Jenn Pelly, Pitchfork:

A 2019 study found that 73 percent of independent music makers experience anxiety and depression in relation to their work. In 2021, the Journal of Psychiatric Research published a peer-reviewed report titled “Mental health issues among international touring professionals in the music industry"—based on a pre-pandemic survey of 1,154 individuals—that showed “greatly elevated" rates of clinical depression and stress in comparison to the general population, and levels of suicidality that are five times the average rate of the U.S. population. Musicians have historically gone widely without health insurance, but as with all of these longstanding problems, more research is needed.

To be a fan of modern music is to see entangled crises of mental health and economic sustainability that are increasingly conspicuous, and, if not new, then no longer possible to ignore. Since 2019, an uptick of non-profit and research-based initiatives have emerged to address the mental health dimension of this sobering reality and to offer more immediate support to musicians and touring crew members. But the dozens of artists and experts interviewed for this story believe that systemic change to both the music industry and to society, including universal healthcare, is what’s needed most.

An absolutely necessary read for any fan of music.

I fear that this same concern is coming for artists of all levels, between AI art, the consolidation of entertainment studios, and cost cutting all the way down.

Support the things you love, folks. Support the things you love.