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That's great! I wish more bands had this level of success. BandCamp is more-or-less an "indie" place to find music. People have to be "into" it to go there and

by Alupis 6y ago

That's great! I wish more bands had this level of success. BandCamp is more-or-less an "indie" place to find music. People have to be "into" it to go there and find music. Spotify and Pandora are far lower barriers for every-day people. Just put on some station you've created from your favorite band, and eventually it'll start playing new bands you've never heard and might love. It's amazing.

dhosek 6y ago
What it ends up doing is incentivizing artists to create songs like this: https://play.google.com/store/music/artist/The_Very_Very_Awesome_Song_Band?id=Ahp4g2jup56dfjxtncqbjiuzjdi&hl=en_US https://play.google.com/store/music/artist/The_Very_Very_Awe... I read somewhere that the artist behind this discovered that the streaming songs he made the most from were songs that were apparently requested by random small child requests so he created a whole bunch of songs for just that purpose and makes the bulk of his income through that. Discovery on the streaming services is awful and the renumeration for indie artists is also awful. It's the worst of all possible worlds.
- Alupis 6y ago
  How is this bad? This artist found a niche that wouldn't exist otherwise, and is making a profit from it. This artist has made a business out of their music. Most music isn't a business, it's a passion and hobby.
  - dhosek 6y ago
    I used to be able to do reverse phone lookup by typing a number into google. People have turned that into a business and now it, to put it simply, does not work at all. This is the music equivalent of that. It's also why there are gajillions of crappy cover songs on the streaming services. It's turned into a money extraction thing and is crowding out the, you know, music. Once upon a time, not that long ago even, a talented musician could make a living from their music. It's depressing to read biographies of entertainers who came up in the first half of the twentieth century who needed a job so they became entertainers. We've traded our culture for a mess of pottage.
    - Alupis 6y ago
      Frankly, this narrative is untrue. Since the beginning of time, certainly modern times, artists have largely struggled to survive off their artwork. Most don't survive. There is no time in modern history where artists, of any kind, on average made a living from their art. Even our most famous artists very often die poor. There has always been a gross abundance of art. It's not a bad thing - but it does mean making a living off it is _hard_. Really _hard_. It's not good enough simply to be talented - there's a lot of luck involved too. For every Taylor Swift, you'll find dozens of wannabe's with nearly as great, or sometimes as great of songwriting abilities and voice talent. Some even play instruments at the same time! Somehow, Taylor Swift was "picked" and propped up by record labels et al, and now is a household name. How many artists can you name from the 19th century? Probably a few of the most successful ones. Do you think they were the only ones writing music, or painting? Definitely not.

by Alupis 6y ago

dhosek 6y ago

What it ends up doing is incentivizing artists to create songs like this: https://play.google.com/store/music/artist/The_Very_Very_Awesome_Song_Band?id=Ahp4g2jup56dfjxtncqbjiuzjdi&hl=en_US https://play.google.com/store/music/artist/The_Very_Very_Awe... I read somewhere that the artist behind this discovered that the streaming songs he made the most from were songs that were apparently requested by random small child requests so he created a whole bunch of songs for just that purpose and makes the bulk of his income through that. Discovery on the streaming services is awful and the renumeration for indie artists is also awful. It's the worst of all possible worlds.

Alupis 6y ago
How is this bad? This artist found a niche that wouldn't exist otherwise, and is making a profit from it. This artist has made a business out of their music. Most music isn't a business, it's a passion and hobby.
- dhosek 6y ago
  I used to be able to do reverse phone lookup by typing a number into google. People have turned that into a business and now it, to put it simply, does not work at all. This is the music equivalent of that. It's also why there are gajillions of crappy cover songs on the streaming services. It's turned into a money extraction thing and is crowding out the, you know, music. Once upon a time, not that long ago even, a talented musician could make a living from their music. It's depressing to read biographies of entertainers who came up in the first half of the twentieth century who needed a job so they became entertainers. We've traded our culture for a mess of pottage.
  - Alupis 6y ago
    Frankly, this narrative is untrue. Since the beginning of time, certainly modern times, artists have largely struggled to survive off their artwork. Most don't survive. There is no time in modern history where artists, of any kind, on average made a living from their art. Even our most famous artists very often die poor. There has always been a gross abundance of art. It's not a bad thing - but it does mean making a living off it is _hard_. Really _hard_. It's not good enough simply to be talented - there's a lot of luck involved too. For every Taylor Swift, you'll find dozens of wannabe's with nearly as great, or sometimes as great of songwriting abilities and voice talent. Some even play instruments at the same time! Somehow, Taylor Swift was "picked" and propped up by record labels et al, and now is a household name. How many artists can you name from the 19th century? Probably a few of the most successful ones. Do you think they were the only ones writing music, or painting? Definitely not.