Independent music in 2025: everyone seems to live & die by their stream counts. To me, these are vanity metrics.

I don’t have 100k streams, but I do have 7 very nice patrons who have “subscribed” to my music project, Kid Lightbulbs, totaling $19.66 of recurring income each month.

After processing fees, that’s barely $16/month, or $191/year. But that also makes kid lightbulbs almost a cost-neutral operation (in terms of the services I pay for annually, like site hosting and music distribution). And that’s before one-off sales, much of which I donate or divest, but some of which I do keep.

This makes Kid Lightbulbs a (slightly, not consistently) profitable operation. Considering this project didn’t exist 18 months ago, and I’ve put almost no money or ViRaL vIdEo CoNtEnT into promoting it, I’m happy with that.

Streams are not my goal. They are an indicator that someone’s listening but I don’t even know who they are and whether they have any intent to listen again or go deeper, and my music is designed for going deeper, and I know there are folks out there seeking that. My ultimate goal is a profitable (or at least cost-neutral) music operation, which I can grow at my own manageable place and foster deeper experiences for & connections with my fans.

This takes patience and defiance of the typical things the “music industry” (and musicians themselves) tell you to do.