the internet is imploding 

hey there! this was an unplanned off-the-cuff video. I only mentioned antisemitism on twitter because it was top of mind as I had just seen something referencing this just before making the video. I did not mean it to come off as the only pressing form of hate speech on twitter is antisemitism or as a slight towards the Palestinian people. There's every kind of hate speech and harassment rampant on twitter which makes it unusable imo. Of course, free Palestine. I hope we can focus on the main subject of the video here as I'm not qualified to facilitate a productive conversation on that particular topic in this space. I know most of you understand nuance, but a few do not, so I wanted to make it clear. Peace & love.

lmao the scrolling through ads to find the fucking ingredients list on a recipe hit me hard bruv

Vinyl -> Tape-> Cassette -> CD -> iPod -> Stream -> Void

Going out and meeting people in real life is the future, ironically.

If everyone is Superman - then no one is Superman.

I love that this is a conversation being had. The digital landscape is absolutely at a breaking point due to the overhyped emphasis and platforms pushing everyone to be a creative, when in reality they may not be. Not everyone has to be an artists, comedian, or personality. It’s cooled to just be entertained too 🙌🏾

I feel so absolutely stretched thin sometimes between creating my art and working. I would love to have a balance of both but its 95% working and then 5% of barely having the energy to create something.

Gen X here. Grew up on 8 tracks , cassettes. It was easy just to play right through some album. CD’s came along and change that paradigm shift in which we got to skip tracks really easily and go to the songs we like. Then, shortly after ,Napster and then limewire made it possible just to download the song that we wanted or loved. Let’s talk about what those were : they were songs on the radio that were spoonfed to us by some record executive. Every musician needs to make music for themselves and hope that others enjoy even one song because there’s so many many “one hit wonders” . I think the key take away here is that for better or worse, those record executives that chose the songs that got Radio play, whether they were good songs or the best songs on that album or the worst songs on that album, became the songs that us as a society listen to together , by ourselves; on our radios ; and when we come together…we have those songs “in common”, and whether it’s at parties or weddings or festivals, we all enjoy those songs together. That’s lost. Make music that you want to make …just like they say to “dance even if no one’s watching”. Like many industries may be a lost ability to gain income from writing music just like, however everyone today is an influencer as you said. The pool is deluded with our own water. Everyone wants to be special and everyone wants to make money and it’s just not enough to go around.

It's true, everything all the time all at once, almost all synthetic, mostly angry, on all platforms. I think these platforms are going to go through a rough ride once everything peaks and people are sick of the synthetic scroll addictions we're all stuck in, and seek out organic entertainment again (concerts/live bands, buskers, clubs, piano bars, etc).

I really picked the worst time in history to decide to do art full time. I feel a little insane.

The music industry used to sell music, now they sell the gear needed to make music. And that’s ok with me.

I was thinking this today. Seems like everyone and everything is in limbo.

It's almost like buying CDs, records, and cassettes from record stores and seeing musicians when they come to your town and paying reasonable ticket prices to see them live and buy a t-shirt, was actually a sustainable and relatively healthy model for the music industry.

Watched Jacob Collier recently on a podcast saying that it's not about how many you reach in general, but of those people how many you move. I guess this makes that real world difference that you can feel from your work and art. As an aspiring young artist who's also pursuing a degree in something entirely different, I am utterly hopeless for the future as things are unfolding now, yet I keep getting better with how I express my art just because, and since it makes me happy when nothing else works. Not many people can stay true to their creativity however, and even as a hobby all kinds of arts have been dwindling for some time now. Thank you for this platform, this conversation's been long overdue now. We can still change things before they derail

I remember that in the 90's the local record shop was a hub for physical media. But it was also a hub for local bands playing at local pubs and venues. Now most of the pubs are gone and artists have to compete in a ever growing body of work across more and more streaming platforms. I can't even keep up with the streaming services in both music and those that host films and TV. If I want to watch Star Trek I would have to go to one and if I wanted to watch something else that might be on a American platform and not yet in Europe at all. Some of the music providers are over doing the adverts too. Every time I go to sportify it seems like I listen to more ads than the music I came for. Amazon shuffles tracks for the free tier, which is better accept if one song was meant to lead the next numerical track that were meant to be gapless, so now it can jarring. It seems that Amazon and Disney + are moving 4k and Atmos to their premium tier. So now I have to pay them more to get these features. I wonder if Spotify and the rest will do something similar and if you want to listen to the top tier artists you have to get the premium top tier account, maybe I shouldn't test fate . (future me) Oh actually Amazon already do this! I just remembered

