Finding music as good as this is pretty rare. And it’s even more rare to see an artist making a statement like Heksagons do about the way they want their business model to work. Heksagons is a collaboration between Bobby (Rob Bloomfield, known for his work in Does It Offend You, Yeah) and Hinhin – both from London.
Their track ‘Temper Tantrums’ found its way into this post through Submithub. It’s one of those rare tracks where you instantly know it’s just that good – good song, instantly hooked on that lead synth (seems to be something Heksagons love to do), the sounds are well-mixed, and there is a nice video to go with it as well. Love it.
“We think we’ve made better music than ‘My Humps'”
What makes Heksagons stand out even more is that their website – besides the standard stuff like a tab for music and videos – has some interesting views on the industry, the reasons why Heksagons’ music is and will probably stay free music. Go read it here, it’s a fun read. TL;DR: in the music industry model, money is the goal. Ridiculous lawsuits and unoriginal music production seem to be the main methods to get lots of it. It’s a pretty general statement, sure, but there’s a fair point in Heksagons reasoning.
Problem is that statements like these aren’t always taken seriously (hear the story, shrug, throw in stoic argument: “Aw well, nothing you can do”, “can’t blame them for trying to make max. money”).
Those little hypothetical conversations in our heads are counterproductive though. “How else are you going to successfully present your music?”, sure it’s a fair question too. But the thinking process behind it might not be a question – the one asking this is likely expecting no valid alternative on the spot. No valid answer implies that the current way of working is the only way to go. It isn’t, but in these conversations we tend to oversimplify our reasoning by simply giving two options, excluding all other possibilities we haven’t found or don’t understand yet.
It does take a lot of effort, patience and failing to come up with a solid alternative to the current shape of an entire industry – it’s not going to go smoothly. The fact that there’s no readymade alternative model is no reason to not try to improve on your position as a creator. In fact, it’s just lazy to give up when there’s no simple solution just around the corner.
“We believe in working hard to create art and then giving it away for free. We believe that music fans will support us either with donations or patronage“
This is what makes the whole concept around Heksagons (at least for us) that much more special. Although their model – free downloads is just an example – might not necessarily be the best means to bypass industry problems (because in the streaming years it looks like there’s going to be a greater dependence on streaming platforms who make downloading (‘owning’) a song unnecessary, but also take a position of a money-making middle man – one very necessary to deal with, in order for an artist to be able to reach an audience), at least there’s a good thought process behind it.
Whatever the solution for the industry’s pretty ill state is going to be (and there are some promising options), most artists might want to just take some notes right now. Heksagons doesn’t just stick to making really good original music – their presence also shows a clear vision on what kind of artist Heksagons want to be in terms of innovative business models and some actual artistic freedom. And the third, perhaps most important thing: They act on their ideas. Instead of counterproductively thinking up arguments against their own ideas, Heksagons seem to productively build upon them. Which, to us, is what makes a good creator/artist – and it’s what makes Heksagons one of the more exciting new names to come across.
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