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I think you are caught in thinking the status quo of the music industry and its history determine what all "valid" potential markets for music are, according to

I think you are caught in thinking the status quo of the music industry and its history determine what all "valid" potential markets for music are, according to I guess some economical or political belief you have. That Discovery isn't a product right now doesn't mean that if done correctly it can't become a product that changes the music business even just a bit, you need a stronger argument to convince me of that than just "it's not the way it is because it's not how the current business made history". I think there's a lot of people DJing, producing or jamming that would be ok with just getting pennies from their music being streamed or downloaded or whatever. Not every artist needs or wants to live from their art. For a lot the extra money is welcome specially as an incentive to do all the mastering and release work that's involved in releasing digital files or being on a streaming platform, which is not zero. I agree it's similar to selling math, but for some reason no one completely understands people "bond" to "brands" of music more often than to "brands" of math. From my perspective, at least until there's thousands of festivals across the world per week to share proofs and formulas and programs, I think it's deceiving to think selling music is like selling math if you uncouple the music from the merchandise.

motohagiography 5y ago
Not to over comment on the thread, but this idea of people performing math at festivals could very conceivably happen, and the economics would be precisely same. It's just a question of the artform. Hacker conferences get pretty close to punk math, and blockchains are the repetitive noise your parents don't understand. A bit into the handwavy, but there's two famous quotes, one from Goethe about architecture being 'petrified music,' and another about how 'nobody can dance to architecture' which were just as quirky as what I'm saying, but when you view skateboarders as, literally, dancing to architecture, with festivals everywhere around the world, the ideas of music, architecture, math, and what dancing to them all might mean suddenly becomes plausible and conceptually much closer to one another. The economics of skateboarding (as essentially a dance form) are pretty much the same as that of music, and math. It's the dismal aspect of Economics that provides this kind of indifferent nihilism between the concepts, but when you're trying to create a product, the economics are the necessary lens. Though I will admit it's a different frame of mind.
- pvarangot 5y ago
  Those are good points, but the pervasiveness of music as a means to connect socially is so out of proportion vis à vis hacker conferences that most hacker conference include one or multiple musical events, and sometimes music leading to some of the "big numbers". I think Discovery becomes a viable product when there's so much of something out there, and for math and hacker conferences it's not much of a necessity and no one with benefit from it. For music because of a matter of scale I think Discovery is ripe for innovation and there's viable products that should do well. I wish I had more time or contacts to actually put my money where my mouth is, so unfortunately so far I just have an opinion.

motohagiography 5y ago

Not to over comment on the thread, but this idea of people performing math at festivals could very conceivably happen, and the economics would be precisely same. It's just a question of the artform. Hacker conferences get pretty close to punk math, and blockchains are the repetitive noise your parents don't understand. A bit into the handwavy, but there's two famous quotes, one from Goethe about architecture being 'petrified music,' and another about how 'nobody can dance to architecture' which were just as quirky as what I'm saying, but when you view skateboarders as, literally, dancing to architecture, with festivals everywhere around the world, the ideas of music, architecture, math, and what dancing to them all might mean suddenly becomes plausible and conceptually much closer to one another. The economics of skateboarding (as essentially a dance form) are pretty much the same as that of music, and math. It's the dismal aspect of Economics that provides this kind of indifferent nihilism between the concepts, but when you're trying to create a product, the economics are the necessary lens. Though I will admit it's a different frame of mind.

pvarangot 5y ago
Those are good points, but the pervasiveness of music as a means to connect socially is so out of proportion vis à vis hacker conferences that most hacker conference include one or multiple musical events, and sometimes music leading to some of the "big numbers". I think Discovery becomes a viable product when there's so much of something out there, and for math and hacker conferences it's not much of a necessity and no one with benefit from it. For music because of a matter of scale I think Discovery is ripe for innovation and there's viable products that should do well. I wish I had more time or contacts to actually put my money where my mouth is, so unfortunately so far I just have an opinion.