There is too much music available and it is all starting to sound the same. There is too much tech available and it is all behaving the same. There is too much parasocializing and relationships are all becoming the same. The singers are all world class now but the lyrics are getting crappier, tech is capable of nearly anything and is now less productive, people becoming irate, bored and antisocial and, finally, relationships are shot if they are dependent on any of the aforementioned elements. This month marks the 10th anniversary of my last facebook post. The curated & censored newsfeed pissed me off that much. Music has too. I reach for LPs now when I can. Sometimes I will click and buy a random cd just to shake shit up. The radio waves suck ass with a top ten full of music NOBODY has requested. Let's face it. The world has painted itself into a corner. Self destruction is where we are at and I can't say it's a bad idea if rinse and repeat continues. Meanwhile my days get more entertaining watching the greatest horror show of all -12 people at a bus stop ALL transfixed on their phones probably complaining about being lonely. DONT LOOK UP

Build an audience vs build a community, quantity vs quality… totally agree (the bright side is that making music and distributing it has never been so easy and affordable) - loved this video - thanks

The recipie thing is SO spot on, I literally CANNOT find the ingredients list sometimes... I'm like "WHAT DO I ACTUALLY NEED TO MAKE THIS!!?" Literally happened last week when I tried to make a stew lol.😄

I just bought a bunch of synthesizers and I don't know why.

You need to do more videos like these, super insightful

As a Commercial Composer and Producer, This is the shit I've never cared about & never given energy to. How many of those listeners actually buy, actually support.

Just to point out, the major labels don’t have a problem with streaming. They love it. The issue is that the labels don’t pay the artists a fair share of the revenue they get from Spotify. The labels have also bought up all the top playlists. Essentially the majors have recreated the monopoly they had in the distribution of cd’s and vinyl but in the digital realm. It looks like it’s more open for artists but it’s actually worse as the only money that comes into the music business comes through Spotify, YT and Apple. And the labels have B2B relationships with these companies that artists do not. Which means the labels get to define the share of money they get before any artist does. Also remember that labels owned a lot of Spotify when it came to the USA. And they used Spotify to break apples iTunes model which was actually better for artists because it generated actual sales. But the labels hated it as they couldn’t control the pricing of music. So this is the end result of the major labels war on Apple and Napster etc. they lost control and got it back. They won. Artists lost.

I feel like artists as professionals are definitely going to be pushed into smaller communities & platforms for support. I honestly don’t think there’s a future for artists via major distribution or labels in the near future. AI is going to get *just* good enough to make McDonald tier beats that are perfect for commercials, normie playlists, gas pump music, and corporate training videos

To add to the whole 'split communities' thing, the internet used to be essentially be just that. Before RU-vid became the conglomerate that it is, I'd watch some content from NewGrounds and StupidVideos from what I remember. They weren't great, but it was the early days of streaming video. Forums used to be specific to their own niche communities, rather than everything now having their own subreddit. There's been a big trend of Google searches tacking on 'reddit' at the end of every search cause SEO has killed Google's search results. People search for actual community answers and discussion rather than terrible ad filled 'top 10' lists. I can see it returning to this as people get tired of algorithms curating meaningless clickbait content for them, but it'll def take time.

Dude, I followed you a while back for music theory for lofi. This is a video that I genuinely believe will change my life in a way. I have had an idea for a long time and this video and the ideas you’ve laid out here have so solidly crystallized the ideas that have been floating around in my head about the project. Thanks for this.

I think a large percentage of people will have to have multiple income streams going forward, not just musicians. It'll be near impossible for a single income to be survivable.

Awesome video. Never really thought about a lot of things you talked about in this and you bring up good points I can agree with. I've been trying to learn music production so its nice to get an early insight into stuff like this if I can get started.

