New Feeling is 5

Five years ago, we launched New Feeling with a simple but important idea: music criticism can be worker-led, community-funded, and accountable to the people who make and love music. We started small, we learned in public as we went along, and we’ve kept our promises in the open. 

Here’s what we’ve built in that time:

• A democratically run organization with three member classes: organizing, community, and advisory, designed to share power and responsibility.
• A board of directors to represent the co-op’s interests and maintain our accountability to our values.
• Since we've launched subscriptions we've maintained a steady publishing rhythm, covering big ideas, music scenes, and the communities behind them with space to think about labour, developing a point of view for ourselves with reporting you won't find anywhere else. Our work has been named among some of the “Best Canadian Music Writing” by Invisible Publishing every year.
• A budget that is supported 100% by our members, where 90% of our income goes directly into publishing and paying writers. We don’t have ads or investors and our work is all the better for it. 
• We've facilitated writing workshops, reading groups, and panel discussions that bring the conversations and ideas from our values and articles right into the community itself. 
• We’ve formed partnerships with publishers like The Grind, Spring Magazine, and publishing association Unrigged. We’ve also partnered with organizations like Subvert, Shared Bylines, Venus Fest, Long Winter, Pop Montreal, Sled Island, Lawnya Vawnya, and Suoni Per Il Popolo to connect our work with likeminded people at the centre of the country’s vital arts scene.

Here’s what’s next:

• Join! If you’ve been reading and enjoying our work, consider joining the co-op as a community member. Small monthly or annual commitments add up to fees for writers and the ability to expand our capacity as an organization.
• We’re currently running a discount on member fees for our annual member drive. If you join the co-op between now and December 31st, it’s only $5/month or $55/year to be a member. 
• Pitch us. We're looking for community-centred stories, labour-forward criticism, and reported features.
• Show up. Come to our next AGM (November 20th, 7pm EST via Google Meet), join one of our working groups as an organizing member, or come out to our next event (SLASH NEED’s sold out record release party in Toronto, co-presented with Not Dead Yet). 

Five years in, we’re more sure than ever: the future of music criticism is cooperative. If New Feeling has mattered to you in that period of time, join the co-op, share an issue with a friend, or send us a note. We’d love to hear what you want to see next.

- NEW FEELING