streaming services are killing music. they're a tool of the industry for the sole purpose of making money and discouraging musical independence. the advent of the internet and widely available personal DAW's have recently allowed for a renaissance of independent music on platforms like bandcamp soundcloud and youtube.
this explosion of independence in music poses a threat to the music industry. as a response, the industry is putting all of their stock into streaming services like spotify and apple music. the problem? these services have an absolutely terrible selection of music. offering only releases from large record labels with an almost complete lack of lesser-known independent artists.
the more people start using these services to listen to music (i'd say this is now the widely preferred method) the more people limit themselves to strictly popular releases. not to say that all popular releases are bad, but by using a streaming service, you are literally limiting your musical exposure to only what the industry wants you to listen to.
and don't even get me started on the pre-arranged playlists.
it's like fucking newspeak but for music and everyone is becoming indoctrinated. delete spotify and download your music. be the master of your own taste
Normalfags are normalfags for a reason. If you want to find good music, you'll find good music, it's that simple.
Zachary Murphy
All the problems you associate with streaming can be avoided by not being a massive fucking retard.
Luis Ramirez
true. but the predominance of using streaming services among posters on this board is actually starting to determine which music gets discussed here
Josiah Parker
> streaming services are killing music. they're a tool of the industry for the sole purpose of making money
Yeah how dare those record labels want to make money??? They should just operate off of good feelings and rainbows! God your fucking stupid.
Noah Sanchez
ouch looks like i hit a nerve. do you want to expand on that? or did you just come here to call me names?
Brayden Baker
> these services have an absolutely terrible selection of music. offering only releases from large record labels with an almost complete lack of lesser-known independent artists.
This is objectively incorrect and a meme. I've found tons and tons of small artists I like on Spotify, I mean for fuck sakes Spotify has fucking Merzbow on there. Stop making excuses for your poverty.
Austin Young
That's why I buy vinylses nowadays. Other physical formats are fine too
Charles Collins
>They should just operate off of good feelings and rainbows! no. the point is that they shouldn't operate at all. the INDUSTRY of music is a cancer that is afflicting the ART of music. the internet age has provided the world with an opportunity to bypass the inherent corruption in the commodification of art.
but as long as people keep sucking executive cocks, and letting spotify decide what they should listen to, this board is going to be stuck discussing kanye west, grimes, kendrick lamar, and lana del ray forever
Jaxon Bailey
>Spotify has fucking Merzbow on there oh, you mean the small outsider musician from the 90's who has since achieved legend status and is now credited as one of the grandfathers of noise?
Jayden Moore
this is another good alternative if you have the money to spend
good argument pal. glad we could get some critical discussion going here
also, [spoiler]i don't use it[spoiler]
Ayden Martinez
this is true, but luckily neither of these are relevant anymore
Isaiah Morales
you sound underage. spotify offers much more music to the dollar than has ever really been available to the average listener. yeah, yeah, tyranny of choice and all that, but if you really think something like this >limiting your musical exposure to only what the industry wants you to listen to is something new to the era of streaming, or that has increased because of streaming, you are a shortsighted moron
the music industry is the problem, it always has been. the music industry opposed streaming for the longest time, but has now started co-opting it. most of the problems with spotify and similar services come from their hands being tied by the labels they obviously have to make deals with. so blame the fucking labels. that goes for artist compensation too
it's really cool that you pirate all your music and everything (I do too), but even that is a modern development that barely predates streaming. idk why you're pretending otherwise
Nicholas Powell
Shut up idiot artfag, music is a
William Nguyen
Merzbow is still extremely obscure despite being the king of noise, proof that Spotify doesn't only have "top artists"
Landon Brooks
>is something new to the era of streaming, or that has increased because of streaming, you are a shortsighted moron i don't think it's a new problem. the reason why i'm upset is because now there's a SOLUTION. yet people are completely ignoring it. see>the internet age has provided the world with an opportunity to bypass the inherent corruption in the commodification of art.
