# SIGNAL DEPT. — Edition 3
**Fri 18 July 2025**
**Classified Dispatch // Zine No. 3**
**Underground Electronic. Hand-filtered.**
> _"Let it play loud. Or soft. Just don't scroll past the underground."_
Welcome back, listener.
This isn't content. It's current.
A playlist disguised as a pulse.
A zine disguised as a signal.
You're tuned in. Let's scan.
---
## 🧭 This Month's Frequency Contains:
* 🎧 [Curated playlist — YouTube]
* 🎤 Artist Interview – *DjangoZa*
* 📰 Feature Article – *Part 1 of 3: Artist Sovereignty & The Aggregator‑Streaming Complex*
* 📝 Signal Scan – Track notes + texture mapping
---
## 🎤 Artist Spotlight: DjangoZa
**EP:** _Music_
**Location:** Cape Town, ZA
**Interview Format:** 3Q // Mini-Transmission
**1. Your latest EP _Music_ deliberately embraces imperfection over endless refinement—calling it "better than no music" and "not supposed to be a masterpiece." In an industry obsessed with polished perfection, what led you to this philosophy of creative release over creative paralysis?**
> "A couple of years back, I watched a documentary on YouTube about a musician known as Saki Kaskas (real name Theodosius Kaskamanidis) whose music I'd enjoyed in several games. When he passed away, he'd been working on an album, and his friends in the industry came together to finish it in his honour. It really moved me that his peers cared this much, but I realised that most of us won't have the luxury of someone else finishing or even discovering our work. I decided I'd rather have my work out there, imperfect as it may be, than keep it in a folder for years. Since most labels I've engaged with wanted genre-specific EPs, and mine doesn't fit cleanly into a single style, I decided to release it myself rather than wait another year."
**2. You've been releasing under various aliases since 2006, performed with live electronic acts across SA festivals, and now operate as DjangoZa—how has the South African underground electronic scene shaped your approach to sound, and what textures or rhythms feel uniquely rooted in that landscape?**
> "In my lifetime, the South African underground electronic music scene has always been quite diverse. As a teen I was listening to albums from African Dope Records, Goldfish, Krushed & Sorted, Max Normal, Kalahari Surfers, Felix Laband, Sibot, PHFAT and many others, not to mention local deep house / Afro house CDs (Oskido's Church Grooves, DJ Clock, Soul Candi) and lots of great bands. Cape Town is also one of the world's psytrance capitals.
>
> While I deeply admire all of it, I wouldn't say my current releases sound explicitly South African - but the influence is definitely in the mix. You might hear it more in some of my unreleased work."
**3. _Plane Ticket_ spans over a decade from conception to release, while _Far From Home_ reaches back 20 years—this temporal layering suggests music as archaeology of self. How do you navigate between honoring these older sonic memories and your current creative frequency?**
> "That could've been the EP title... Archaeology of Self. It definitely felt that way. Most of my musical endeavours are in service of others, be it producing, mixing and mastering for clients, or DJing and performing. I rarely play my own stuff unless it fits the room, but eventually, I realised I needed to create something just for me - to process things, even if no one else hears it. That shift helped me finish these older tracks without obsessing over how they'd land. They're time capsules more than products. If they're meant to touch someone, they will."
**DjangoZa on YouTube:**
**Bandcamp: https://djangoza.bandcamp.com**
---
## 📰 Feature Article — Part 1 of 3
### 🎚️ Artist Sovereignty and the Aggregator‑Streaming Complex
#### Part 1: Exposing the Broken Links Between Creators and Platforms
---
#### 🎵 1. From Netlabels to Streaming Giants
In the early 2000s, the internet gave independent musicians something radical: a way out.
Netlabels let artists share music online under Creative Commons. MySpace gave bedroom producers a global stage. You could build an audience without a label, without PR, without permission.
But that freedom was short-lived.
Today, most listening happens on a few giant streaming platforms—Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon—and the power that once flowed toward artists now flows away.
Streaming pays by the fraction of a cent:
🧾 $0.003–$0.004 per play
💰 77% of revenue goes to the top 1% of artists
Most working musicians—especially those outside the industry machine—see pennies. Some, nothing at all.
---
#### 🧮 2. The Hidden Math of Extraction
Streaming feels free. But artists pay a price, quietly and constantly.
Here's what happens when a fan sends $10 into the system:
Let’s say a fan pays $10/month to Spotify.
Spotify keeps ~30% off the top →
$10 × 30% = $3 retained by Spotify
$7 left for payout pool.
That $7 goes into a pro-rata pool:
It’s not tied to what the fan actually listened to (unless the platform uses a user-centric model, which Spotify does not).
If your music accounts for, say, 0.1% of total platform streams, you get:
$7 × 0.001 = $0.007
Even if you account for generous numbers:
- 0.5% of streams? → $0.035
- 1% of streams? → $0.07
That's $0.01–$0.07 per $10/month fan, depending on play share.
And that’s before aggregator fees, metadata issues, and “fraud” deductions.
