The music industry IS in shambles. Of the 3 biggest entertainment industries (movies, music, and video games), music is at the bottom for profits. The video game industry’s profits outsold both the movie and music industries combined by about 3x. These rappers are really not as rich as they like us to believe.
musicians have more means of making money from their fans than actors, and video game profits go directly to the companies, so big musicians can make a shit more money singularly. Actors/writers take a shit ton of less money compared to merch sales and touring money that goes directly to musicians
@@SirCruxfulmerch money? How old are you? I’ve been in the industry for over a decade and anyone that claims they make merch money are either Soulja boy or equally as full of sh**. Not to mention no money apart from pub or sync goes directly to the artist other than negotiated points but then, again, that relies on pub. Games shouldn’t be on this convo because any game that blows up gives money to the developers IF they stick around which unfortunately most don’t. If they do then yeah, they take a bigger percentage than anyone. Movie stars take a flat fee unless they negotiate a back door deal. A good example being James Earl Jones wanting a flat fee in the tens of thousands for Star Wars and Alex McGuinness getting a back door fee that led to over $70m. Recently Robert Downey jr. Did the same thing with Endgame. $75m for one movie. But then music is only below both because 1. Movies and games routinely make more than an album and 2. Unless you’re Prince and producing, writing, recording, mixing and mastering your own stuff, you’re not getting even 15% of your own record. An album would have to sell 100m units (or the equivalent) to make $1b. A movie has to sell 100m tickets. A game has to sell 20m games. Do the math.
@@teeboz6237you gave enough reason as to why the music industry is going down while the others go up . Albums need many more sales compared to movies & games to compete . The way your industry is set up makes it harder to succeed
@@problemsnearyou8899 money is money. If a $10 record sells 1m copies that’s $10m. If a movie sells 1m tickets at $10 a pop it’s $10m. Don’t get it twisted, people still haggle for a percentage of how much a full record used to cost. Labels just try to avoid it. Artists are the reason they don’t make money most of the time. They don’t take time to learn the business side of the music business before going into a contract, they don’t hire lawyers to go over the contracts, they don’t read it properly themselves and let the record company bullet point it for them and they spend their advances typically on material things that immediately depreciate in value. THAT is why the music industry isn’t thriving, because the artists make bad choices and then blame the labels. I’ve known people who have recouped easily and then made a profit on TOP of their advance, I’ve known people refuse their advance and I’ve known people who take their advance and blow it, being left with nothing when their projects flop. I don’t think anyone but negligent people can be blamed for their own downfall. If you get the chance sit down with multiple rappers and watch then go through their contract. 9/10 they’ll be alone or with a couple of their friends, no lawyer, glance at it, see the numbers and sign there and then. Or at least try to. THAT is the issue.
Unrelated tangent: I spent most of my career focusing on online growth until I finally had my first tour this summer. No online achievement felt nearly as satisfying as seeing people show up in person. I also met several artists that suck at the social media game and just decided to grow their following show after show. It's the difference between blowing up/possibly falling off and building a foundation slowly but surely over time. Both sides have their significant flaws, but man people need to remember to stay consistent on stage as they do online imo.