>the music industry is the problem i wholeheartedly agree
Ethan Bennett
sounds like you're just too stupid to comprehend using a streaming service and other methods
the average person who exclusively uses spotify would never listen to your "lesser-known independent artists" which you conveniently avoided posting any examples of anyway
Matthew Cruz
what's the solution, then? I'd like to hear it explained in detail how exactly this mammoth, age-old problem will disappear. throwing a few vague buzzwords together isn't cutting it
Brody Ross
>Merzbow is still extremely obscure he's really not. not in a relative sense. this video has 414,000 views. you can't honestly believe it's obscure. youtube.com/watch?v=AguPH0XBxdw
Liam Smith
>what's the solution, then? as i said in the op, anybody with a computer can now make their music available to the entire world with just a click. musicians used to need record labels to produce physical copies of their music and then distribute to retailers around the world just so they could be heard.
the middleman is no longer required. anybody can download logic or ableton onto their computer, make music, and then share it to the entire world.
Joseph Gomez
ah ok that makes complete sense. how will this endless stream of music be funded? will people just make it for free? how will they afford their gear?
Joshua Jones
>the average person who exclusively uses spotify would never listen to your "lesser-known independent artists" ...i mean that's my entire point
Dylan Lopez
so what difference would it make if spotify wasn't there? their listening habits wouldn't change
Dylan Carter
Retard
Easton Phillips
>how will this endless stream of music be funded? 99.9% of musicians still have day jobs. it's nearly impossible to make money off of music even when utilizing the industry. only huge pop stars actually make a steady income off of being musicians.
will people just make it for free? i mean not everyone, but tons of people do. check out the choose your price section on bandcamp sometime.
Elijah Ward
see
Levi Bailey
>99.9% of musicians still have day jobs. [citation needed] , especially if you are referring to musicians who have actually released music
>only huge pop stars actually make a steady income off of being musicians. as above
>check out the choose your price section on bandcamp sometime a prime example of how easy it is for music to be lost in the sea with no promotion to back it
Gabriel Watson
>[citation needed] fine. here's one of the first google results i found. and keep in mind in only accounts for musicians who have already established a music career for themselves. not the hundreds of thousands who are still trying to make it. output.com/blog/how-much-musicians-actually-earn >In summary, the average working musician earns $35,300 USD gross revenue annually from their music career. However, the most important caveat to that number is that only 33% of study respondents make at least 75% of their income from music related sources. This means you can make additional money in fields outside of music and then bring in a sizable amount of supplemental income as a musician.
Lincoln Peterson
this quite explicitly contradicts what you said, it also again points to the difficulty in creating music when that $35,000 from said music isn't there
Liam Gonzalez
>this quite explicitly contradicts what you said how? okay so this specific study says 77% instead of 99% that's still an incredibly significant number. and again, this is only counting musicians who have already "made it" in the world of commercial music. imagine how many there are who make music but haven't been financially successful at it. it's not like recording an album automatically guarantees you 35k a year.
Asher Nguyen
are you high? there's more music from lesser-known independent artists on spotify that there is major labels
Listen to music in the easiest way possible. If an album you're trying to hear is on Spotify, use it. If not, go somewhere else. It's got better quality than YouTube and is convenient for a reasonable price. DON'T USE SPOTIFY TO FIND YOUR MUSIC. That's retarded. Use RYM, Wikipedia, or forums. Use streaming services as a TOOL to listen to music you want to hear. Who cares what normies do with their stupid Top 40 playlists? It's easy to get music onto to Spotify, there's some really obscure shit on there.
Brody Sanders
I really don't get the controversy about this, people are basically saying is someone doesn't have a social media presence they're not a real artist? shouldn't that be applauded rather than looked at suspciously
Jace Wood
there's loads of good playlists that are very far from top 40, both official and user-created, even better is to use them as a jumping off point and listen to releases by artists featured and their related artists. it's a good way to immerse yourself in a genre you know nothing about
Chase Bell
did you actually watch the video? the ceo from a muzak production company admitted to making music for spotify under the guise of fake artist names
Jordan Sanders
I watched it when it was first released how is that controversial though? artists have been using pseudonyms for different projects since forever it's not like the music wasn't made by someone, I don't get how that's fake it's not like they stole the music or pretended to be an established artist
Cooper Reyes
it's a company that makes public domain music for fucking stores and elevators. it's not an artist it's a company trying to pass off their product as art. all because spotify wants to save money and doesn't care about giving real artists exposure
Ryder Sanchez
You are wrong and stupid
Justin Kelly
and if it's good music why does it matter? hell if it's bad music why does it matter? most pop music is boardroom & marketing driven products passed off as art why is this so shocking?
Nathaniel Robinson
Your average everyday pleb has no idea who Merzbow is or even what noise is, he's obscure. A single YouTube video with not even 500k views proves literally nothing.
