How do indie artists afford such expensive equipment?

you must live in some backwards redneck shithole because every other person where i live at least knows of them

jesus christ I really do need to move somewhere else

define "expensive"

generally the demos are fairly low fi, debuts only have low quality aspects out of choice or out of actual technical mistakes.

Its not hard to buy something especially if you do it for a job. A few months of saving you could buy one.

you don't have to be a household name to afford very expensive equipment

well if you mean anco, they've been at it for over a decade and are known worldwide so I'd hope they've made enough money to afford a synth

as for indie in general, it has kind of a problem of being a very upper middle class genre. the rich kids get a real headstart and who you know will get you far. kind of ironic considering the genre is full of virtue signalling fucks who'd probably identify as socialists

and then there's the fact that indie is just a marketing term now, so it's used to describe major label bands who can afford nice shit more than it's used to describe diy independent bands

daily reminder that any instrument that costs more then £500 is a scam

Iktf, there's so many shitty punk bands who play rickenbackers

true honestly

lol yeah right. if I don't use a fender(tm) jazzmaster people won't know I like sonic youth and therefore sound exactly like them

nevermind the fact they started out with shitty guitars that they were happy to just fuck around with until they got the sound they wanted

the """""""""""indie"""""""""""""
scene is basically not getting the major label funding to promote your album and getting paid a huge sum to record

there's barely any difference besides that. It's just rich kids using their parents money to fund their shitty bands while keeping street cred

IIRC mac demarco got like $1k to record 2 as an advance

and even then you can normally get it second hand in decent condition for less

I love the sunburst telecasters supposedly as an homage to kurt cobain. Nigga like half of all guitarists used telecasters no one gives a shit that the one from your band liked it.

You underestimate just how many people there are in the world compared to how many you actually need to buy records and attend shows. "Major indies" like Domino and 4AD and Sub Pop have always had a sizeable and devout crowd of elitist consumers.

How can you afford such an expensive tv?

pretty sure I remember hearing that most of the £250,000 that loveless cost came out of mbv's (or kevin shields' dad's) pocket

>can buy for less than $2k

How is that expensive?

The whole point about Jaguars and Jazzmasters being cool in the first place is that they were significantly cheaper (especially secondhand, especially Japanese models) than Teles and Strats because they were the household names used by huge 70s bands, so indie artists tended to use them. A but ironic that indie artists are willing to pay a premium for them over the now cheaper Teles and Strats

Could be a hand me down

Also Juno's weren't always expensive, they go up in price because of analog fetishization

I cant

If you've spent a decade having a musical project with multiple releases behind you, at some point you probably saved up enough music from a day job or sold your car and bought instruments with the money. It's not that hard.

>believes animal collective is underground
Holy kek

something something unbearable whiteness of indie

something something only the poor can make good art (let me forget michelangelo tho)

Meant to say (80s vs. now)

I guess there's also the Jaguar guitar bridge wankery Sonic Youth started incorporating into their music after the idea donned on them during an acid trip or something

sorry sorry I live in hee haw town that only unironically listens to Jason Aldean and Halsey, believe me I was absolutely shocked when I saw an Anco banner on itunes, because I didn't think that many people listened to them.

Seriously. People act like indie acts have no money and that's BS. They sell tons of record and sell out shows while top tier Bandcamp acts still have hard times getting gigs. I remember Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear saying before that they make no money, which is a lie. They are one of the most famous indie acts and are in that whole National/Beach House/Vampire Weekend/Bon Iver friend sphere. Also, Ed is a member of the very wealthy Forbes family (hence Veckatimest) and Daniel is the grandson of famed director Robert Rossen (All the King's Men/The Hustler). I can only assume the other two members of the band had simple upbringings and hence people to fall back on and to ask for money to help in their music. As long as you are reaching a significant amount of people and are booking and possibly even selling out shows then you are by no means struggling so stfu.

Because it's what they do full-time and where they get their money from, they're more willing to invest a lot of money into it. It's like how a workman's going to buy a lot more tools and better quality tools than someone who just does DIY as a lark.

I honestly didn't think they made that much money

Depends who you ask, if you just ask a random townie walking down the street they may not know them, they probably don't know much about music in general though. If you go to a college campus and ask there, everyone will have heard of them.

Analog synths were cheap in the early 2000s before all the bandwagoners hopped on. I used to own a SCI Prophet 5, Korg Mono/Poly, and a Jupiter 8 all of which I bought for less than $800.

You could buy Juno 60s for around $100-$200 all day long.

Some guys who play in bands have jobs.

>mac demarco got like $1k to record 2 as an advance
1k is nothing. After the cost of gear Deathconsciousness was barely under $1k

I'm in a music class and no one has heard of them, and if they have they've heard of them from me

it is kinda fucked how the tables have turned. just the idea that stuff that was cool because it was universally accessible and opened doors for poorer artists could be co-opted so hard that it's more expensive and a status symbol for the opposite reason

also pathetic that pitchfork will talk about the unbearable whiteness of indie but no one will ever acknowledge the generally nepotistic cool rich kids club that it is, from journalism down to labels

what type of music class. if you're with a bunch of asians playing vivaldi of course they wouldn't care

it is kinda weird. anyone who actively follows music knows them, but not everyone does have that relationship with music. most people like music, not everyone is into it. obviously itunes is selling to people who are actually willing to buy an album

A bunch of tumblrists listening to Halsey and green day, but that's not the point the point is no one has heard of them. The funny thing is that the town where I go there would probably have a good chunk of random people on the street that have heard of them, but not the people actually studying music.

Mommy and Daddy's fat credit 90% of the cases

Keep in mind though Mac probably makes an okay amount touring and only takes a week to record an album at most

craigslist

I think that's the point - the label had little financial input

I meant his record label gave him 1k to help record 2 in advance
major labels usually give six figures easily

That's because media is a competitive employer and only the nepotistic Cool Kids that networked heavily in the Indie Scene at a Cool College are hired as writers to contribute to mags like p4k, regardless of race.

What site is this?

The fact is a large portion of "indie" artists have rich parents/families. The amount of money needed to break through the endless sea of music nowadays (manager/pr company/equipment/endless touring with little profit) means that the richer you are the better chance you have. The more I've gotten to know people in some smaller internet scenes the more I've been shocked by how many of them basically lived off their parents for the early years.

equipboard, lets you see artists musical equipment

bait?

no, sorry

this isn't surprising in the least

mac is canadian so he probably got a lot of money from the government to record. they give a lot of grants to canadian artists.

I work barely above minimum wage and have like $5,000 worth of music gear I've accumulated over the years. If you love it, you will stock pile, eventually trading/selling off unused equipment until you have your signature setup. Imagine if music was literally your job? You'd know exactly what tools you require to get the job done, and you'd buy accordingly.

also, like most ppl here have mentioned... rich parents.

This is something a lot of people aren't aware of, the Canadian government will literally give artists grants to buy equipment/go on tour/etc.

In Australia, you can get grants for thousands. I know a local band (they're not a big deal, really) that got 10k for a small tour. I have a feeling Canada might shell out even more, the Minister for The Arts in Aus is a pleb.