When money gets tight, so does patience

Your points are valid. There should be a healthy combination where the casual listener can come, listen to your music while you’re being fairly compensated. And there should be a place where that same casual listener can go if/when they potentially become a super fan. While all of that is happening.. we focus on the small core group that are helping us sustain. I think we’re heading in that direction; I think it’s just sorting itself out rn.

Spot on my friend. I've been doing so much soul searching over the past year or two because of a lot of what you mentioned here. I know I'm about to embark on a massive life and business pivot and I know a lot of my creator friends and entrepreneur peers are doing the same. Making money is cool, but supporting yourself while being fulfilled, happy, and mentally calm is much better. Keep up the great work dude.

Thank you for this conversation. I have been deeply considering all of this. You really captured all of the nuances of my considering how I want to position myself as an artist. I might ditch Spotify entirely and I keep thinking how I’ll never make money if I do…but I also might not make money if I don’t. The time and energy put into accomplishing vanity metrics - imagine if I put that into local shows, performing, the tried and true way of connecting to people. I don’t know; you’ve given me a lot of consider and I’m not even done watching

Im a novice but look at the audience.Its all about visuals as well as the sounds these days, also I think people like raw truth and simplicity.

Taetro, remember you are cool as the breeze, there’s not many of us left. Everyone is on edge and opportunistic

Some really accurate points here, imho! Really enjoy these type of free thought / rant videos from you. Big Ups! 😁🙏👊

I began to think about my function as an artist within the community I am in and how what I create holds culture accountable. Then I began to build a business to help other people with the same struggles I face. I'm doing exactly what you say "small communities" including all of the artists in the actual physical community.

Great video here, lots of information for us all to digest and deeply think about. The world is going through some major changes and it’s all really unsettling.

Thank you for having this conversation!! Good to know I’m not the only one pondering this question and solutions to make music full time and make good art that will have lasting impact 🧡

My fiance and I talk about this a lot. He says it doesn't support artists to stream their music - he says if you want to support them you should buy their albums and merch. It sucks because artists deserve a career in music and to make a good living off it.

love the format, love the topic, please more of this 👌

I think there are a lot of interesting points in this video but one thing that this and really most musicians are missing and I see it all the time is artist have so rarely ever in the history of music, made money off of music sales. Music sales are for the music industry. If you happen to be one of the top artist, then you will start to see money from music sales more. But musicians have always made money other way with their music. Otherwise have been there bread-and-butter like touring and session, musician work etc. etc.. and there’s still a lot of opportunity for making money with music that has nothing to do with record sales or streaming that hasn’t changed.

Monetizing convenience is something a lot entertainment thrives on. If I were to produce an album I'd have a few heavy hitters and a full album mix in open circulation, then hide the rest of the individual songs behind a paywall. If a fan wanted to add those songs specifically on their own playlists enough they'd have to dish out.

Literally everything spot on. Super important coversation!

Completely agree that modern society is reaching a breaking point in many different domains... war and conflict, internet governance, AI, global warming, culture wars, decline of major democracies... im worried what the next 10 years will look like. Im not sure that human civilization can necessarily continue the progress of the last hundred years

love this! great video man

Thank you for talking about this!

I appreciate this video and the time you took to share these thoughts.

First time tuning in here. Very relatable thoughts - thanks for sharing! 👍

Thanks for opening this discussion. Yeah, it seems a lot more artists wanna control their whole environment, you could say. Lots of smaller, localized communities. My problem with that is, while it might be great for the artist, it could also divide fandoms even more than they are now. It might be like back in the day: You were either a Metalhead or a Rap fan. You couldn't be in both communities, and you'd get in a lot of fights. All the artists locking in their own space could make the scene even more divisive and unfriendly, but then again, it might not happen. Just a worry I have... Whatever happens happens though, and artists will always find a way to not just survive but thrive. That's the light at the end I believe. Thanks again, man Cheers ^-^ 💙💙💙

Loved this! Thanks bud It seems like live performance is less and less becoming an option for musicians these days Im someone who buys vinyl direct from artists on bandcamp and often times the mp3 too!

like everything is changing, so will the internet. nothing stays the same for long time, especially if it's in a state like it is now. so I wouldn't worry, just continue doing what you love, what makes you happy, remove all the daily social media poison that is affecting your creative flow, and it will get better. at least this is how I am trying to get by...

