4 ms·

I would say the lack of gatekeepers is a major benefit. For the music listener, there now exists music as nieche as possible and platforms like Spotify provide

I would say the lack of gatekeepers is a major benefit. For the music listener, there now exists music as nieche as possible and platforms like Spotify provide access to it. My music tastes have only gotten more obscure since using streaming. For wannabe celebrities, they get to have their quanta of fame and everyone uninterested can just ignore that. For musicians, they are no longer forced into contracts that force them to give up control entirely. They get to keep a far larger share of the revenue from what they create. No matter how much RIAA and MPAA are struggling to keep middlemen relevant, the world is slowly marching towards getting rid of middlemen in publishing music, video and literature.

smackeyacky 4y ago
Isn't TikTok a middleman? The main whinge of the article was that whatever you do it's got to go viral on TikTok or it sinks without trace. Personally I think the music industry is missing the point. Music has become universal - we carry it everywhere and the scarcity that used to drive music sales from the physical production of product is gone and the old mechanisms of driving "hits" went with it. They can't just churn out 100 clones of whatever is hot anymore and hope that the video, featuring some greased up pop starlet in a bikini, is going to save them. I think that is wonderful myself. There has never been a better time to enjoy music and killing the old publishing system is helping that, not hurting it.