Joe Steinhardt is the owner of Don Giovanni Records, a label that he co-founded in 2003 with Zach Gajewski. Initially, their intent was to document the independent music scene then emerging from New Brunswick, New Jersey. However, the label’s focus has since broadened to promote a wide array of untraditional artists from underrepresented groups into some of the best-selling and most celebrated artists of their era, including Mitski, Waxahatchee, Kari Faux, Screaming Females, Moor Mother, Irreversible Entanglements, Jeffrey Lewis, Laura Stevenson, and others who released career-defining works on the label.
In addition the label has become a home for artists from other era’s and music scenes such as Lavender Country, Alice Bag, Peter Stampfel, The Holy Modal Rounders, L7, Keith Secola, Swamp Dogg, Tim Kerr, Jody Stecher, author Larry Livermore, and comedian Chris Gethard.
Don Giovanni Records remains committed to furthering alternative culture and independent values, providing resources for artists who prefer to work outside of the mainstream music industry.
In 2016, Steinhardt founded and curated the New Alternative Music Festival, a two day concert held at New Jersey’s Asbury Park Convention Hall gathering a bill composed entirely of musicians acting without ties to major labels or corporate distribution.
Steinhardt studied at Boston University and earned a Ph.D. in communication at Cornell. He currently resides in Philadelphia, where he is an Associate Professor at Drexel University’s Music Industry Program.
PhD, Communication, Cornell University; B.S., Communication, Boston University
Steinhardt, J. (2024). The Influence of Motivation and Intention on Consumer Attitudes and Acceptance of AI Music. The Journal of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association Summit Proceedings.
Steinhardt, J. (2023). What is behind the vinyl record boom and what does it mean for artists and record labels? The Journal of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association Summit Proceedings.
Steinhardt, J., & McClaran, N. (2022). Separating the art from the artist: The role of narratives on music enjoyment and appreciation. Psychology of Music.
Steinhardt, J. (2021). Why To Resist Streaming Music & How. Portland: Microcosm Publishing.
Steinhardt, J. (2020). The role of numeric and statistical content on risk perception in infographics about road safety. Journal of Risk Research.
Safi, A.G., Jesch, E., Steinhardt, J., Scolere, L., Skurka, C., Kalaji, A., Niederdeppe, J., Byrne S. (2019). Comparing three methods of involving low-SES and youth population tobacco intervention research. Social Science & Medicine.
Byrne S., Safi, A.G., Kemp, D.G, Skurka, C., Davydova, J., Scolere, L., Mathios, A., Avery, R.J., Dorf, M.C., Steinhardt, J., Niederdeppe, J. (2019) Effects of Varying Color, Imagery and Text of Cigarette Package Warning Labels among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Middle School Youth and Adult Smokers. Health Communication.
Dixon, G., McComas, K., Besley, J. & Steinhardt, J. (2016). Transparency in the food aisle: The influence of procedural justice on views about labeling GM foods. Journal of Risk Research.
Steinhardt, J., & Shapiro M.A. (2015) Framing Effects in Narrative and Non-narrative contexts. Risk Analysis.
McComas, K., Besley, J., Steinhardt, J. (2014) Factors influencing U.S. consumer support for genetic modification to prevent crop disease. Appetite.
Longstaff, P., Steinhardt, J. (2011). Listening to Uncertainty in the Music Business: Fat Tails and Resilience. Program Incidental Paper, Harvard Program on Information Resources Policy, January 2011, http://www.pirp.harvard.edu/publications/pdf-blurb.asp?id=626.
Chen, G.M., Chock, T.M., Gozigian, H., Rogers, R., Sen, A., Schweisberger, V.N., Steinhardt, J., & Wang, Y. (2011). Want to reach younger readers? Personalize your news site and foster a sense of group loyalty. Newspaper Research Journal.
My creative work and scholarship are motivated by big questions about power and infrastructure, narratives and storytelling, by the social, environmental and cultural implications of music, and the role of institutional power dynamics in shaping music culture. I devote my career to this as I believe that the social and cultural implications of music is important. Too often music is stripped of its social and political context in order to make it more sellable. However, I have always believed that narratives surrounding artists and their work, and how they are presented, have major social and political ramifications.
My work through the label and active experience in the music industry informs my traditional scholarly work through peer reviewed research, conference papers, and documentary film work. My view is that narratives are the primary method people use to make sense of the world, communicate, form views, attitudes, and beliefs, and make major decisions. Narratives and narratives messages are involved in both the delivery of music to listeners, and present in the music itself, thus who controls these narratives and how they are delivered are a cornerstone of culture and society. It is my view that independent music cultivated by independent record labels best allows for artists to control and shape their own narratives, and thus for a healthy culture there needs to be space for independent artists and labels to compete fairly.
I look at narratives, culture, and critical theory through the lens of communication. I earned my Ph.D. in Communication and spent much of my earlier career as a researcher exploring narrative messages and their influence on decision making and attitudes in a general setting–an area I still publish in–before starting to apply it more directly to the music industry as my professional practice informed more research questions. Questions about how narratives shape the way we enjoy the music we listen to; about how music streaming is shaping culture and not just listening behavior; about how industry trends effect society; and about what musical narratives are told, which are ignored, and why.
I explore these questions through a mix of practice, traditional research, applied work, and industry work.
Independently released a catalog of 320+ albums through Don Giovanni Records including albums from Screaming Females, Mitski, Moor Mother, Irreversible Entanglements, Laura Stevenson, Waxahatchee, Jeffrey Lewis, Lavender Country, Swamp Dogg, Lee Bains + The Glory Fires, Mal Blum, Downtown Boys, Alice Bag, Priests, Sammus, The Ergs!, Chris Gethard, Peter Stampfel, The Holy Modal Rounders, Worriers, P.S. Eliot, Tenement, Aye Nako. Production credits include Downtown Boys.
In 2016 produced and booked The New Alternative Music Festival at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ.
Steinhardt has been a vocal critic of streaming music and published his first book Why to Resist Streaming Music & How through Microcosm Publishing.
Don Giovanni Records was a Libera Award nominee for Label Of The Year (Small) in 2022 and 2023.
In 2024 Steinhardt released a graphic novel Merriment with Marissa Paternoster.