Leaving Records launches All-Genre as a two-finger salute against the technocapitalist world and reminds music lovers that websites can be fun and unique

Websites and newsletters have never been more needed and more powerful as the world of social media and technocapitalism flounders in enshittification. I’ve long said to any artist who listens that your website and newsletter are always yours and yours alone. Never sell them. Never trade them for the algorithm lottery. I’m on a mission to find great artists, record labels, and initiatives that, like me, try to create something unique on the internet. Leaving Records has done just that.

All-Genre launched last month as a way for the LA-based record label to showcase its music. It is a free, community-focused web app (no downloads, just a login) that has an extensive archive of Leaving Records’ releases built around shared listening experiences. All-Genre Radio runs 24/7, with a chatroom to talk to others about music and life, whilst live performances, guest mixes, and artist interviews take place on a special programming channel. It reminds me of the good old chatroom days, the listening parties Bandcamp have, and to a lesser extent, YouTube premieres. If you want to go off the beaten track and explore releases on your own, the archive is available to stream.

I signed up to All-Genre to see how it all works, and was impressed by how human-centred it was. The website homepage is an interactive synth. Every click or tap on the screen triggers a synth bubble that makes noise whenever it hits the screen edge. It’s like a musical DVD rest screen and reminded me that websites can be functional and fun. My personal account also allows me to save songs and releases to a personal collection for easy replaying. That’s handy because Leaving Records covers quite a few genres, hence the name, so it lets me zone in on what I personally prefer. You can support the site through donations and chat in the forums, too.

I’m starting to see more communities returning to what I feel like were the heyday of internet positivity and connectedness, and I am loving what I find. Leaving Records founder Matthewdavid says it best:

“Others have written eloquently and at length about the multitudinous ills of streaming and social media platforms, about the need to de-couple and slow down. We feel that we’re well- positioned to give it a shot, thanks in no small part to an enthusiastic and growing community of listeners. We’re far from luddites. We just remember a time when being on the internet (and specifically finding and sharing music on the internet) wasn’t such a caustic, draining, aggressively anti-human experience.”

If you are someone else joining this revolt and return to humanity, then get in touch. I’m going to be compiling a directory of projects, labels, tools, and artists who are part of the take back of our internet. All-Genre is free to use and available worldwide. This is not a sponsored post. I don’t do those. I just think this is part of the antidote to today’s broken (digital) world.

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