I Thank God i grew up in the 90s and early 2000s! Almost every song in every genre was amazing. No one copied each other everyome was so orgimal whether if it was rap rock or pop! They all gave there audience quality music they put there heart and soul into every song and album i truly appreciate that. I can't listen to todays TRASH they have no talent
deluxe albums has been the worst trend i've seen so far during this streaming era and it looks like sped up versions of popular songs on tiktok is becoming a thing too which is just absolutely wonderful 😒…it's nice to have all of this music for such a low price but it comes at the cost of devaluing it and it's been starting to show within the past few years
Even more bigger of a cash grab are extra covers with no different songs, just different package. Many artists like Ariana and Taylor pump up the sales that way, also releasing remixes to peak at no1. Yes and by Ariana was supposed to peak at no.2 but she released multiple different versions (accoustic, instrumental, shortened, some remix (not a Mariah Carey one, this one came up later)), because different versions count as one song. Yes and rightfully has fallen down from B100 but yeah, its annoying seeing people breaking records in an unfair way and some people like Drake compare themselves to the beatles and brag about beating them. I know more TB songs than Drake's even tho im young, the only song i can pin point to him is the one with "KEKE" part because of vine. And also streams are so unmeasurable, your stans can literally play your album in a loop to pump it up, like Justin told his fans to stream yummy xD he flopped with this, but there are more devoted fandoms out there who do it
The music itself is a like ‘loss leader’ in economics. The music gets the people in so you can sell them merch, show tickets which is more profitable. Then you use the fame you built with the music to leverage your ‘cultural capital’ into well paid appearance & brand deals. That’s where the real money is. That’s why many artists realise during covid they weren’t making as much money as they thought 😅
For as far as we've progressed, we as a society have regressed in many respects and modern music is a shining example of that regression. Mediocrity is the rule these days and as long as people continue to happily accept mediocrity, it will continue to be the rule. (Mainstream) Music has never been so stagnant for so long as today.
Most of mainstream music is bad. Plenty of less discovered artists though are probably some of the best of all time and sadly won’t ever be as well known as drake, Rihanna, Travis Scott, etc. Typically less accessible music just doesn’t get as many listens as songs that reach to have as much of a broad audience as possible, and it’s a fact of life. It’s a very difficult thing to accept, but dumb music has a tendency to grow.
I Thank God i grew up on the 90s and early 2000s! Almost every song in every genre was amazing. No one copied each other everyome was so orgimal whether if it was rap rock or pop! They all gave there audience quality music they put there heart and soul into every song and album i truly appreciate that. I cant listen to todays TRASH they have no talent
And igor is in 9th place when it comes to most played albums now thats a goated album for how little songs there are and long the songs are. I dont care what people say tyler the creator is a goat
@@peace_of_mind_00just because you were in the game longer doesnt mean you are more talented tyler is a great artist undoubtedly one of the greatestof his generation and working towards being one of the greatest of all time… kendrick aint been in the game no 30 years
I miss the mf doom,outkast, capital steez call it underground but these creative minds always knew how to please their audience while attracting new ones that’s why i take notes from them when I make music.
My thing is I love how much information we as the consumers have within this genre of music. We are fully aware of what’s going on and YET WE STILL STUPID ENOUGH TO LET IT HAPPEN!! I need a podcast or something cause I wanna vent because admittedly most of us are too smart to continue to support art that isn’t art. The Quantity over Quality artists argument is one this community is fully aware of and yet “YB better” HOW 💀. Smh it’s a damn shame
Everhone gotta play the business and industry these days. These rappers have to maximize streams to make money, it’s just how the system has been set up. You guys think we’ll ever see another movement like Kanye doing the short 7 track albums with Ye and KSG?
@@ItsTaken__Peace. I actually think we’ll be seeing a similar movement soon. I truly think artists and labels are starting to get the message. Ticket sales have plummeted for ALL Rap artists, we almost didn’t even have a no 1 on the billboard this year, independent artists are taking over, and the most popular RU-vidrs are expressing distaste every other day. I think they’re hearing us and we’ll see some change. Maybe not night and day kind of change, but some kind of change.
This is all by design. They've been trying to kill indie voices for over a decade, in order to dumb down and propagandize audiences. People believe that the "cream will rise to the top" but as it becomes unsustainable for indie artists to invest capital into producing a quality record with no return on investment, we will eventually be left with nothing but branded mascots, disguised as "artists," regurgitating generic, A.I.-generated jingles for major corporations. Even as it pertains to live shows, you won't be able to generate a livable income unless you're in bed with monopolies such as Live Nation. The industry has effectively sealed off all roads to truly "independent" success, because they want to control the narrative and perception of art as a spiritual medium.
