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Also, niche acts on Spotify, Bandcamp etc. - they can now theoretically reach much larger audiences. Of course, the downside is that there are also a lot of oth
by rob74 4y ago
Also, niche acts on Spotify, Bandcamp etc. - they can now theoretically reach much larger audiences. Of course, the downside is that there are also a lot of other acts to compete with, so the odds of "breaking out" of the long tail are not really good. And I'm not sure how much artists with 10 to 30 000 "monthly listeners" earn on Spotify. Probably not enough to make a living...
- ghaff 4y agoSo, if every 30,000 monthly listener on Spotify listens to 10 songs on average they'll earn about $1300 per month by my calculation. Of course, playing weekend gigs at your local bar or college party didn't earn you a living either.
- galaxyLogic 4y agoIn NYC a typical bar-band gets one free bear per player, sometimes not even that.
- achenet 4y agoWhat type of bear? Polar bear? Grizzly bear? just kidding, I'm almost sure you meant beer ;)
- galaxyLogic 4y agoThanks I'll edit it
- JKCalhoun 4y agoBreaking out of the long tail never had good odds. I suspect the investment though for indie bands now is a lot cheaper (cheaper than say filling up the van at every college-town stop).
- chiefalchemist 4y agoYes. But that model applies to every one. That is, the lower bar leads to more noise (read: crap bands) and morw competition). Easy means, less effort. Less effort means less creativity. It's a race to the bottom.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoThere's still a hurdle — artists still have to be prolific and have the drive/energy to record/edit/upload. That alone filters out most of the noise. Lacking a long tail, culture becomes a race to the banal.
- chiefalchemist 4y agoProlific has nothing to do with quality. I sold music (i.e. dance / electronic music) from 1990 (pre-internet) and into the mid+ 00s. I saw what easier production and easier distribution did for quality. Ask any DJ who has lived long enough, and no one will tell you there's less noise.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoI don't doubt there's more noise (I wasn't arguing there wasn't — rather that there is still a hurdle). The alternative is worse though.
- chiefalchemist 4y agoIf there's an excess of noise, then there is no effective hurdle. A bit of natural unavoidable friction (e.g., uploading song) is not a hurdle. We do have more choice. Unfortunately, there's been a disproportunate increase in friction / noise. A net loss, which supports the article's theory.
- lmm 4y agoAn arbitrary barrier to entry raises the bar. If you charged everyone who wanted to make music $1000 before they could get started, you'd get higher quality music on average just because you'd filter out most of the people who are less serious about it. I'm not convinced it's a good thing though.