As a 90's kid who grew up rural and didn't get a computer till I was like 12, I'm old enough to have been traumatized by the polarity of knowing both worlds. Super super creative, but with adhd in a world of constant overstimulation and distraction and everything you talk about here, I have never felt less creative, or creatively motivated. I also think that in an increasingly isolated and disconnected world, art starts to become a thing that we use to reach out to people, to get people to notice us in an existential sense, and that's a huge burden to place on art. The onus is then on our outlet to succeed in ways that increasingly make it less of an outlet and more a vehicle of desperation for connection and financial stability the more we go down the path of putting these expectations on art, and this also ends up making us hypercritical of the art, lowering our tolerance for errors because there's so much riding on it, and this chokes and throttles it. It ceases to be fun, and it ceases to be an outlet. This is how creatives burn out and lose interest. It's happening to me right now. I'm a multi-hyphenate creative with so much to give to the world and yet I have nothing left to give in terms of motivation to do so. While not popular, the philosophers Adorno and Horkheimer from The Frankfurt School talked a lot about how the mass-proliferation and commodification of art will eventually erode its perceived value. Mark Fisher, whose philosophy isn't without problems, built on this to ask whether art has been subsumed into capitalism entirely which makes us all capitalists masquerading as artists. And money certainly does not tend to be a great uniter of people. Either way, I sincerely think the only antidote is to recognize how awful it's all gotten. I think what we've really lost from a sense of my own childhood is a sense of community. Subcultures have sort of died a death. You don't have distinct groups who base their whole identity on a certain genre, no punks or metalheads.. This for me was the loss of something deeply valuable. There seems to be a need to mass revert back to physical communities, collectives, local networks and jams.. rejecting follower culture which treats your friends like unconverted metrics. And the more and more we lean into the internet for a solution, the more aggressively we'll go into the current state of things as far as I can tell. Yeah, how do you bring a change like that about? Can't stop the internet. Sure. But if we're willing to stop there and just throw in the towel to that argument, then why not just start chiselling the tombstones today? Maybe it's a cyclical thing, and things will come around again for a future generation, but I find that very hard to accept.

Trying to think about art as a main source of income is the true inspiration killer.

well here's a sub. wish you all the best

Great insight! People are aware of it barely and you make it clear.

Thank you for talking about this

I've been making electronic music on and off since I was in middle school during the late 90's. I never really committed to getting good and finishing tracks. The last time I halfway tried was 15 years ago. Recently I decided I'm at a point in my life where I have to try, even if it's just to know I gave it my best. This video captures a lot of the feelings I'm having after plunging myself into this new ecosystem for artists.

tripped out when I saw the Simon Stalenhag book behind you, I have it as my desktop background.

I could listen to you talk about this all day. I agree with everything you said.