Lincoln Davis
woah hi montie. figures you'd have that opinion. you're the ultimate industry cuck. have fun letting them shit into your mouth my man.
Angel Foster
I don't want to download an album and wast my time when I may not even like it. I don't want to fuck my ratio on REDACTED. I don't want to try and find a good rip on SoulSeek. Eat shit.
For once, the tripfag is right
Anthony Foster
kind of answered your own question there
Elijah Gray
>why does it matter? because spotify did it for the sole reason of saving money. they didn't use the music because they thought it sounded good. they have the power to decide what music they make available and the fact that they're doing this shows that they're willing to sacrifice integrity for financial gain. it's indicative of their agenda
Connor Butler
>the percentages are different. fine, but my point still stands. MOST musicians have alternate sources of income
Austin Kelly
I think there's a few leaps of logic there, no one can prove they didn't think it was good and was pretty much entirely within like solo piano and relaxing background music, which is hardly a thriving genre so it would make sense to contract some out to fill out their playlists. it's not like music automatically becomes bad if it's stock or catalogue music either, it can sometimes be pretty good
William Wright
>MOST musicians have alternate sources of income nice change of wording too
Jeremiah Rogers
/thread Finally someone with half a brain on this shit.
Nathaniel Walker
yeah I don't think people remember/know what it was like being a teenager without internet in your room, if you wanted to listen to a song you had to hope it came on the radio or tv or go out and pay a fair amount for a cd and just hope it was good, so much music and whole genres I would never have delved into before youtube and spotify became widespread
Robert Lopez
see
Jordan Rodriguez
>still nitpicking unimportant details and ignoring the point okay.
Grayson Brooks
what's you're point? the reason why i made this thread is because times are different now
Josiah Cox
Exactly, look at library music of the 60s and 70s...groovy as heck!
Asher Campbell
Commercialism is what makes America great. This is what i voted for. I love the idea of the whole world being one big shop.
Carson Hall
...
Alexander Evans
see
Colton Wilson
autism
Parker Stewart
commercialism is fine when selling products. but it completely kills art. and the two should be kept seperate
Austin Jones
You could easily have had a comfortable life as as a musician if your record went gold back in the day, without even accounting for single sales, and merch and tour revenue. How many streams would you have to clear to get anywhere something like that these days?
Connor Price
this. i've talked to so many musicians who are going broke trying to make money off of music these days.
the individual artist is completely boned by the modern system that's in place. the only people actually making real money off of music these days are fucking label executives and service providers.
this is why the industry should burn in hell. artists actually have the power to take things into their own hands now. and luckily many are begginning to realize this
Gabriel Smith
>the problem? these services have an absolutely terrible selection of music. offering only releases from large record labels with an almost complete lack of lesser-known independent artists.
tfw the only artists i have trouble finding on spotify is obscure japanese bands
Michael Roberts
yeah I can't really fault the coverage they have, even if I don't like the business model. I like having mixes and random live bootlegs and demos and stuff which is why It's still not my primary method of listening but the only artists I listen to that aren't really on there is mainly library music which is understandable. only local or obscure indie stuff is usually on there. might be different for certain foreign stuff though yeah.
Zachary Hall
I can find local bands that have just started out on Spotify.
The thing is you don't need a big label or anything to put your music on Spotify
Adrian Brooks
>you don't need a big label or anything to put your music on Spotify how does one do this anyways?
Jace Scott
>yore
Julian Phillips
I use spotify to hear music but then I go back and buy it. I recently bought 2 bundles of like 15 Eric Dolphy albums. I do go and buy it eventually but I like hearing it because I'm a poor ass 22 year old
Nicholas Watson
There's a lot of services that will put your music out there, but of course you're gonna have to pay a small fee.
For example there's Distrokid which will put your music on iTunes, Spotify and whatever else is used to stream music for $20 a year.
There's also something that's called Record Union but you gotta pay per song for that shit so I wouldn't recommend it
Jaxson Lopez
>So is this thread implying that people who use streaming services what did he mean by this?
Benjamin Ward
So is this thread implying that people who use streaming services don't have their own taste or am I misinterpreting OPs message? Because if that's the claim I don't agree with it.
Typo. My bad.
David Ward
Montie is a fucking genius. Seriously spot on with this one.