I completely understand everything you said and I agree. I feel like artist need to be more vulnerable on there tracks, work with real musicians for beats with instruments instead of a “producer” type beat and just a new vibe. Maybe it’s the time for suburban rap to take over 😭
Whether the music’s different or not doesn’t really matter if you’re trying to make a living and it’s what’s working. As much as people complain about hiphop artists not switching it up, most that actually do get repaid with hate and little pay. If the audience wants to hear about bobs and buts all their life, that’s what they gon get. If it blows it blows.
The important thing in between albums is the chance to step back to reinvent yourself or tweak things a bit. Just focusing on quantity it’s natural to just go back to your reliable default setting.
I think it's time for a cultural revolution!!! Not just with music but also with filmmaking and the gaming industry. Corporate executives only care about profits instead of allowing creatives to execute their vision without restrictions. And we're starting to see that with underground artists, indie film studios and indie game developers. Only time will tell if something sets off a chain reaction
In the 60s 70s 80s 90s, Americans bought into the idea that cheaper prices due to outsourcing manufacturing overseas was a great idea. Till they looked up and saw that we lost all our business! Same with streaming.
I feel like people completely forget what streaming was made to solve; piracy. Making 300k more than zero is a way better deal and is the reason why all the labels were even on board. And fairly paying artists is an optimistic view that will never happen, why? Because unlimited streaming is not a viable model. It’s why every single subscription based service is never making profit and never will. They pump money into something that doesn’t pump much back. It’s great for the subscriber because they’re getting a hell of a deal, but for the people making the stuff, they’re getting snuffed, because best believe the suits need their return first. Streaming is not ruining music, greed is. It went from labels being owned by musicians who were actually involved in everything they’d release to big conglomerates buying it all up for the back catalog and now all the new stuff is a soulless numbers game. The reason mediocrity is so lucrative is because it puts off the least amount of people. It maximizes the amount of people that are willing to listen and spend their money, the safe play. But time and time again, some new thing proves that being genuine and actually caring for a good product will outsell the market and more. But really it’s all down to people, you and me, the buyers. We have the power to make change happen, but realistically it won’t.
Exactly so I don't understand what's the issue....he basically sounds like a youngster who just realized how the game works. The pay is minimum but it's all profit regardless....get on stage and perform...it's always been the primary way to generate income. Only problem streaming caused is allowing any sorry fuck to put music out there without the help of a label.
no, performing live hasn't always been the main source of income. when physical media was still around it made more money than touring. Touring was considered the advert for the album.@@deonlepharaoh
I have a idea, How bout We as a culture cancel Modern music and Listen to old music from the 70s, 80s, 90s for a whole decade to re spark the creativity
What you said about Rappers is so true I've given up on most US Rappers I prefer UK Rappers and the 3 Korean Rappers Agust D, RM and JHope. Yes yes yes about touring the only Rapper I know who sold out a whole tour this year is Agust D but then his last physical Album D-Day sold over 1million copies on it's release day. He's the only Rapper to manage that. We knew when the Album was coming out so most of us pre ordered. Oh and his physical album wasn't sold or a couple of US dollar's either like so many US artist do in order to climb up the Billboard charts. We know all the dirty tricks the US Music Industry uses from streaming platforms, Billboard, RU-vid and of course US Music companies and US artist use. We are well informed we are not stupid naive uneducated people.
I bought a car with a CD player so I went to my local store and bought every cd by 21 pilots I could find. The rest of my music collection is just downloads
Wow 🤩 😌 subbed cuz this video. Was not at all what I was expecting, and very inspirational ❤ as a hip hop artist I needed this 😂 Look at Doechii, she went from high bar to mid to fit this algorithm 😞 And then look at Doja Cat, people hating on her cuz she ain’t fitting the mold. She’s a real role model, especially in these extreme cookie cutter times 🔥
@@joshuavaldellon6650 that’s literally what I said. She’s not fitting the mold. She’s going against the grain by saying that pop music isn’t who she is (and she’s proven it) 😌 I love Doja cat to the moon and back.
As much it seems a bit hypocritical. Drake said something really important, awards, streams or other vain statistic doesn't matter, as long as you have people supporting you, you succeeded.
