The Post-Enshittocene Music Manifesto

Michael Topic
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The music industry is extractive. Royalties go unclaimed, algorithms decide what gets heard, and talented musicians are burning out and walking away — even as the business generates more money than ever, most of it siphoned off before it reaches the people who made the music. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. This episode makes the case for what comes after: a "post-enshittocene" music economy built around connection, agency, dignity, meaning, and joy instead of extraction. Drawing on a lifetime in music technology — from a university DAW project decades ahead of its time, through Fairlight Instruments and Digital Audio Research, to music education — host Michael Topic traces the gaps he kept hitting as a working musician and technologist, and lays out a portfolio of tools designed to close them. Along the way: the Estonian Singing Revolution as proof that music can be genuine social infrastructure, a hard look at what this would actually cost (and why that isn't the real obstacle), and a closing argument that this only works as a coalition — not a pitch.

Episodes

  1. Aug 18

    We are trying to preserve a human capability

    The music industry is extractive. Royalties go unclaimed, algorithms decide what gets heard, and talented musicians are burning out and walking away – even as the business generates more money than ever, most of it siphoned off before it reaches the people who made the music. Anything that can’t go on forever eventually stops. This episode makes the case for what comes after: a “post-enshittocene” music economy built around connection, agency, dignity, meaning, and joy instead of extraction. Drawing on a lifetime in music technology – from a university DAW project decades ahead of its time, through Fairlight Instruments and Digital Audio Research, to music education – host Michael Topic traces the gaps he kept hitting as a working musician and technologist, and lays out a portfolio of tools designed to close them. Along the way: the Estonian Singing Revolution as proof that music can be genuine social infrastructure, a hard look at what this would actually cost (and why that isn’t the real obstacle), and a closing argument that this only works as a coalition – not a pitch. Join the ConversationSubscribe, share this with someone who still remembers why they picked up an instrument, and tell us your own “what’s missing” story: info@confelicityrecords.com Cover art: Clare Topic – Copyright 2026 – All rights reserved. Editor: Alex Topic Buy me a Ko-fi

  • 1 Episode

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The music industry is extractive. Royalties go unclaimed, algorithms decide what gets heard, and talented musicians are burning out and walking away — even as the business generates more money than ever, most of it siphoned off before it reaches the people who made the music. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. This episode makes the case for what comes after: a "post-enshittocene" music economy built around connection, agency, dignity, meaning, and joy instead of extraction. Drawing on a lifetime in music technology — from a university DAW project decades ahead of its time, through Fairlight Instruments and Digital Audio Research, to music education — host Michael Topic traces the gaps he kept hitting as a working musician and technologist, and lays out a portfolio of tools designed to close them. Along the way: the Estonian Singing Revolution as proof that music can be genuine social infrastructure, a hard look at what this would actually cost (and why that isn't the real obstacle), and a closing argument that this only works as a coalition — not a pitch.

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