I agree with you that musicians who have fallen for "vanity" metrics are supporting the streaming platforms - and NOT themselves and IMHO also NOT the fans. The audience is left with literally a continuous stream of noise, which means next to nothing, from one track to the next. Even the artist name may not be known or remembered. It's largely just background noise to travel, study, workout or cook to. There's not that much difference between Blake, direct to fan and Patreon, by the way! And it's just a higher percentage than streaming platforms. It still costs MONEY to direct to fan. You have to market and maintain infrastructure and distribution. You have to provide customer support. And you have to actually DELIVER art which "matters" to the fans. If you look at the economics of the music industry, most arts,, art is ten a penny. Anyone can make music now. AI can make music now. What sort of music, is a different question! The only question worth asking in my book. Economics wise, we can argue about the figures, we have 5 million musicians, or people who think they are musicians. And we rarely buy music ourselves. Then we have 11 billion people, but only 1 billion are able or interested, or would find value in buying music. "IF" and it's a big IF, mumians were qualified and entitled to earn a n entire living from their 2 hours of practice every day, let's say $35,000 per year. Obviously if it's a BAND, or even a duo, that income multiplies. Let's pretend we could get back to the old days of $3 for a single (A and B side). A musician would have to sell 11,667 copies/units in a year - of his X singles. That means a true fan base of almost 12,000 people.. True fans! So a known by fan base could well be 500 times that - that's almost 6 million ears that know of you! How many individuals can reach 6 million fans, on their own? And that's why the platforms come in - BUT they make the numbers work, but then don't exchange the MOINEY to the artists. So you can see why the average Joe/Jane is stuck in a "do it for me mummy" model. So with just basic economics, if you need access to 6 million people to survive and there are 5 million of US musicians to feed. How can that possibly work out, economically? 5 million musicians x $35,000pa (which is a CRAP salary btw) equals $175 BILLION (a thousand million) PROFIT to the ARTISTS! without any platform or business delivery fees. Is there a $175 billion of direct to fan business out there? Maybe there is? But I think it would be hard! Plus we have all the other arts to support too - painters, animators, potters, poets, comedians, photographers, and the list goes on and on. Throughout history, how many classical composers made a living>? How many are known by name? Personally I can't think of more than 100 through all time. In terms of POP, through the decades 50~2020's, chart wise, 100 per week, 5000 per year, for 70 years is 350,000 artists (ignoring that most were bands). BUT of those 350,000 how many of them still make a living? How many of them earnt enough to still survive? SO how long did their music careers last, before they faded? Maybe 5 years of scraping by, for "most"? The handle, a top 1000, the Elton Johns, Abbas, etc. YES they can still be millionaires and still get income from royalties. Some even still gig, or virtual gig. SO this economic problem is NTO unique to this time! Out of 5 million musicians every dace, only 1000 really make a (good) living still. SO it's always been competitive and saturated. *I think the difference in the 70~90s were all 5 million were waiting for the 100 a week slot from the record companies _And for that we'dEFFECTIELY make 18,000 a year for 5 years and then our careers would be over! Only the top 1000 a year, even made the 6~9 figure incomes. WHY? Because they were "OUTSTANDING" Not just good, or average or professional. OUTSTANDING. So where does that leave direct to fan artists? Get a grip! Become outstanding, or do music for free - because out of 5 million peers, that is all you are worth! And is that so bad? If you won the lottery and you didn't have to work, what would you "choose" to do? Music? Well you could afford to do it for free then, so would you? If Sam Altman's world plan comes true, that is exactly what life will become! A state benefit. The world will be run by computers and robots and none of us will have to work. I believe his plan is highly FALWED, because why does the need for commerce exist? Are computers going to buy other computers work? WHY? But even in this (cough) utopia where none of need to work, how will musicians get heard? now instead of 5 million of us, there could be 500 million of us. Now we are back to Victorian times, or tribal village times, where people sing to each other in their living rooms, or the entire village sing and and dance - all 100 of them. SO do we have any RIGHT to assume a living, or demand to be hard, amongst 5 million peers? IMHO NO ABSOLUTELY NOT. The top 1000 will always be the ones who are "OUTSTANDING". Then being an earning artists, will mean something REAL! If you're not outstanding, maybe you need to go feed your "ego" in some other way? Or just music for YOURSELF and for free. If you don't like that, become outstanding and stop whining about how unfair life is. When has life EVER been fair? Think of all those starving classical composers who dies poor and are still unknown! Think of al those dace pop bands who had 5 years of sparkle and now just old men and women! When has life EVER been fair?

Glad you got around to the “smaller communities” being a good overall road to go down. I’ve been thinking on that a lot. I think there is a number of studied communities. Someone even was able to figure out how many people a healthy community could have. I think it’s something like 120… bigger then you think but still small. Anyway kinda like this off-the-cuff vibe here. Looking forward to more of it. 👊🤘✌️&❤️

@18:30 Instead of working for a salary or wages, you are working for a lottery ticket. That's what the streaming platforms (publishers) have reduced artists to.

Art is dead, hard physical work and grit is trending.

This was a great conversation

You saved the week dude. Your creativity and insight burns real bright. Revolution!!! Dave. Uk.

This is a wonderful conversation.

I feel you really hard over the vanity metrics thing. Not all followers are fans, and not all fans are customers. And even beyond that, its hard to see if that customer has actually been really, truly, impacted by our art. It's really tricky. Love this video and appreciate your art in its many forms.

