Hearing Things Is Now 100% Worker-Owned

One weird part of starting a website is that when people ask how things are going, our collective brain goes in 12 different directions and we’re not sure how to answer. The fact that a new music journalism platform exists at all in 2025 feels like a miracle, and the growing community of music lovers we’ve gathered is incredibly meaningful to us. At the same time, building up a new outlet is hard and slow. We knew it would be, because the good folks behind worker-owned outlets like Hell Gate, Aftermath, 404, Flaming Hydra, Defector, and Racket shared their journeys and advice with us before we launched. They also showed us that, with a bit of time and a lot of creativity, it’s possible to do great work and reach a level of sustainability primarily through subscriptions. 

We were able to launch back in October thanks to start-up funding. This allowed us to work on HT full-time, focus on emerging artists, experiment with our writing, hire freelancers we love, and try out different ways to best serve our audience. We initially offered most of our work without a paywall, in order to show readers what they could expect. The five of us founder-editors collectively owned 50 percent of Hearing Things when we started, and our investor owned the other half. We are now proud to announce that we are now 100 percent worker-owned! This aligns us further with our values—we believe the future of journalism will be led by workers—and means that we are truly DIY. 

You may be wondering: Does this also mean Hearing Things is financially secure? Girl, please. We launched seven months ago. Any money we make goes towards keeping the site (and ourselves) alive. One challenge has been spreading the word beyond the small community that appreciates good music journalism. You might consider forwarding this very email to a music-loving friend. If you’re a paying Hearing Things subscriber, we deeply appreciate it. For those who have ever thought about becoming a paying subscriber, now is a great time to do just that—not only because we need reader support more than ever.

In June, we’re rolling out a new paid-subscriber-only newsletter, similar to our Five Albums dispatches on Tuesdays, except this one—you guessed it—is focused on songs. Five Songs will run on Thursdays. Just imagine it: Every week you’ll get 10 music recommendations from crate-digging critics and Real Life Humans, along with our entertaining and crucial criticism. All that plus our usual interviews, essays, and more.

We’re also starting production on Season 2 of our podcast, Waste or Taste, in the next few weeks. Which is great news for the five of us—we really love chopping it up about new music and making each other laugh—and hopefully some of you as well. And we’re throwing another party in New York City! On June 26, team HT is back at Trans-Pecos in Queens for a night of burn-the-house-down rap from Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals, plus vibed-to-the-gods DJ sets from our own Andy Cush. Tickets are now on sale.

It’s a lot—writing, editing, podcasting, DJing, party planning, playlist-making, social posting, graphic designing, merch mailing, Discord-ing, and much more—but that’s what you sign up for when you make something of your own. Doing Hearing Things is like being in a band. We feel more kinship with independent musicians than we ever did working at bigger publications; all of us are trying to get by amid the unavoidable hellscape of algorithms and social media in order to keep doing what we love. No regrets. 

The larger goal of the worker-owned journalism community really resonates if you’ve spent time in corporate media, where frequent layoffs, union-busting, and ever-escalating traffic goals devalue workers from the inside out. Journalism costs money, and it takes time to gain trust. On the internet, if something is free, that means the audience is the product—your information, the ability to market to you as mere consumers rather than trusted readers. That’s something you’ll never have to worry about with us.

We truly believe there’s another way forward, one that allows publications to flourish without making concessions to the whims of corporate overlords, but it only works if you create something that serves your subscribers. In our case, that’s great writing and music curation you can’t get elsewhere. A combined 85 years in music journalism represented by five unique critics writing to you week in and week out with our real opinions.

Ciao bella, 

Jill, Andy, Ryan, Julianne, and Dylan