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The fact that you can say "Spotify is pretty much the best thing ever" when they basically pay the musicians nothing is amazing to me. Have we come this far int

by nicoco 3y ago

The fact that you can say "Spotify is pretty much the best thing ever" when they basically pay the musicians nothing is amazing to me. Have we come this far into individualism? "It's good for me, so it must be the best thing ever".

pipes 3y ago
But the post didn't say that. It just described the benefits of using it.
criddell 3y ago
Would you say that the Spotify era is a worse time to be a musician than the UMG / Sony / Warner era? I’m not a musician but it seems to me it’s always been difficult to make a living as an artist. I wonder if it’s easier to find an audience today than it was 50 years ago?
- bookofjoe 3y ago
  >The creator economy can't rely on Patreon. https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/the-creator-economy-cant-rely-on-patreon https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/the-creator-economy-cant-rel...
- xetplan 3y ago
  It is a joke now compared to what it was. There are entire parts of the music industry that no longer exists. There use to be working musicians in every city that were basically unknown outside the city. NYC or SF had their own entirely unique music scenes. There use to be entire bars that were goth bars or punk bars in even mid sized cities. Imagine opening a bar in 2024 that only caters to people who like punk music? It doesn't even make sense. Music has been degraded in importance by streaming video and social media. To just compare the distribution channels misses the plot. Every city use to have a knock off free paper of the Village Voice that was mostly for promoting live music. Now even the Village Voice itself is basically dead. Anyone who thinks things are good now, simply can't comprehend what they missed out on. Music teaching is a good example I think. There use to be all kinds of professional music teachers. If you were a gigging local musician you had the other income stream of teaching. Youtube is great for a music teacher that happens to win the music teaching lottery at the expense of all other music teachers. Of course, if you ask the youtube lottery winner they will say things have never been better. Scale that process across everything to do with music and that is the reality compared to the old reality. You can't ask the gigging local musician who teaches on the side how things are because they are mostly doing something else now and don't count. It is like asking the lottery winners if it is worth it to play the lottery. Not surprisingly they all say yes, best thing ever.
  - Rochus 3y ago
    > Music has been degraded in importance by streaming video and social media..." I don't think this is the root cause of your findings. I rather think that this development started with the DJ and rap culture which made musicians virtually obsolete. It is and was much cheaper to hire a DJ than a band, and people don't seem to care whether it's just a guy pressing some buttons or a bunch of people with real musical instruments. There is no longer any appreciation for real musicians. The public is satisfied with a few sampled tracks or cheap sequencer arrangements. In consequence fewer and fewer people see a need to learn an instrument. As a result, fewer and fewer music teachers are needed.

by nicoco 3y ago

pipes 3y ago

But the post didn't say that. It just described the benefits of using it.

criddell 3y ago

Would you say that the Spotify era is a worse time to be a musician than the UMG / Sony / Warner era? I’m not a musician but it seems to me it’s always been difficult to make a living as an artist. I wonder if it’s easier to find an audience today than it was 50 years ago?

bookofjoe 3y ago
>The creator economy can't rely on Patreon. https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/the-creator-economy-cant-rely-on-patreon https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/the-creator-economy-cant-rel...
xetplan 3y ago
It is a joke now compared to what it was. There are entire parts of the music industry that no longer exists. There use to be working musicians in every city that were basically unknown outside the city. NYC or SF had their own entirely unique music scenes. There use to be entire bars that were goth bars or punk bars in even mid sized cities. Imagine opening a bar in 2024 that only caters to people who like punk music? It doesn't even make sense. Music has been degraded in importance by streaming video and social media. To just compare the distribution channels misses the plot. Every city use to have a knock off free paper of the Village Voice that was mostly for promoting live music. Now even the Village Voice itself is basically dead. Anyone who thinks things are good now, simply can't comprehend what they missed out on. Music teaching is a good example I think. There use to be all kinds of professional music teachers. If you were a gigging local musician you had the other income stream of teaching. Youtube is great for a music teacher that happens to win the music teaching lottery at the expense of all other music teachers. Of course, if you ask the youtube lottery winner they will say things have never been better. Scale that process across everything to do with music and that is the reality compared to the old reality. You can't ask the gigging local musician who teaches on the side how things are because they are mostly doing something else now and don't count. It is like asking the lottery winners if it is worth it to play the lottery. Not surprisingly they all say yes, best thing ever.
- Rochus 3y ago
  > Music has been degraded in importance by streaming video and social media..." I don't think this is the root cause of your findings. I rather think that this development started with the DJ and rap culture which made musicians virtually obsolete. It is and was much cheaper to hire a DJ than a band, and people don't seem to care whether it's just a guy pressing some buttons or a bunch of people with real musical instruments. There is no longer any appreciation for real musicians. The public is satisfied with a few sampled tracks or cheap sequencer arrangements. In consequence fewer and fewer people see a need to learn an instrument. As a result, fewer and fewer music teachers are needed.