I come from punkrock and buying cheap compilations released by labels like it was the norm back in the days (Get Punk O Rama 2 by Epitaph records now if you’re curious) really made the music lover I am today, spinning them like crazy because that was almost the only music I had access to.
I dreamt so much about unlimited streaming access back then. 30 years later I realize it was a chimera that broke a lot of my will to dig into music and spend time on more rewarding albums. I’m just sick of the non stop novelty.
MP3 era was the best for this. Because a lot of music was then easy to get, and communities on the Internet were great. Streaming is just mass consumption, or I just don’t have the discipline to restrain.
Well, I’m now back to my very own library, supporting bands by buying their stuff on bandcamp or spending time on random old records I slept too much time on.
The few times when I heard music in a non-business context was groups of women farm workers in Indian villages singing a folk-song as a group, that provides the rhythm required for the farm work. Those tunes used to float in waves modulated by the hot winds blowing over the crops.
Also, maybe solo singing by shepherd boys and cow-herders, while roaming vast grass lands in hot summer. There were some great singers who wrote fantastic lyrics that go for hours with hardly any instrumental music. I knew they did it for their own pleasure.
Some good thoughts undermined by some nonsense thinking e.g.
when someone bought a CD in 1995, the artist earned roughly $2 from that single sale after label splits. Today, to earn that same $2, around 50 people need to stream the entire album front-to-back.
No. To earn that same $2, the guy who played the CD 50 times would today need to stream it... 50 times.
I disagree with the characterization that "music stopped mattering". Maybe it stopped mattering so much online or if all you're looking at is mass-market commercialization, but in general? It looks as alive and important as ever from where I sit.
> Connection Became Commodified ... Music is now background noise
It's rather the music itself which became a commodity, and it's not mainly background noise, but is reduced to a function (support certain moods, etc.). This becomes obvious when looking at the evolving statistics. More and more people just select and listen to anonymous playlists and don't care who played, composed or produced the music thei're listening to. They buy and consume music like water or potatoes.
> The financial reality for modern musicians is grim
That's it, and this development started at least thirty years ago. I remember well that the opening acts at our concerts were increasingly being replaced by DJs, and within a short time, more and more live gigs were being replaced entirely by DJs (people didn't care much). Studio gigs had long been hard to come by at that point. Today, more and more stars are going on stage without a band or even their “singing” is a playback. Spotify and the like have also wiped out the middle class, so that today it's mostly only the big stars who are known by name.
> AI Accelerates Everything
The market in which musicians could earn money was already broken long before AI. The record monopolists, who repeatedly claim to represent the interests of musicians, were at the forefront of filling their own pockets with services such as Spotify, and their actions against AI companies are also more than flimsy, as it is more likely that they want to use this technology to improve their own pensions and increase their margins even further by no longer needing composers or studios. According to the well-known Deezer study, 97% of people can no longer distinguish AI from human music anyway. And still we will continue to make music, and as before, barely anyone will notice.
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[ 0.27 ms ] story [ 20.7 ms ] threadI dreamt so much about unlimited streaming access back then. 30 years later I realize it was a chimera that broke a lot of my will to dig into music and spend time on more rewarding albums. I’m just sick of the non stop novelty.
MP3 era was the best for this. Because a lot of music was then easy to get, and communities on the Internet were great. Streaming is just mass consumption, or I just don’t have the discipline to restrain.
Well, I’m now back to my very own library, supporting bands by buying their stuff on bandcamp or spending time on random old records I slept too much time on.
Also, maybe solo singing by shepherd boys and cow-herders, while roaming vast grass lands in hot summer. There were some great singers who wrote fantastic lyrics that go for hours with hardly any instrumental music. I knew they did it for their own pleasure.
when someone bought a CD in 1995, the artist earned roughly $2 from that single sale after label splits. Today, to earn that same $2, around 50 people need to stream the entire album front-to-back.
No. To earn that same $2, the guy who played the CD 50 times would today need to stream it... 50 times.
It's rather the music itself which became a commodity, and it's not mainly background noise, but is reduced to a function (support certain moods, etc.). This becomes obvious when looking at the evolving statistics. More and more people just select and listen to anonymous playlists and don't care who played, composed or produced the music thei're listening to. They buy and consume music like water or potatoes.
> The financial reality for modern musicians is grim
That's it, and this development started at least thirty years ago. I remember well that the opening acts at our concerts were increasingly being replaced by DJs, and within a short time, more and more live gigs were being replaced entirely by DJs (people didn't care much). Studio gigs had long been hard to come by at that point. Today, more and more stars are going on stage without a band or even their “singing” is a playback. Spotify and the like have also wiped out the middle class, so that today it's mostly only the big stars who are known by name.
> AI Accelerates Everything
The market in which musicians could earn money was already broken long before AI. The record monopolists, who repeatedly claim to represent the interests of musicians, were at the forefront of filling their own pockets with services such as Spotify, and their actions against AI companies are also more than flimsy, as it is more likely that they want to use this technology to improve their own pensions and increase their margins even further by no longer needing composers or studios. According to the well-known Deezer study, 97% of people can no longer distinguish AI from human music anyway. And still we will continue to make music, and as before, barely anyone will notice.