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Wow. That’s diabolical
Yikes. That’s pretty shocking though not that surprising sadly…
Can’t believe they hacked my secret file of DJ names.
Joking aside it’s a scandal. Spotify will ultimately be entirely AI driven. No artists, no royalties. More cash for the CEO.
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I drive past the Dynely Arms on days I need to go into the office. Always struck me as a gold mine waiting to happen and never understood why its sat empty. Its perfectly situated on a cross roads with traffic all coming past it to and from Leeds/Harrogate/Ilkley/Skipton and beyond
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I’m not sure it will ever be 100% ai
They need “real” names to draw people in and keep them there… but there’ll always be a lot of ai from here on in for the dopes subscribing to “chill” playlists…
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You have to hope that if that happens real artists, labels and the users will all migrate to somewhere else and a better streaming model will be re-imagined
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Maybe that’s the way it will go…Spotify just plays AI generated ‘music’, basically sonic wallpaper, radio without the talking and ads in between just background for people who don’t like silence but aren’t too bothered what they listen to? Thing is would people still pay a tenner a month for that?
Anyone who actually cares what they listen to will go somewhere else and hopefully enjoy music in a way that actually pays the people who make it a decent royalty rate.
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Also last year they found loads of people making AI music then getting AI bots to listen to it to collect the royalties. We really are becoming surplus to requirements.
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Do they get paid in crypto?
A remarkably open and honest account of what it’s like to be putting music out these days (and quite the eye-opening read for those of us that merely consume - Spotify over my dead body, and Bandcamp whenever I can, FWIW):
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Thanks for sharing that. As someone that operates a small self release record label with a similar release model this is extremely insightful for me, and I would have thought that someone with Brian’s profile would be several levels above me in terms of exposure and sales but actually, reading this there is not such a huge difference at all. The situation is absolutely f#cked. It’s a wonder anyone of us still bother to release music at all.
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Wow. Big article in Guardiand and album of the month resulted in literally zero sales ! That is so fucked. Great article very enlightening
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Fascinating.
John Gomez. What a nice guy.
Fairplay Luke Una too.
Like the way he says you have to ensure you see making the music as the high point, not how much it sells.
It just goes to show how small underground music scenes actually are.
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This is really eye-opening. Huge respect to all artists and record label owners who are working so hard for basically no financial return.
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That’s a great article and very revealing but the most important bit of advice he gives (imho) is the last bullet point and something he doesn’t seem to touch on too much…
- Do as many IRL events as possible, build your community from the ground up.
I had no intention of building a community when starting Test Pressing (and I imagine with everyone putting “content” into the world these days it’d be hard to have cut through) but we’re really lucky to have an audience existing that are ready to listen if we get things musically right (which is obviously the most important bit). If you don’t have an audience for what you do you’re just putting it out there in the hope that someone listens.
Which sort of leads to my second point. A&R in “dance” music doesn’t exist anymore. People just put out whatever they feel and that’s where a lot of things fall down for me. If you’re Woo or someone with a set sound it’s a no brainer, but if not things need a little more thought (whether from the musician / producer on getting melody’s and production right) through to getting the mastering right. What story are you telling? Why and how are you telling it? Where are you going next and why?
He’s very right on people not having enough time too. Especially if you’re trying do a few things… The amount of amazing music we get sent as a blog / website (and god bless the ones we have) but I can’t find writers that want to write and commit to reviewing regularly, as frankly why should they as they work for free and just for the love of it and are fitting it around family time and all the things that they want to do and enjoy doing. So it’s a vicious circle on that front. God knows what running a publication as a business must be like.
There’s also further topics of aging record buyers dropping off, less spare income for “luxury items” (it’s sad music is now that and not a necessity but hey ho and records are expensive) and more…
Anyway, fairplay to him for putting that piece out there but just a few points I thought when reading it. And yes - no brainer but supporting the things you love on Bandcamp is great for the labels as it’s the only place bar vinyl sales where you make real money. Buy the files… They matter more when you do and otherwise they’re just code. And god bless the folk that pay 50p more or double when they buy something as that’s the musical equivalent of charity.
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