Critical Listening

Episode 17: Maine Music Alliance

Welcome back! This month we are joined by Peter McLaughlin and Scott Mohler of the Maine Music Alliance. They explain how local musicians in Portland, Maine successfully stopped Live Nation from opening a 3300-cap venue in their town. It is a truly inspiring story involving musicians organizing to save local spaces during the COVID-19 lockdown, and eventually turning that network out in massive numbers—building a broad coalition, showing up to city council meetings, and convincing local government to modify city building codes that ultimately stopped the development. “It was a good day for the little guys,” they told us. Peter and Scott get into the weeds with us to explain how and why it all went down, and advice for other artists who want to organize against Live Nation in their towns.
Learn more about their org at mainemusicalliance.com (https://mainemusicalliance.com/). And if you enjoy this episode please consider becoming a paid subscriber at patreon.com/criticallistening so we can keep interviewing artist-organizers about pushing back against corporate power in music!

Episode 16: April 2026 Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

We’re back with another Headlines episode, and this month it’s our first time spending the whole episode on one story. You probably already know which one it is.
For this month we are begrudgingly wading into the discourse that has ensued following the Wired piece “The Fanfare Around the Band Geese Actually Was a Psyop,” published April 14. We dive into the manipulative tactics of “trend simulation” agencies like Chaotic Good, how pre-existing laws around deceptive advertising can reign them in, and what music lovers can do to fight these attempts to manufacture taste.
Our monthly Headlines episodes are for Patreon subscribers only so please head to Patreon.com/criticallistening to support the show, get early access to all episodes, and also access our Discord community. Thanks for listening!

Episode 15: Wendy Eisenberg

For today's episode of Critical Listening we are joined by guitarist, songwriter and improviser Wendy Eisenberg to launch a new segment, "Listening Habits." Wendy joined us a few weeks before the release of their new self-titled album, which is out now on Joyful Noise Records. In the first half of the show, we speak with Wendy about their own work as a musician and a teacher. We discuss the new album, a class they are teaching this fall on theorizing musical community, and also some headier stuff like virtuosity and hooks. In the second half of the show, we introduce the new "Listening Habits" series, where we are talking to musickers about how they actually listen to music on an everyday basis. We talk to Wendy about their mp3 player, how they learn about new music, why they hate listening to music on a phone, and what it means to be a Critical Listener. This episode features songs from Wendy’s new record. Thanks for listening and please head to patreon.com/criticallistening to support the show with a monthly subscription. 

Episode 13: Following the Money with Henk Willem Smits

What happens when a private equity company takes over a music festival? For this Critical Listening live taping at the ESNS Conference in Groningen, we spoke with Dutch investigative journalist Henk Willem Smits to unpack this very question. Smits works with the community-supported outlet Follow the Money,  specializing in tax avoidance by multinationals and wealthy individuals in music, and the intersections of private equity and electronic music culture. His 2025 piece "Loud Music, Silent Takeovers" specifically looked at the 1.3 billion euros spent by U.S.-based private equity firm KKR on music festivals in recent years.
In his reporting, Smits has found that after private equity buys festivals, they can be subject to higher ticket prices, more commercial partnerships, and homogenized lineups driven by Spotify and TikTok data—in order to "tailor lineups more precisely to audience demand," he wrote last year. "A lot of festivals, especially smaller dance festivals, don't have big margins," Smits told us. "It's a very small margin business. So what you see now is management layers getting fired... That is something that happens a lot, but that is not something the audience notices. What also happens is you see some festivals not being organized. Or they skip a year."
Below, see some more highlights from our conversation with Smits, which also covered his reporting on the connections between KKR and Israel, and how pop stars use the Netherlands as a tax haven.
How else do festivals change when they are acquired by private equity?"They have to increase the margins because they paid a lot of money [for these festivals]... One financial analyst said that if they want to get that money back and also make a profit the [margin] has to raise with 10s of percents a year. That is very ambitious, very, very ambitious.... There is pressure here."
What has been the biggest takeaway from your festival reporting?"There is logic to going up into a bigger structure. But when you sell your company, you really don't have anything to say about the ownership anymore... I heard from a manager in music and he said what he learned from the story was that you have to check the whole chain. So you have to check who is behind the festival, but also who's the owner of the festival, and who's the owner of the owner."
Are there any open questions for you, still, regarding the relationship between private equity and live music?"I would love to speak to KKR. I would love to know if they regret buying Boiler Room. But they have a sort of policy that they don't talk with the press... which I find strange, because this is a company that has $600 billion of investments. But then you also have, of course, responsibilities. They invest in a company that rents out houses in occupied places in the West Bank. It would be interesting if they could explain, at least, why they think they have to do that. But it's a responsibility they take. They don't see themselves as part of society. They just have to make money."

