7 ms·

The revival we need, urgently, is of recorded music income Why? That ship has sailed. In 2022, as in 1922, 1822, 1722 etc musicians will have to earn their in

by mtts 4y ago

The revival we need, urgently, is of recorded music income Why? That ship has sailed. In 2022, as in 1922, 1822, 1722 etc musicians will have to earn their income by playing live.

matheusmoreira 4y ago
> musicians will have to earn their income by playing live Yes!! This is how it's supposed to be. The music itself is not scarce, it's the artists who are scarce. Society doesn't need this copyright rent seeking system. If artists want to make money, they should need to actually perform.
marcodiego 4y ago
I think the last recent time musicians had to play live often to get income was during the peak of file sharing networks. Now that everybody is willing to pay for services like spotify to listen to their music, live concerts are becoming rare again.
- chha 4y ago
  Musicians need to play live now more than ever to make an income; the sale of physical records are going downwards and have been doing so for the past 20 years. [1] Unless you happen to be amongst the absolute minority of people having a hit single on your hand or a popular back catalogue, you can't expect to make a lot of money from online streams. Several sources [2][3] report that Spotify pays around 0.003 USD per stream on average. Supposedly your musics share of everything streamed in a given month will also impact the actual payout. [1] - https://gloriousnoise.com/2022/data-2021-total-music-sales-and-streams https://gloriousnoise.com/2022/data-2021-total-music-sales-a... [2] - https://subjekt.no/2020/08/09/som-musiker-er-det-nesten-umulig-a-tjene-penger-gjennom-spotify-og-det-hjelper-ikke-a-gi-ut-mer-og-oftere/ https://subjekt.no/2020/08/09/som-musiker-er-det-nesten-umul... (Norwegian) [3] - https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/spotify-pay/ https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/spotify-pay/
marginalia_nu 4y ago
The thing with CDs today is that they are merchandise, as with cassettes or vinyl or whatever. You don't buy them to listen to them, but to have them. I think this understanding is crucially necessary for musicians hopping on this "trend". Like they could make action figures or mood rings or whatever. What the fans want are buying is a tangible thing, a keepsake. So first they need an actual fan-base that may be interested in a keepsake, and the keepsake should be worthwhile, feel luxurious. Like it doesn't need to actually be expensive, but it shouldn't feel cheap.
- l72 4y ago
  Agreed. I think this is why vinyl has taken off. It is much more physical then a CD. The artwork is larger and it just feels more personable. You have to be much more careful with it, and listening to it is a bigger investment. And a collection of vinyl looks great. I think a similar trend has happened with books. Certainly, e-readers are awesome. But for some things, you really want to have a physical copy. And in that case, a hardback is way better than a paperback. It is a long term keepsake and looks nice on your shelf. I think for many people, their collection of music, books, or other items allows them to show off their personality to their guests. When I go to someone's house, if they have a large bookshelf, I love to look through it to get an idea of their interests. It can be great conversation starters. You can't do that with purely digital media.
  - RajT88 4y ago
    The technical merits of vinyl are dubious. But it is undeniably the coolest way to listen to music. It takes effort, it is an event, a ritual executed with great care.
    - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
      May as well get your coolness with cylinder recordings.
      - RajT88 4y ago
makeitdouble 4y ago
As a general trend, I’d expect people to not return to mass events (theaters, concerts etc.) in the same numbers as before. It started before covid, so I think live events won’t be much of a revenue source in the future, except for a select few artists who will attract those still enjoying the crowd experience. I kinda hope memberships programs and other direct artist/fan settings come to fill that gap at a larger scale.
InfiniteRand 4y ago
This is sort of like how Disney makes more profits from theme parks than from its media, but the media serves as advertisement for the theme parks
l72 4y ago
But there are plenty of genres and artists (1-person bands recording in their basement) that don't make sense live or aren't able to perform live. There is a big difference between a musician and a performer. The bands that are both certainly have the biggest advantage, but we shouldn't discredit people who are just making music.
- matheusmoreira 4y ago
  Why can't they make a patreon?
xeromal 4y ago
Covid has shown that is now always possible for those artists.

