For his new solo album “Picnic in a Landfill,” singer-songwriter Timothy Bailey decided he wasn’t going to go the traditional route of releasing it to streaming.

He was going to make people ask for it.

“All you’ll have to do is click a button on my website that says, ‘Yes, I want the record,’” he says. “It’s only available there. Right now, the album is free for the taking, but you do have to ask for it.”

The frontman for Timothy Bailey and the Humans, like many artists, feels the constant struggle of creating music with the current state of music consumption in the streaming era. In 2023, Bailey wrote a piece for Style Weekly about his return to making music after a 25-year absence only to discover how much the landscape had changed and the lack of financial sustainability for artists. He also penned a Substack post titled “Against Spotify: A Manifesto,” calling streaming services the “parasitic wasps” of the music industry.

With his new album, he wanted listeners to have more of a connection with it and having them ask for it was a way to start. Style Weekly spoke with Bailey about his new record, what’s next for him, and why he wants active listeners of his music.

Style Weekly: What made you want to create a solo record?

Timothy Bailey: My band, The Humans, has been in flux since our second album where the lineup just shifted and I was unclear on what the path forward was going to be. But I knew that I wanted to work on something where 100% of the decisions would be mine. I think, on the whole, I wanted the music on this solo record to be a bit smaller and intimate as opposed to The Humans’ music, which is more grand in scope.

Why did you decide to make this record something that people had to ask for as opposed to traditionally releasing it?

People will say music saved their life and then point to a specific record or song. I also have a few of those touchpoints in my life. I’ve spent hundreds of hours listening to certain artists I connected with, but I didn’t just happen upon them. I actively sought them out. It’s a sort of reciprocal relationship that I think is mostly gone now. Not to say that people don’t have meaningful relationships with popular artists because I think they do. But I think that some of that is more bound in the zeitgeist celebrity culture as opposed to really relating to the music itself.

“You have to continuously fight what the algorithm is feeding you and all these ridiculous things that you don’t necessarily want to see.”

For this album, I really wanted to establish that kind of connection with listeners again. In order for that to work, I have to have something to play and the listener has to make a conscious decision to hear it. I wanted to release the record in a way that is consistent with my values, so having people opt in was the way I wanted to go.

Do you feel this is a new marketing strategy that’s almost “going back to the old days” for music?

I obviously want my music to reach as many people as possible, but I’m not releasing it this way as some sort of tactical approach. It’s more about releasing it the way that I think is the best expression of myself. I just can’t subject this very tender part of myself to the maw of the attention economy anymore. I’m putting myself out there and feeling like I’m competing in a field that I don’t want to be a part of.

You have to continuously fight what the algorithm is feeding you and all these ridiculous things that you don’t necessarily want to see.

I started releasing music to my Substack list of subscribers since they’re already interested in what I’m doing and receptive to me as an artist. It’s people that I know I’m not going to be wasting my time on and the album was something that they would naturally gravitate towards anyway.

For the people who opt into this record, what are you hoping that they get out of it? 

I think that art offers all kinds of mutual emotional experiences, and songs can be containers or vessels for that experience and there’s solidarity in that. I want people listening to this record to enjoy that sense of being a part of a community around the same emotional experience.

What’s next for you as an artist?

I’ve already been working on new material for a while. I record voice memos all the time and have thousands of them, which I regularly go through. It’s really wild how much material I have stored up. But my goal at this point is to try and release one 10-song album per year for the rest of my life.

To request a copy of “Picnic in a Landfill,” visit timothybaileyandthehumans.com/picnic-form. To subscribe to Timothy Bailey’s Substack, Greater Humanity, visit greaterhumanity.substack.com.