@@mpendulombhele5036 he's on top right now but he understands the grind(maybe better than anyone else). Having these words said by the most comercially accomplished artist, truly give some weight.
Great video, just would like 2 add a couple of things... There are also things like bot farms & Tik Tok's system of "heating", that are intentionally designed 2 make the artist / song appear bigger than they actually are, which further plays into how distorted the numbers have been. As Public Enemy said, Don't believe the hype.
Yeah, there was also a trend with people milking Spotifying by having 31 second songs because it takes 30 seconds for Spotify to mark a song as "heard" to count for payment. So some people were even breaking up long songs into 31 second chunks. Especially some specific genres. And for more popular music, shorter songs make more money too in ways if you're doing it for discovery, like on TikTok and getting paid on Streaming because, you get paid more by volume versus length of listening. So 2 x 2 min songs earns more than 1 x 4 min song.
It's all a load of shambles, you're right, people, especially young people are getting lied to, thinking this type of music is so great and fucking amazing, but in fact it's not, they're forgetting about the real proper greats of all time, artists from the past like Michael Jackson, Marti Pellow and Keane, whose music was and still is far better than all the crap of now, wake up people, this is all a sham
I'll flip this - the streaming platforms have made me a millionaire, without having to turn myself into a brand or do loss leader deals. I operate as hundreds of artist names playing in every genre and getting billions of streams a year (thx to tik tok, hundreds of millions on the normal DSP's). This was never possible before, and the 'traditional rollout' for artists are far removed from actually monetizing the platforms and ones talent. In the same time I've seen countless artists come and go and get blown out by small and big labels alike. If you are a producer and artist hybrid - it is YOUR time - launch yourself as as many artists as you can - and keep 100% as you are the writer, producer, performer, lyricist, publisher, and label. I have 30,000+ tracks in my library and the whole library is worth 8-20x multiples depending on the size/success of said artist name.. My personal artist name is one of my smallest accounts, and I do stuff outside of normal music (foley, field recordings/nature, asmr, elevator music, meditation stuff..), urban music on Spotify pays sh!te compared to anything on Apple in English speaking territories outside urban/drill/trap/pop/etc. Pandering to the algo with SEO with good quality content on the DSP's is akin to getting on page one for keywords on google circa 2010. You don't need to be famous to be wealthy, and often times artists sacrifice the bag for the fame unknowingly and knowingly. Fame is a curse in my book, get the bag and stay under the radar let the credits and results speak for themselves. I hope anyone reading this that is an artist or a producer makes it this year, don't forget you are much more than a producer, or rapper, you create content, that YOU should own top to bottom, that you can monetize forever in many ways. Make your dreams come true, the streaming platforms can make it easier than ever.
Lil Yachty said Drake tends to feature with artists he has a personal bong with. Due to him and Travis' history I reckon Drake did the feature for free
I agree that streaming is killing hip hops current iteration of the made for the masses street rapper music. I think we’ll see a shift back more of the original artists in the next 2-3 years. Dudes like Smino, Boogie and JID gonna be in the place of lil baby’s
He's not the top artist out. All those numbers and streams don't equate to sales units. Plus streams aren't worth anything. The biggest artist in rap right now are Drake, Travis, Cole, Kendrick, Future, & Uzi. They have big sales numbers and has sold merch, and have sold arenas and stadiums before. But let RU-vid views and Streaming numbers fool you. They trying to manipulate the masses into thinking these hot new trendy rappers are sellling when they really not. 95% of aren't
Being an artist is the most appealing career when it comes to expression, financial freedom, and influence. The evolution of our industry continues to decline. Not all translates into $$$, not all that shines is golden, and success is not what the media tell you. If you, as a fan, admire an artist and our content, find ways to support beyond the streaming, merchandise and word of mouth exposure helps us all. And don't believe everything you hear. I'll take time to Thank all of you who follows and shares our creations. Let's Dance! ❤
What killed it wasn't streaming services. What killed it was this entity called Clear Channel, as iHeart Media was known before 2013. Clear Channel's near-monopoly control of FM music stations resulted in Clear Channel deciding what artist were to be popular, not what customers wanted to hear. And arguably the biggest beneficiary is one Taylor Alison Swift...
