The experience economy arms race and the end of the recording artist

The experience economy arms race and the end of the recording artist

From The Culture Journalist by The Culture Journalist

April 10, 2026 · 1h 24m

About this episode

The episode discusses the decline of the recording artist concept in favor of live music experiences, featuring guest Jaime Brooks.

CUJO is a podcast about culture in the age of platforms. Episodes drop every other week, but if you want the full experience, we recommend signing up for a paid subscription. Paid subscribers also get access to our CUJOPLEX Discord and The Weather Report , a monthly episode series where we take stock of where the cultural winds are blowing and tell you what’s rained into our brains. It sounds strange to say it, but the notion of the recording artist seems to be becoming increasingly a thing of the past. Artists are still releasing albums, sure, but our experience as music fans and the industry as a whole seems to be increasingly centered around live music — at least in terms of where people are actually spending their money. Today’s guest, writer and musician Jaime Brooks (you may remember her from our episode on the geopolitics of pop culture ), joins us to discuss what that means for artists and the future of music itself. We dig into Jaime’s recent viral essay, “ Why do so many big artists hate touring? ,” which draws on her own touring experiences as part of the electronic duo Elite Gymnastics to explore how the music business seems to be in the midst of an experience economy…

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