Episode 14: March 2026 Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

Hey all, we're back with another headlines episode.
This month we start by digging into UMG CEO Lucian Grainge's recent appearance on stage at a NVIDIA-hosted conference described as the "Super Bowl of AI," where he was discussing his company's partnership with the AI-enabling tech giant. What does this say about different ways major labels are embracing AI beyond the headline-grabbing licensing deals for gen-AI content? We unpack the ways labels seem to be embracing so-called tech solutions to continue recycling their mountains of IP, look at some of Grainge's most outrageous quotes from the story, and try to figure out whether or not we are truly at the end of music history.
For the second headline, we are covering the 2026 installment of "Loud and Clear," Spotify's annual crisis PR campaign disguised as a music economics "transparency" report. In particular, we're looking at Spotify's claim that a new "class" of artists generating $100,000 annually is emerging from its platform, and what context is needed to understand the true lack of meaning in these stats.
As you may have noticed, this is our first headlines episode that is Patreon exclusive. For now these headlines episodes will be available only to subscribers, while our interview episodes will remain free and publicly available. We also have a couple of reported features and a new artist interview series in the works, so if you've been considering a subscription this would be a great time to throw us five bucks a month. Sign up at patreon.com/criticallistening to access the full episode, thank you!

Episode 12: February 2026 Headlines

Welcome back to another episode of Critical Listening. For this month’s Headlines, we’re joined by Hearing Things co-founder and longtime music critic Jill Mapes to discuss her recent piece “The Wasserman Exodus is A Different Kind of Reckoning” about the artists protesting music exec Casey Wasserman’s appearance in the Epstein files. Before that we’re also talking about Spotify’s recent 2025 Q4 earnings call, where it presented a financial update to shareholders, and what it says about the company’s most recent positions on generative AI and the visions of its new leadership. Or, as we’re calling it: “Liz reads the transcript of the Spotify earnings call so you don’t have to.”
Thanks for listening! Remember to support the show by subscribing to the Patreon If you are enjoying these Headlines episodes please tell a friend about the show or leave a review on your podcast app. This episode will be made available on all public platforms besides you-know-where next week.
Music for this episode includes two pieces by the late great Éliane Radigue: "Occam Delta XV" and "Jetsun Mila".

Episode 11: Live from Groningen

WE’RE BACK. Today we start the year with a dispatch from what some may call the front lines: a bunch of AI-related panels at a European music biz trade conference. It’s also our first episode recorded in person!
We are starting our new season with two episodes recorded in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands, where we were invited to participate on some panels and to host a live taping of the show at the annual conference and festival ESNS. That live taping—an interview with Dutch investigative culture reporter Henk Willem Smits—will drop later in the month. But before then, we have another conversation we recorded while we were in Groningen, reflecting on some panels we saw as well as ones we participated in. 
Did Max survive his first music industry conference? Did Liz learn anything being on a panel alongside someone from a certain French DSP that has been labeling AI tracks? Why did we choose to attend something called “Automate or Die Trying” when we could have done literally anything else? And why are there never any musicians at these things? All this and more on Episode 11 of Critical Listening.
Support the show for access to bonus episodes and our Discord at patreon.com/criticallistening.

Episode 10: Season Finale w/ Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop)

As 2025 comes to a close, so does the first season of Critical Listening. And with us to send off the year, we have none other than the internet's busiest music nerd himself: Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop. We discuss how public perception of streaming culture discourse has shifted this past year, his efforts to offer a critical perspective on the music industry in his videos, the state of on-screen music journalism in 2025, and more.
We also dive into Anthony's background as a music journalist, the influence of public radio on his work, what media integrity means for video-first critics, and his general thoughts on music media after over 15 years of running a successful online platform. We had a lot of fun chatting with Anthony and we hope you will enjoy this culmination of Season 1. Thanks to all who pledged their monthly support to make this first season of Critical Listening happen, we can't wait to show you what we have in store for 2026. If you haven't yet please subscribe to the Patreon atpatreon.com/criticallistening. See you all in the New Year!
The tracklist for this episode includes some of our shared fav releases from the past year. Support these artists by buying their music:
Keiyaa - Take It
Purelink - Rookie ft. Loraine James
Chat Pile / Hayden Pedigo - Never Say Die
Deerhoof - Immigrant Songs

Episode 9: November 2025 Headlines LIVE at Purchase College

We are back for our penultimate episode of Season 1 of Critical Listening! Recorded on November 13th at the coveted Stood at Purchase College, we're discussing the latest developments in the Spotify deal to create "artist first" generative AI tools in partnership with major labels and distributors. We also review the platform's continued growth as it rounds out its second full year of profitability and what that means for both artists and users alike.
We have just uploaded the second part of this episode for Patrons only where we take questions directly from the students of Purchase College themselves, sign up now at patreon.com/criticallistening to catch up on the full season and bonus episodes before our season finale at the end of the year!
Do you want the Critical Listening team to do a live taping at your college, music venue, conference, record store, or general hang in 2026? Shoot us an email at criticallisteningpod@gmail.com and let's chat!

Episode 8: Amirtha Kidambi

For Episode 8 we have composer, educator, curator, and activist Amirtha Kidambi stopping by. We discuss Amirtha's various musical outputs, including her Elder Ones ensemble and her recent duo release with Matt Evans as Neti-Neti. We discuss the inseparability of politics from pedagogy as teaching artists, the importance of solidarity amongst working artists and the need for us to Do-It-Together rather than simply DIY. Amirtha has a new podcast out called Outernational that explores the relationship of music and revolution through poignant conversations with fellow artists around the world, subscribe and support her work via her Substack and Bandcamp.
Support critical and independent media at the intersections of music, tech, and culture industry hell by subscribing to our Patreon.