Why not take your music back from the internet and release only on vinyl. Smaller Audience maybe but your getting people more committed than a mere download and more likely to collect your art.

I think this problem goes back to pre-recorded music. Before that people played for each other or went to concerts and church to hear professional musicians. But it’s always been hard for artists to make a living. Fortunately I got good advice early: do something else to make money.

My thoughts exactly brother. Reaching a breakpoint. Deleted all my socials other than RU-vid and my life has been better!

Thanks for taking a look at the bigger picture and finally addressing what nobody else with a platform seems to want to say. This current formula of never ending content creation/vanity metrics/focusing on singles and not albums + praying something gets picked up by a spotify playlist or goes semi-viral seems incredibly unsustainable. Especially as an artist trying to build something from scratch. We're all out here fighting for precious views and followers to a mass audience who's attention span has been boiled down to MAYBE 3 seconds. James blake is going in the right direction, we need other big name artists to start moving to other independent platforms where more serious music fans can form communities.

I like to think of the “vanity metrics”achieved through any form of virality as a “loss leader”. Although going viral or growing an account does not always directly benefit the artist monetarily, the numbers not only make an artist appear more credible to the fan, but it helps potential fans discover the artist. On the other hand, it’s the artists job to avoid becoming overly concerned with chasing those vanity metrics and to give more attention to building/nurturing the smaller, more isolated communities which will sustain the artists career in the long run. Theres def a balance. However, I 100% agree that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to achieve organic reach bc of how much we’ve cluttered the internet. Great video and conversation!

thank you for putting the message out there

Love your thoughts on this. From an artists standpoint, I think finding a way to make an album drop a unique experience would be dope. Like sending a poster of the album cover to whoever buys it. This allows you to still have a reach through streaming, but make an incentive for those who actually support.

The ads are just killing me. I don’t even want to click on links anymore because it will take me to an article where the answer I wanted was the last sentence or buried under 50 clicks or some other bullshit. Thank goodness. Hopefully something new will emerge and just be more real and positive. Not toxic positive but in the sense that we help each other and provide value first not make money first. Probably impossible :-(

I think a big part of the raw reality of all of this is sheer numbers and the amount of competition that's out there nowadays. Making music and being an independent artist is easier and more accessible than ever due to technology and the internet, etc... It seems to me that the only artists who are making a living off of their craft are artists that regularly play live shows, which is obviously also one of the main avenues for exposure. I listen to a lot of incredibly talented artists and producers but due to the simple fact that they don't play live, they stay at a relatively low follower count with slow growth even though it's easy for anyone with the ability to recognize true talent to see that they deserve more.

Coming out of Punk Rock I make music to try to piss people off

I also think that there is a double effort to be made here... an effort on the part of the audience, to give value to each creative content, because there is a LOT of content out there, which makes that we have TOO much choice, and therefore makes it difficult to value things at their proper value... defenitly some effort to be made around that... and the second effort would be from the artists themselves, artists nowadays need to be REALLY different, to precisely capture more people's attention that help the audience value the work more... or at least have something original that really differentiates them from the others in the same "category" or "genra".. far from easy but hey, that's what artists are meant to be/do... speak to us, to our emotions in a unique manner..

Thank you for this. I was successful on RU-vid in its early days…I made what is arguably the first viral synthesizer video back in 2006, and had a couple more viral successes after that. Back in the pre-google days. Before monetization. When a million views was astronomical, especially for a music-related video. Back when the limits were 100MB and 10 minutes per video. I was not able to keep the momentum going, mostly because of (then) undiagnosed autism and ADHD. I just wasn’t able to stay consistent enough to keep growing, although I do have “superfans” that continue to consume everything I put out online anywhere, thank goodness! This topic is something I have pondered a great deal over the years and I really appreciate your level-headed take on it. We will eventually break out of this very challenging situation!

Maybe this is a good thing? Maybe we fall back to a pre-internet society. More hardcopies of movies, music, (probably not videogames but who knows) We need the phones and internet yes, but maybe less would be healthy for us as a society. I was born in 1995 and I miss the simplicity I had growing up. Nowadays I feel super overwhelmed with technology seeing as I have to use it for my job every day.