What matters is the artist making quality art and getting paid for it not just the streaming service and yes the fans matter but the artist needs to get their money also not just streaming service
When I was growing up hip hop had it start, and it was diverse. Dela Soul, Kwame, Slick Rick, BDP, and many more and they always told a story, and not every story involved killing, and drug use, and misogyny. The message has to change, or rap is dead.
Plus, djs and radio stations too. Bragging about streaming views is for losers. Sold our concerts, merchandises, certified plaque and critically acclaimed reviewed (b- and up) albums and ep's matters the most.
Just basically…there is no more record business except for the fact is they have found another way to rip off the artist like they have been doing since 1951. They are just going through the front door now.
per person to stream the same song could be atleast 10 times a day ( especially like travis scott, drake..etc) what travis did to utopia to streaming line, and for opening he hit hard, it could be more than 300, 400K i suppose.
The solution is simple: we need to go back to solid media of some sort. We need to have tangible products and a new medium for delivering music to consumers and i don't mean T-shirts etc I wouldn't buy a drake T-shirt. Until this is done as of now there is no music industry.
Bloat was around in the '80s and were called filler tracks. An album would have two or three singles and seven or eight filler tracks. Filler tracks have probably existed earlier than that.
im sure paying for artificial streams must cut into the profits also. so whats happeneing here is people pay spotifify, other people exploit it by flooding it for plays and they make their money off those plays instead of people actually liking them by buying songs, merch and tickets? so if you game the algorthyem right, your stuff just gets played whether people want to hear it or not and you get paid? it's just a grift?
The laziest response is “ just make more creative music” the consumers dictate the market it’s the consumers fault not the artists who they get poppin. U can’t just make “ creative music” and be successful or make a living.
its not just the consumers, its payola and marketing backed by the major labels. There's well documented cases of majors inflating streaming numbers across all social media.
Before I watch the video. My opinion on the title is that most “artist” only want viral music and playlist now. Playlist albums have always been around, but it seems more than ever now. It’s all about the stream and not about making good music.
I released a bunch of second rate music listening to that quantity over quality horse crap advice- wish I had never released any of it! Decided to stop streaming my music period at this point. Love the video- wish it had more views!
It’s about business. They (record labels) don’t have artist development anymore, big mistake. They don’t look for talent but instead look for numbers (which you can buy anyway , but that’s another story). They rather someone with a quick short term hit than an artist who’s could be the next Leader of Music. It shows how much they fucked over the industry
The problem is what the streaming services give artists. a double-edged sword which they started from free streaming they they thought they can monopolise from the originally illegal downloads that was cripling the industry. On the same token free music can get you noticed quickly, the problem is now music is over-saturated and you have to turn yourself into beat 304 to survive. The average album use to be 10 to 15 songs now its 15 to 25 songs
We expected masterpieces when we were just pirating for free.....this system is far better for artists who just got everything pirated before streaming was common. Artist today make most of them money the same way they always did...thats by performing....sales and eventually streams were never a primary source of income for artists.... always went to everyone else involved in the process more than the actual 'act'.... streaming saved the industry if anything because everyone was just pirating for free beforehand
The way to make money as an artist has always been doing shows....the online stuff is basically promo to eventually to get you to actually attend shows in person....if you're an artist or musician looking for big paydays from the internet, you definitely doing it wrong. So this shouldn't even been a concern to make a video about.
If you listen to the first 30 seconds of a song on streaming services they count it as a stream, that being said I don’t think streams equal fans either. I could listen to 30 seconds of your music and hate it but they’ll count it as if it’s good.
YOUNGBOY THRIVES ON HATE THATS WHY HE IS ON TOP,HE PUSHED HIMSELF INTO THE CONVERSATION LIKE I CAN CALL HIM A" PRIVATE CONTRACTOR" WHO HAS WORKED HIS ARSE OF TO BE IN THE CONVERSATION DESERVES RESPECT NO MATTER WHAT
