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Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music, despite democratization

funkaholic

By funkaholic
in Music Discussion

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soundwave Grand Master

soundwave

Posted
Posted

good article though.

 

a sad sign of the the times for anyone wanting to give up thier day job but accessabilty to a more varied array of music is the trade off

 

if you want to jump on a bandwagon then being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people is a more important factor

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Guest sirch

Guest sirch

Posted
Posted

i think if you make something good enough on its own merit in the digital age then it will keep bringing in some cash for years to come but this won't happen overnight

 

did you just use the words "digital age" and "cash" in the same sentence when referring to musicians/artists!?

 

If a few strangers enjoy your music, what more can you ask for?

 

a few thousand more strangers?

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Guest Squawk2

Guest Squawk2

Posted
Posted

i think if you make something good enough on its own merit in the digital age then it will keep bringing in some cash for years to come but this won't happen overnight

 

did you just use the words "digital age" and "cash" in the same sentence when referring to musicians/artists!?

 

If a few strangers enjoy your music, what more can you ask for?

 

a few thousand more strangers?

 

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

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acidphakist Veteran

acidphakist

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

You mean I shouldn't be happy with the occasional acid groupie backroom BJ and a few free pills from time to time?

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Guest Squawk2

Guest Squawk2

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

You mean I shouldn't be happy with the occasional acid groupie backroom BJ and a few free pills from time to time?

 

Freebies are good too

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Dan C Grand Master

Dan C

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

You mean I shouldn't be happy with the occasional acid groupie backroom BJ and a few free pills from time to time?

 

Wouldn't the beards tickle your nuts?

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acidphakist Veteran

acidphakist

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

You mean I shouldn't be happy with the occasional acid groupie backroom BJ and a few free pills from time to time?

 

Wouldn't the beards tickle your nuts?

 

Everyone knows that IDM nerds hate acid!

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goDel Grand Master

goDel

Posted
Posted
The overwhelming majority goes by unnoticed. The average “digital only” dance single generates around 100 Euros of profit, for both artist and label, now most often being the same person. And these figures go down, too. Today a couple millions artists try to reach a few hundred people. Or like the contemporary pun puts it, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 people.”

 

The artists’ disillusionment leads to ever lamer results in music — why bother? A single produced hastily in two hours work sells 500 units, while a delicate masterwork moves 800 (plus a bit of beer money from Beatport). These figures are in constant decline, too. The market average first pressing of a vinyl 12″ is 300 units now, which regularly indicated sales below this figure (deduct records given away as “promotion” and to friends).

 

I'm not too sure about the conclusions drawn here. If you look at the averages, of course revenues will drop. As has always been, there's a small group successful artist. Not much different than before the digital age, I guess. But nowadays the quantities are so much bigger (and grow faster) that the average revue (for the entire market!) drops by volume growth alone. The volume growth outgrows the growth of revenue. In other words, all the 'amateurs' skew the statistics. Significantly more so than in the past. Sure, there may be more to this as well.

But there's some valid points to be made against the points made in the quotes. A masterpiece can still pay the rent. Just like it used to. It's just that the amount of people which can live off their music hasn't grown with the market. The group of those lucky few may be smaller. But you could argue that it might be a consequence of cannibalism introduced by the bigger market.

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Guest sirch

Guest sirch

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

You mean I shouldn't be happy with the occasional acid groupie backroom BJ and a few free pills from time to time?

 

Wouldn't the beards tickle your nuts?

 

lolirl

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vamos scorcho Grand Master

vamos scorcho

Posted
Posted
The overwhelming majority goes by unnoticed. The average “digital only” dance single generates around 100 Euros of profit, for both artist and label, now most often being the same person. And these figures go down, too. Today a couple millions artists try to reach a few hundred people. Or like the contemporary pun puts it, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 people.”