From the perspective of a consumer of music, I often feel guilty for streaming, and I am guilty of not even looking at the song title or artist that I'm listening to. Streaming services make it so easy to passively consume music. We don't have to search for artists we may like, it's spoon-fed to us now. I remember going into HMV back in the day and browsing all the cassettes and CDs and being so excited when I found one that I thought I'd like. But I had to do that work (drive to the mall, go into the store, sift through all the albums), which made going home and popping the CD into my stereo that much more exciting. I was an active participant in the process. Now I'm not. How do I become an active participant again?...

Good thoughts and good that you are voicing them. I personally feel the whole music-as-a-product mindset crumbling. Music for millenia has been a process to be lived, not a product to be consumed. Now, recording has deeply changed that. But we reached the oversaturation point already. There is free access to more great musical products than we could consume in a lifetime. But the living, untamed process of music happening, cannot really be played back without becoming a playback. I think it is time for a new very alive music to take over. One that makes living music feel great, without trying to catch, immobilize, kill and stuff it. Back to life everybody!

this is such a good video honestly

AI is replacing ALL labor, it's just that the arts are the most obvious at this time. We have to figure out how to build a new world where JOBS don't exist, but people still do. I don't know the answer, but I think it has to include UBI.

There is a lot of things to consider these days. The industry and internet have changed so much so discovery and consumption of music has been in a state of constant change for the past 20 years or so. And we have seen the rise of utility genres like LoFi beats. People use the music for a purpose... to focus while studying, cleaning the house, crunching numbers at their desk job, coding... and they do value the art, but they consume it in a different way. They don't need it to be an album, they don't feel a need to buy a t-shirt or care much about being part of your world. Thats the problem with utility music. It's the same with ambient and meditation music. An artist can be unique enough to stick out in the crowd and a few people will follow and try to engage but it's really not the kind of music that makes 'most' people want to engage. It's just not unique enough. There is no image, no ideal, no dream, no message... it's just chill beats for background noise and it's great at being that. It's really like this for pretty much all instrumental genres really. The masses seem to need to hear vocals to feel a connection. It's not to say that instrumental music is bad. It's just harder for most audiences to latch on to it. As for albums, we have gone full circle. In the old days, before long play media was a thing, the industry was very focused on singles. Albums became a thing when record companies needed their artists to fill space on records, tapes and cd's. Now, it makes very little sense to release albums. You can throw your 10 songs up on spotify as an album and have your release be a blip, or you can release 10 singles and have a series of blips that build momentum as you have more chances to grab attention. You will notice track lengths are shorter too... there is no sense in making a 5 minute song when you only need to be listened to for 30 seconds to count as a play. Maybe that will change, who knows? There is still value in albums, don't get me wrong, it just doesn't make as much sense to focus on releasing albums anymore. Again, especially if an artist is making utility music. EDM is the same too, making music for DJ's... the people in the crowd don't care much about who is writing the music. They just want to dance. The 80/20 rule might apply here. Maybe 20% of the people might care who they are dancing to, but the other 80% could really care less. It's mostly about appealing to the nerd mixing the tracks. As for artists not getting compensated enough for their art. The sad reality is a lot of people are writing music for a very small pool of potential fans and doing next to nothing to connect with those few people. And even if they do the marketing and they do connect, the numbers are just not there. I love electro industrial music, but not many people are into it anymore or if they are, they are still listening to the older established artists. Even the biggest names in that genre and similar genres are barely pulling even a tiny fraction of what an artist in a more popular genre can do. Why? Well... it's not what most people want to hear. If an artist wants to make decent money from their music alone, they have two options... either make utility music for playlists and sync placements or they need to make popular music for a larger potential audience. It's just the way it is. If a LoFi artist wants to really connect, engage and have super fans, they need to appeal on more levels and innovate enough to leave the murky pool of LoFi. How? Well... add a vocalist. Add live players and perform live, bring something that has a message that a fan can relate to. Have a story and be willing to tell that story. Be something that a fan wants to care about and identify with. This is what makes pop, hip hop, metal and country so successful. Otherwise, it's just background music (and thats ok too) Thanks for making this video, sorry for the novella I wrote here lol :)

facts, honesty, respect, thank you

I think the breaking point you’re referencing represents everyone’s (un)conscious desire for a physical public square. Thanks for sharing your thoughts in this form, I subbed you

Thanks!

