the music industry by marketing Natural Sympathies music in creative and "unusual" ways.

"I just feel like I want to make music and art and videos that have meaning and shelf life. That may be counter to the way that culture is moving, but I think there are enough music lovers or people who like my kind of work who might meet me where I'm at as well."

The cost

Goodwyn has released music on both vinyl and cassette tapes in the past, but says many of her fans do not have cassette players and vinyl is too expensive for her to produce at this time. 

If an artist were to order 100 cassettes with 12 minutes of music on each side of the tape, they would pay approximately $440.00 for the full order before tax and shipping costs, according to Goodwyn. 

To order 100 basic black vinyl records with jackets and labels would cost approximately $1,850.00 before tax and shipping costs.

Neither of these totals include recording and mastering costs or album artwork costs. 

Instead of releasing physical copies of her new album, Porous, Goodwyn created download cards that she attached to locally-designed silk screen flags. She sells these at live shows and a vinyl store in Regina. 

The flags can be worn as scarves or used as wall art and fans can download the music.

While they have been selling well and Goodywn is turning a small profit, she said the flags are mainly a way to inject creativity into her brand. 

"I'm in a phase of my music career where I'm trying to get people get to know Natural Sympathies. I'm still raising my profile and I'm still learning how to try to make money and to make this whole project financially viable."

Goodwyn also created a visual album to accompany Porous by working with seven different director teams. They created videos for each song.

"When you see them in sequence, they create an overarching narrative. I just feel like the artistic quality ... and their own vision marrying with mine elevated the whole project entirely," Goodwyn said. 

She said the visual album increased her social media followings and song streams on digital music platforms. 

Goodwyn said these kinds of creative marketing tactics are necessary for her because she is unable to tour as much as other bands might. She has a young daughter and a day job that is important to her. 

"It's fun to think of new ways to be as splashy as possible and bring attention to the music ... and in that way hopefully  generate bigger performance fees and funding and grow my audience ... without having to follow the usual format of like touring endlessly."

The comeback: vinyl and cassettes 

Goodwyn said she will release another album on vinyl in the future. Vintage Vinyl and Hemp Emporium in Regina says they've seen a large increase in the number of vinyl buyers.

"People seem to be re-buying their collections now ... It's nostalgia I think for a lot of people too," said Kyle Erhardt, a musician and long-time Vintage Vinyl and Hemp Emporium employee.

Erhardt said vinyl is different from tapes, CDs and digital downloads because of the artwork and liner notes.

"Liner notes are always interesting, especially with a lot of records from the 70s and 80s where there were tons of session players that were often kind of unknown," Erhardt said. 

"That can help you go and seek out other related music from those artists that you may not have known about otherwise." 

Janelle Baumet, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl and Hemp Emporium, said the store has seen a big resurgence of cassette tapes in recent years. 

"People always talk about putting the needle on a record and hearing those little clicks or pops. And then the cassette ... there's just like that weird whine at the start and lots of people I feel are nostalgic for that," Baumet ​​​​​​said. 

Tim Weisgarber, co-owner of T+A Vinyl and Fashion in Regina, said his store carries many cassette tapes by Saskatchewan artists.

Weisgarber said cassettes give consumers something tangible to own, but they can also include download codes so listeners can own a high-quality recordings of the album of their digital devices. 

"People want to own something and not just in a digital way but there's also a collector appeal," Weisgarber said. 

"There's something about buying it, displaying it and talking about it which is very appealing ... it's not something that exists in a cloud somewhere."