Making music today is not for the weak. You essentially have to treat yourself more like a businessman than an artist, a marketing specialist rather than a musician. Tediously playing the social media game, feverishly selling your story, hoping someone notices. New artists are competing in a field loaded with bots and AI music and thousands of other people doing the same thing with their music. That’s before you even get into the major label system.
The days of artists like James Blake organically rising into one of the most respected acts working today are effectively gone. However, he does have a word of advice: don’t worry about it so much. In a lengthy post on Instagram, he made a long list of experiences in the music industry that aren’t trustworthy anymore. Everything from journalists allegedly being paid off by labels to the rise of AI in music gets canned by Blake.
“[You] Can’t trust a comment section ’cause it’s full of fake fan accounts saying ‘omg their voice’ to create bandwagon effect. Can’t trust YouTube numbers because labels buy them,” James Blake wrote. “Can’t trust streaming numbers because labels pay for bot farms to drive discovery… If you’re an artist, remember that in 2026, there’s not a single part of the system that isn’t faked. You’re probably doing better than you think.”
James Blake Laments The State of The Music Industry in New Post
Blake has been especially vocal about how it feels to be completely DIY from the system. After developing a strong audience, he can reliably sell his music because of their consistency. In an industry loaded with predatory contracts, the English producer and singer-songwriter wanted to create an environment where artists don’t have to run into that anymore.
James Blake told Variety back in 2025 about partnering with companies like Indify and Vault. They essentially empower artists to treat their work like start-up companies, and musicians become investors accordingly. It all stems from wanting artists to believe that they have more control than they think.
“The industry is set up to be disempowering to any artist that enters it. I think most artists are led to believe that they’re not the ones in control,” James Blake explained. “That they’re not the source of all of the opportunities around them. I think a lot of artists are made to feel that we work for our managers, we work for our labels, and that the people in our teams work for them, too. And I guess part of my drive is to remind artists that they are the boss of their business.”
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