In the current “attention economy” vanity metrics are all that matters

I hope I understood well what you were trying to say in this video, which I found extremely interesting. I also come from that old school of Napster, Limewire (which was my favorite for downloading music) Ades, etc. And I think that at the beginning of the massification of Internet access, there were different types of groups of people (before calling them fans) who in fact wanted to know where the hell that song comes from and know more about the artist or band (I have always been that type of person), to those who only filled their mp3 player or CD with many songs called "unknown artist" which were the majority. Currently, given the relatively easy access to almost everything, people began to detract more from what has already been considered something easy given that these people have "talent": the arts. Call it fine arts, literature, music, etc. Every day a new song comes out from artists from different parts of the world and it is so easy for us to access it that it "loses value" well they say that what costs work is more appreciated. I think it's important for artists to not just settle for releasing their song and hoping for more and more listens, that works in an ideal world! But in this era and reality it no longer works like that, if it didn't before, much less so now. It is interesting to see how it has worked for others, from those who took advantage of a viral song to obtain gigs, release merch, to those who (criticizable or not) started with controversy to attract attention and from there continue to be taken seriously. (like Tyler The Creator, Joji, etc.) or artists who reinvent themselves with that controversy like Doja Cat, Sam Smith, Lil Nas X. For example, James Blake was noticed for his "controversial" comments and his followers and streams even increased lol. It's as if talent isn't always enough...does that make them better or worse artists? is to think There is a lot to review and rethink, the fact that many artists release singles like hot cakes does not help with this issue of people thinking that music is free "if this artist releases so many songs it is because it is easy for him, right? I don't think he minds making money or anything, after all he just sees how many songs he releases." The worrying issue here is the intermediaries such as Apple Music, Spotify, RU-vid, they are the ones who should change the rules but it will only be achieved with pressure from the artists, which I see as difficult to happen very soon.

Well spoken brother.

Music song production is super competitive on the world stage. From my perspective for 99% of musicians who want to make a career out of it they simply can't produce either enough or as interesting or high quality as necessary.

This was an amazing explanation and advise.

Awesome share dude thx

Robots, AI and UBI entered the chat. The current system is BROKEN not just the interweb The results of a Debt based Fiat / digital $$ system. I had a side business which supported my music productions - that was killed by the scamdemic as were audience participation numbers and many production companies went down the drain. Just do what you love.

TBH I feel the one which will burst very soon is a bubble idea about how we can generate (comparable) real world income from doing what we're really love, especially with any kind of art forms . From past we'd learn that only few artist can survive with doing whatever they'd love ways of life . Then come digital ages, with viral ideas that everyone can do it ! And everyone believe it until machines start taking over. So here is the question, let's say someone who loves a specific kind of rock music and they could in flick of hand creating those music by themselves plus flair and vibes they'd would love to hear , why should they listen to others? Doesn't subscribe to that kind of service more fit for them (customer) than subscribing in streaming music platform which as you've said full with music they wouldn't want to listen at first place ?

Don’t quit your day job they say… or maybe go get one and realize that that’s just the way it is.

From what I observe… a lot of professional musicians (not necessarily „famous” or well known) are shifting into making a living out of live performances in local environment (I’m talking about mostly big towns tho). Lot of my friends are deleting social media and they are not into creating content, because they notice it is not about creating music so much anymore.

It’s sounding like the iTunes business model has a space to make a comeback. A centralized place for people to listen to all their music but still have to pay artists directly. I find even with people buying albums these days (physical or digital), the convenience of streaming platforms having all your music available on any device makes it so hard to justify buying an album. Apple Music actually has a feature where you can upload your own audio files and have them available on any device, which is why I use it (I have some albums that aren’t available on streaming sites in the US).

Unfortunately everything is fighting for everyone’s attention. It’s really hard to fight against, music, tv, podcasts, movies, games. But I don’t see many people touring. I don’t know what those logistics look like, or what money is made off of tours. But I think live show’s would be an under utilized method of outreach

interesting how people from different cultures are reaching towards this same thing in the end nice take taetro, i've been feeling the same for the last 4 years