by mtts 4y ago

The revival we need, urgently, is of recorded music income Why? That ship has sailed. In 2022, as in 1922, 1822, 1722 etc musicians will have to earn their income by playing live.

matheusmoreira 4y ago

> musicians will have to earn their income by playing live Yes!! This is how it's supposed to be. The music itself is not scarce, it's the artists who are scarce. Society doesn't need this copyright rent seeking system. If artists want to make money, they should need to actually perform.

marcodiego 4y ago

I think the last recent time musicians had to play live often to get income was during the peak of file sharing networks. Now that everybody is willing to pay for services like spotify to listen to their music, live concerts are becoming rare again.

chha 4y ago
Musicians need to play live now more than ever to make an income; the sale of physical records are going downwards and have been doing so for the past 20 years. [1] Unless you happen to be amongst the absolute minority of people having a hit single on your hand or a popular back catalogue, you can't expect to make a lot of money from online streams. Several sources [2][3] report that Spotify pays around 0.003 USD per stream on average. Supposedly your musics share of everything streamed in a given month will also impact the actual payout. [1] - https://gloriousnoise.com/2022/data-2021-total-music-sales-and-streams https://gloriousnoise.com/2022/data-2021-total-music-sales-a... [2] - https://subjekt.no/2020/08/09/som-musiker-er-det-nesten-umulig-a-tjene-penger-gjennom-spotify-og-det-hjelper-ikke-a-gi-ut-mer-og-oftere/ https://subjekt.no/2020/08/09/som-musiker-er-det-nesten-umul... (Norwegian) [3] - https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/spotify-pay/ https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/spotify-pay/

marginalia_nu 4y ago

The thing with CDs today is that they are merchandise, as with cassettes or vinyl or whatever. You don't buy them to listen to them, but to have them. I think this understanding is crucially necessary for musicians hopping on this "trend". Like they could make action figures or mood rings or whatever. What the fans want are buying is a tangible thing, a keepsake. So first they need an actual fan-base that may be interested in a keepsake, and the keepsake should be worthwhile, feel luxurious. Like it doesn't need to actually be expensive, but it shouldn't feel cheap.

l72 4y ago
Agreed. I think this is why vinyl has taken off. It is much more physical then a CD. The artwork is larger and it just feels more personable. You have to be much more careful with it, and listening to it is a bigger investment. And a collection of vinyl looks great. I think a similar trend has happened with books. Certainly, e-readers are awesome. But for some things, you really want to have a physical copy. And in that case, a hardback is way better than a paperback. It is a long term keepsake and looks nice on your shelf. I think for many people, their collection of music, books, or other items allows them to show off their personality to their guests. When I go to someone's house, if they have a large bookshelf, I love to look through it to get an idea of their interests. It can be great conversation starters. You can't do that with purely digital media.
- RajT88 4y ago
  The technical merits of vinyl are dubious. But it is undeniably the coolest way to listen to music. It takes effort, it is an event, a ritual executed with great care.
  - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
    May as well get your coolness with cylinder recordings.
    - RajT88 4y ago

makeitdouble 4y ago

As a general trend, I’d expect people to not return to mass events (theaters, concerts etc.) in the same numbers as before. It started before covid, so I think live events won’t be much of a revenue source in the future, except for a select few artists who will attract those still enjoying the crowd experience. I kinda hope memberships programs and other direct artist/fan settings come to fill that gap at a larger scale.

InfiniteRand 4y ago

This is sort of like how Disney makes more profits from theme parks than from its media, but the media serves as advertisement for the theme parks

l72 4y ago

But there are plenty of genres and artists (1-person bands recording in their basement) that don't make sense live or aren't able to perform live. There is a big difference between a musician and a performer. The bands that are both certainly have the biggest advantage, but we shouldn't discredit people who are just making music.

matheusmoreira 4y ago
Why can't they make a patreon?

xeromal 4y ago

Covid has shown that is now always possible for those artists.