 

The artists’ disillusionment leads to ever lamer results in music — why bother? A single produced hastily in two hours work sells 500 units, while a delicate masterwork moves 800 (plus a bit of beer money from Beatport). These figures are in constant decline, too. The market average first pressing of a vinyl 12″ is 300 units now, which regularly indicated sales below this figure (deduct records given away as “promotion” and to friends).

 

I'm not too sure about the conclusions drawn here. If you look at the averages, of course revenues will drop. As has always been, there's a small group successful artist. Not much different than before the digital age, I guess. But nowadays the quantities are so much bigger (and grow faster) that the average revue (for the entire market!) drops by volume growth alone. The volume growth outgrows the growth of revenue. In other words, all the 'amateurs' skew the statistics. Significantly more so than in the past. Sure, there may be more to this as well.

But there's some valid points to be made against the points made in the quotes. A masterpiece can still pay the rent. Just like it used to. It's just that the amount of people which can live off their music hasn't grown with the market. The group of those lucky few may be smaller. But you could argue that it might be a consequence of cannibalism introduced by the bigger market.

 

excellent points. i would wager that Flying Lotus doesn't have to work a day job

 

maybe even folks like Clark, Prefuse 73, etc .... make enough money to live free.

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Guest sirch

Guest sirch

Posted
Posted
The overwhelming majority goes by unnoticed. The average “digital only” dance single generates around 100 Euros of profit, for both artist and label, now most often being the same person. And these figures go down, too. Today a couple millions artists try to reach a few hundred people. Or like the contemporary pun puts it, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 people.”

 

The artists’ disillusionment leads to ever lamer results in music — why bother? A single produced hastily in two hours work sells 500 units, while a delicate masterwork moves 800 (plus a bit of beer money from Beatport). These figures are in constant decline, too. The market average first pressing of a vinyl 12″ is 300 units now, which regularly indicated sales below this figure (deduct records given away as “promotion” and to friends).

 

I'm not too sure about the conclusions drawn here. If you look at the averages, of course revenues will drop. As has always been, there's a small group successful artist. Not much different than before the digital age, I guess. But nowadays the quantities are so much bigger (and grow faster) that the average revue (for the entire market!) drops by volume growth alone. The volume growth outgrows the growth of revenue. In other words, all the 'amateurs' skew the statistics. Significantly more so than in the past. Sure, there may be more to this as well.

But there's some valid points to be made against the points made in the quotes. A masterpiece can still pay the rent. Just like it used to. It's just that the amount of people which can live off their music hasn't grown with the market. The group of those lucky few may be smaller. But you could argue that it might be a consequence of cannibalism introduced by the bigger market.

 

excellent points. i would wager that Flying Lotus doesn't have to work a day job

 

maybe even folks like Clark, Prefuse 73, etc .... make enough money to live free.

 

i doubt Clark does. England is a fucking horribly expensive place to live these days without a job!

although he has been on Warp for about 10 years now... so maybe does. respect if so.

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Guest hahathhat

Guest hahathhat

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

You mean I shouldn't be happy with the occasional acid groupie backroom BJ and a few free pills from time to time?

 

Wouldn't the beards tickle your nuts?

 

acidphakist doesn't have a beard.

 

ok, read the article. agree with a lot of it, but i feel like he was just pulling those "800 euro" figures out of his butt to make a point.

 

Everyone keeps doing the same thing out of the fear that the slightest deviation from the norm will scare away the small remaining, yet patient audience who goes along because of a lack of alternatives (we dance either because we paid or because the drugs kicked in).

 

oh no acidphakist !

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rixxx Mentor

rixxx

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

You mean I shouldn't be happy with the occasional acid groupie backroom BJ and a few free pills from time to time?

 

 

 

I didn't think girls liked acid?

 

Oh fuck someone did the joke before me :facepalm:

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Guest Calx Sherbet

Guest Calx Sherbet

Posted
Posted

Yeah but when you have thousands, you'll want 10s of thousands and so on -it'll never end!

 

acid groupie

 

wat

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