Christopher Nguyen
>Montie is a fucking genius
Sebastian Moore
no. I am a independent artist and I can tell you that building a audience on spotify is ridiclously hard. Streaming services are absolutely killing independent music. I have gotten around 6000 streams on Spotify and have yet to recieve a quarter of a penny. These days I don't even waste my time posting things on Spotify. Following people on Bandcamp that buy music that is similar to yours is the only way I get a dollar.
Matthew Brooks
another independent artist here. can confirm. streaming services are corporate shit.
Nathaniel Morgan
I'm a successful artist. I can't tell you who I am do to reasons. The best strategy against this is to go to black hat sites and get people to bot views, likes and shares on smaller platforms. Once you have a significant fake amount convience idiot video youtube record label like rap nation that these numbers are real. They take your song and post it. You buy yourself a significant amount of fake views,fake likes, fake comments/custom comments.They believe that you are adding to their channel and start to share it to their real audience. Their real audience add your song on playlists and rack up plays. Once that set, then you post your music on spotify. People will automatically add your shit to playlist and stuff. (Repeat previous steps if that doesn't happen) Spotify notices this and puts on a smaller official playlist and woop di doo you are making money of music on Spotify.
Its ethically fucking wrong as fuck but so is flipping burgers at McDonalds and keeping the obesity rate up. ITS ALL FUCKED
Aiden Myers
He warned us
Hunter Baker
who dis
Bentley Williams
Some guy named Theodore W. Adorno.
Landon Lee
>bullshit.png he's right though. at least about the first part.
Chase Butler
but you still have to be making accessible pop music in order for this to work
Eli Cook
I don't use spotify but I still know it has a pretty good selection of even some obscure stuff that I see while searching around.
Jaxon Perry
It doesn't kill art, it makes it available. If no money was coming in, who would preserve recordings and paintings in the vaults?
Adam Gomez
Spotify is delicious, i just did a 2 hour fap session to indian girls and hairy girls in general while listening to my metal playlist. It destroyed my dick imagining the smell...
Sebastian Turner
>If no money was coming in, who would preserve recordings and paintings in the vaults? i mean idk about paintings but recordings dont need to be kept in vaults today. they're immortalized on the internet
Josiah Gray
And where do you think remasters come from?
Joshua White
i'd argue that remasters aren't very important. their main reason for existing is to make money. and if an artist really truly felt like their work needed to be remastered, then they would find a way to remaster it.
this looks interesting so far. although a bit too explicitly political for my taste. will report back
Evan Morris
>Spotify’s front page “Browse” screen presents a classic illusion of choice, a stream of genre and mood playlists, charts, new releases, and now podcasts and video. It all appears limitless, a function of the platform’s infinite supply, but in reality it is tightly controlled by Spotify’s staff and dictated by the interests of major labels, brands, and other cash-rich businesses who have gamed the system. On Monday, you’ll find “Discover Weekly,” an algorithmically created playlist of recommendations based on your listening habits. On Friday, there’s “New Music Friday,” a highly coveted and well trafficked playlist of mostly Top-40 content, thoroughly inaccessible to anyone but major labels. The rest of the front page arrangement depends on the date and time, but you’ll likely see one of its most prized brands—like the popular and also major label-saturated “RapCaviar”—or else music that somehow opportunistically rides the news cycle: Which celebrity musician died today? Otherwise, you’ll find songs tied to moods or activities, like “Good Vibes” or “Wild + Free.” And you will most certainly see something along the lines of “Chilled Folk,” “Chill Hits,” “Evening Chill,” “Chilled R&B,” “Indie Chillout,” or “Chill Tracks.”
>Spotify loves “chill” playlists: they’re the purest distillation of its ambition to turn all music into emotional wallpaper.
fucking savage
Jaxon Nguyen
>One independent label owner I spoke with has watched his records’ physical and digital sales decline week by week. He’s trying to play ball with the platform by pitching playlists, to varying effect. “The more vanilla the release, the better it works for Spotify. If it’s challenging music? Nah,” he says, telling me about all of the experimental, noise, and comparatively aggressive music on his label that goes unheard on the platform. “It leaves artists behind. If Spotify is just feeding easy music to everybody, where does the art form go? Is anybody going to be able to push boundaries and break through to a wide audience anymore?”
Jordan Evans
You're right but it's the inevitable future
Gavin Robinson
>it's the inevitable future it doesn't have to be. not if people who actually like and appreciate music start supporting independent artists on independent platforms. and if artists start bypassing the corrupt system of the industry