Discovery Is the Headline

Fresh off a whirlwind week at SPOT Festival, one phrase is still echoing in my head: discovery is the headline. It was this year’s tagline—and honestly, I can’t stop thinking about it. Discovery isn’t just about finding new music. It’s about finding new ways forward.

That’s exactly what we’ve been focused on. How do we make it as easy as possible for artists to bring their fans along for the ride?

We just dropped a new feature: Sleeve Links—your personal link-in-bio, built for music.

Share your posts, music, merch, tour dates —whatever you want. And now, fans can follow you with nothing more than an email. No login. No hoops. Just one tap, and they’ll get your updates straight in their inbox.

Your way, all in one clean, focused, algorithm-free zone.

Learn more about Sleeve Links in our guide.

Curious to try it for yourself? If you're an artist and want to give Sleeve Links a spin, you can sign up in minutes and start building your page.

Here is an example from the band Girls In Airports

I wrote about this recently in All That magazine: going viral? Nice when it happens. But going direct? That’s how you build something real… for the long game.

Right now, most artists don’t own the relationship with their audience—they rent it. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Spotify set the terms. You might have real fans, but you're essentially leasing access to them—paying rent in the form of boosted posts, algorithmic visibility, or constant content creation to stay top of mind.

One band I spoke with at SPOT had that exact realization. Then they ran the numbers: what if they had 1,000 real fans paying $3/month instead of chasing streams from 130,000 monthly listeners? It flipped their entire mindset and strategy.

I also joined a panel with Liz Pelly, Chris Cooke, and some other sharp folks. And the vibe was clear: the future isn’t about scale, it’s about sustainability. Mid-tier artists are getting squeezed. What they need isn’t more followers—it’s more freedom.

We’ve been feeling this shift coming for a while. MIDiA calls it a recalibration. I call it smart… and overdue. If you’re an artist, you need a moving plan—a way to bring your people with you, from platform to platform, before the algorithm decides you’re done.

Artist Radar

Two new artists on Sleeve that you should absolutely check out:

Kira Skov is a genre-melding force—from punk roots to rock, folk, jazz, and far beyond. Her latest project Generations lands with weight: a hauntingly personal album paired with an intimate, in-depth conversation with filmmaker Anna Emma Haudal, reflecting on creativity, loss, and the stories we carry. On Sleeve, Kira shares the music and the meaning behind it—raw, poetic, and full of soul. Check out Kira Skov on Sleeve.
Big Train Lonnie Glass brings gritty, heart-on-sleeve songwriting and rich, rootsy harmonies that hit like a warm wind through a dusty barroom. He’s the kind of musician who’s always mid-show—whether there’s a stage or not. Big Train doesn’t idle: he’s rolling across the map with harmonica wizard Daniel Morel, channeling the spirit of classic Americana with a punk poet’s urgency. Check out Big Train on Sleeve.
Mathea Her debut So Very Far is like wandering through a Nordic fairytale—lush, poetic, and quietly devastating. Mathea crafts songs like safe forests for your emotions, layering field recordings and raw nature elements to create musical spaces that feel alive. Her harmonies shimmer, but it’s the silences in between that hit hardest. I listened to her album on the bus ride home from SPOT, and it floored me—an invitation to sit with your feelings, to breathe deep, and maybe even ask yourself: am I really okay? Check out Mathea on Sleeve.

See You at Music Biz 2025 ATL?

We’re there this week talking about life after virality and how artists are building communities that stick. If you’re around… say hey.

Stay tuned,
Anna

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