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Venues and their increasing costs have nothing to do with production costs. Production costs refer to what it costs to actually produce a track and release it o

Venues and their increasing costs have nothing to do with production costs. Production costs refer to what it costs to actually produce a track and release it out there to the public. Not even talking about insane amounts of good educational material available online for free these days, the capable equipment required to produce a studio-quality track fell down in price significantly, and most older equipment is still fully functional and compatible with newer offerings (thanks, MIDI and XLR). And newer equipment is still significantly cheaper than almost anything comparable from 20 years ago (if it was even available back then). Back then, you wouldn't be able to produce anything that could compete in quality with studios from your bedroom, and not on a reasonable budget. And even if you somehow were so rich you were able to finance a pro studio in your house, and you produced a decent track, now the question is how would you even distribute it to the public and get heard. These days? Thanks to affordability of what it takes to produce a track and the ease of getting your material released to the public, you can go from a nobody to someone with a hit track overnight. All for the price of a laptop, some decent speakers/headphones, and a midi-controller. And even that list is optional, as there are people who produce great stuff with less than this or even something entirely different.

mschuster91 3y ago
> These days? Thanks to affordability of what it takes to produce a track and the ease of getting your material released to the public, you can go from a nobody to someone with a hit track overnight. All for the price of a laptop, some decent speakers/headphones, and a midi-controller. And even that list is optional, as there are people who produce great stuff with less than this or even something entirely different. But how many actually manage to pull off that feat? You can probably count them on two hands. One-hit wonders yes, there have been a fair few of these that managed to hit the zeitgeist thanks to social media (Wellerman!), but a sustained career after that, from scratch and with no prior experience? I couldn't name one. Everyone has the chance to strike a lottery jackpot, but only one person will.
- deleted 3y ago
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- belthesar 3y ago
  Skrillex, Billie Eilish and Soulja Boy immediately come to mind, and they're not even on the list of these artists on this ad-riddled collection compiled 3 years ago - https://www.technowize.com/12-musicians-who-were-discovered-on-youtube/ https://www.technowize.com/12-musicians-who-were-discovered-... Are they everywhere? Nah, music is a capitalist endeavor, and the market wouldn't support that. But there are a surprising number of artists that have gained success with their first endeavors produced out of their homes.
- filoleg 3y ago
  > But how many actually manage to pull off that feat? Quite a few, but that's not the point. Increasing opportunities for everyone does not mean that there will be the same levels of increase in top tier outlier outcomes. Just like if you suddenly gave access to MIT education to everyone, I think the success metric median (whether it is income or achievements) for MIT students will decrease, but the absolute number of successful people due to MIT education being available to everyone will increase. Off the top of my head in terms of examples: Brockhampton, Skrillex, Billie Eilish, Porter Robinson, Steve Lacy (who produced hit tracks for artists like Mac Miller, J.Cole, and Kendrick Lamar), Flume, etc. The list can keep going on and on, and I listed only the very top tier artists in terms of popularity and lasting presence so far.

mschuster91 3y ago

> These days? Thanks to affordability of what it takes to produce a track and the ease of getting your material released to the public, you can go from a nobody to someone with a hit track overnight. All for the price of a laptop, some decent speakers/headphones, and a midi-controller. And even that list is optional, as there are people who produce great stuff with less than this or even something entirely different. But how many actually manage to pull off that feat? You can probably count them on two hands. One-hit wonders yes, there have been a fair few of these that managed to hit the zeitgeist thanks to social media (Wellerman!), but a sustained career after that, from scratch and with no prior experience? I couldn't name one. Everyone has the chance to strike a lottery jackpot, but only one person will.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
belthesar 3y ago
Skrillex, Billie Eilish and Soulja Boy immediately come to mind, and they're not even on the list of these artists on this ad-riddled collection compiled 3 years ago - https://www.technowize.com/12-musicians-who-were-discovered-on-youtube/ https://www.technowize.com/12-musicians-who-were-discovered-... Are they everywhere? Nah, music is a capitalist endeavor, and the market wouldn't support that. But there are a surprising number of artists that have gained success with their first endeavors produced out of their homes.
filoleg 3y ago
> But how many actually manage to pull off that feat? Quite a few, but that's not the point. Increasing opportunities for everyone does not mean that there will be the same levels of increase in top tier outlier outcomes. Just like if you suddenly gave access to MIT education to everyone, I think the success metric median (whether it is income or achievements) for MIT students will decrease, but the absolute number of successful people due to MIT education being available to everyone will increase. Off the top of my head in terms of examples: Brockhampton, Skrillex, Billie Eilish, Porter Robinson, Steve Lacy (who produced hit tracks for artists like Mac Miller, J.Cole, and Kendrick Lamar), Flume, etc. The list can keep going on and on, and I listed only the very top tier artists in terms of popularity and lasting presence so far.