**Funnel Breakdown:**
$10/month from a fan to Spotify
└─ $3 kept by Spotify (platform fee)
└─ $7 goes to global artist pool (not tied to what fan listened to)
└─ Your share: ~0.1–1% = $0.007 – $0.07
└─ Aggregator fee (15–30%) = further cut
└─ Metadata/claim errors may reduce this again
🤯 Bottom line:
Even a dedicated fan paying $10/month may only earn you 1–7 cents via Spotify.
**In contrast:**
- That same fan buying one digital album on Bandcamp might net you $7–$8
- Subscribing to your Patreon at $5/month? You might keep $4.50
Between the cuts, the middlemen, and the murky fine print, most musicians see just a sliver of the value they create.
---
#### 🤝 3. Why Direct Relationships Still Matter
Some artists have pushed back—not with outrage, but with alternatives:
**Bandcamp:**
Lets fans pay artists directly. It takes 15% of digital sales (less for high-volume artists).
On Bandcamp Fridays, it takes nothing at all.
But even Bandcamp isn’t safe.
After two ownership changes in 18 months (Epic → Songtradr), staff were laid off and trust was shaken.
Artists learned the hard way:
Even "artist-first" platforms change when ownership changes.
---
#### 🛠️ 4. Small-Scale Alternatives That Work
Some communities are building real alternatives:
**🎧 Resonate**
A co-op streaming service where each play counts toward full ownership of the track.
9 plays = you own it.
Artists and fans co-own the platform.
45% goes to artists.
**📍 RESISTOR (Portland, OR)**
A local music co-op.
$5/month subscription.
85% of pooled revenue goes straight to Portland artists.
No ads, no venture capital, no algorithms.
**🌐 Self-hosted options**
Open-source tools like Funkwhale let artists run their own servers and keep 100% of income.
Downside: you’ll need tech skills or help from someone who does.
**✳️ Takeaway:**
Small platforms. Local networks. Clear ownership.
These models are working right now—just not at Spotify scale.
---
#### 🕵️ 5. The Fog of Distribution
Here’s a real example:
A label manager signed up for Landr’s “unlimited distribution” plan. But after 15 releases, it stopped accepting uploads.
Buried in the help docs:
> “There is a 15‑release monthly cap for fair usage.”
It wasn’t listed on the sales page. He got no refund.
He called it “pure deception.”
Other artists report watching stream numbers drop suddenly. Platforms say it's due to bots or "non-genuine plays"—but they never show the data or explain why.
Artists are left in the dark, while platforms change the rules behind the scenes.
---
#### 🧭 6. A Simple Strategy: Reclaim Control
You don’t need to quit streaming.
But you can stop relying on it for survival.
Here’s what artists are doing:
- **✅ Audit your distributor**
Ask for a detailed breakdown of all fees, adjustments, and stream removals.
- **✅ Build your own audience**
An email list is more valuable than 10,000 monthly listeners. Seriously.
- **✅ Sell directly**
Use Bandcamp, your own website, or even QR-code merch to turn real support into real income.
- **✅ Join a co-op**
If you don’t know one, start one. Even five artists pooling $10/month can make something happen.
---
#### 🌀 7. Wisdom from Outside the Industry
> “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”
> — Alan Watts
You are not your monthly listeners.
You are not your playlist adds.
Let go of chasing the algorithm.
Find your people. Make the music. Build a system that doesn’t break you.
---
🔻 **Coming Next:**
Part 2 — Tools, Co-ops & Artist Stories
In two weeks, we’ll go deeper:
🔧 Tools to build your own platform
🎤 Interviews with artists using co-ops
💡 Step-by-step examples of hybrid models that actually work
---
## 📝 Signal Scan — Track Notes
**1. Me Gusta (Feat. Manuela Estrada) by Mario Ochoa**
What a happy, bubbly vibe. Me Gusta indeed!
[Listen on YouTube](
**2. Chroma (Track & Trace New Friends Mix) by Jori**
Fresh and funky
[Listen on YouTube](
**3. Meteor by Franky Klassen**
A well crafted track, particularly love the breakdown
[Listen on YouTube](
**4. Adelante by Ashkan Dian**
Nice trance-y vibe, reminds me of some of the music I used to party to in the early 2000s when we still said Rave :) But this also has some great modern sounds and some lovely complexity.
[Listen on YouTube](
**5. 3Am in Jo'burg (Addictive Mix) by Da Real Emkay**
The very epitome of Afro Deep House, cutting edge from Downtown Joburg.
[Listen on YouTube](
---
🖋️ **SUPPORT THIS WORK**
This article is part of a 3-part series from Signal Dept., a zine for independent artists navigating the edges of the industry.
✉️ **[Free Substack Subscription Here](#)**
🌀 Share on Bluesky, email, or directly with your music community
📂 All issues you may copy, remix, circulate freely. Just don't sell it.
Art is a relationship, not a product. Let’s build the systems it deserves.
**[END OF SIGNAL DEPT. — Edition 3]**