Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says working musicians can no longer release music only “once every three to four years.” Spotify's stock value hit all-time highs of $50 billion this summer.

[milkface]

1 hour ago, logakght said:

Use SoundCloud. All the music I like already is in YouTube and Bandcamp, and to find new, real, sincere artists SC is a treasure vault. 

How easy is it to make playlists and whatnot?

[chenGOD]

1 hour ago, milkface said:

I can't afford anything else. It's either that or I pirate my music.

as logakght said - use soundcloud and buy off bandcamp. easy-peasy.

And pirate away - if you're going to screw the artists, don't at least make Daniel Ek and his fucking ilk rich.

[ignatius]

i put my music back on streaming services just in time!

Quote

 

The stock market’s negative reaction to the company’s recent quarterly report reflects this painful truth. It’s hard to find new subscribers nowadays, but the real anxiety among investors is the lousy profit margin at Spotify. The gross profit margin was 25.5%—perhaps acceptable for a run-of-the-mill business but disappointing for a dominant tech platform. Even worse, Spotify told investors that they don’t anticipate margin improvement in the current quarter. 

By comparison, the gross profit margin at Microsoft is around 70%. The same is true at Pfizer. At Facebook it’s even higher—despite all Mark Zuckerberg’s strategic blunders, the gross profit margin is 80%. Spotify shareholders have been less ambitious, but even they were hoping for a margin in the mid-30s. But with more than 400 million active users, Spotify still can’t pull it off. 

The reality is that someone needs to get squeezed for streaming platforms to hit their financial targets—and those cries of anguish you hear from musicians reading their latest royalty statements is what that squeezing sounds like.

 

 

 

[chenGOD]

3 hours ago, ignatius said:

i put my music back on streaming services just in time!

 

 

[Lane Visitor]

Re: consumers not thinking music is worth much, I think about this a lot. I think there are a lot complexities that add up to this feeling of music being worth less, but it's all kind of one thing too, and all falls under the internet/social media/saturation umbrella:

-One part of it is technology / social and shared media culture which sparked initially by Napster/mp3 culture and now has born an entire industry (streaming) that dominates this element. Aside from vinyl enthusiasts and hardcore music folks like us at watmm, there's just really no incentive to go out of the way to deal with cds, records or tapes. And why would anyone want to figure out how to acquire electronics that play these strange old formats? People only have bandwidth for laptops and phones (their "me" devices and are already fully invested in them for almost everything life has to offer.

-Another part of it is the personal bubble/channel/feed that everyone now has which makes listening less about the artist or the music or concept or story and more about the person listening and their vibes/mood/mindset. I'm at place xyz with scenario 123 and feeling ___ mood, therefore I click playlist abc. Discovery of new sounds and the experience of physical media is so far from where we are now.

Another part is the meme-ification, and sound bite aspect. Every sensation, phenomenon, trend, idea ... is even more fleeting than the past, and must be reduced to a quick snapshot. Everyone is suddenly a busy Wallstreet broker with only time for a quick headline on the way to their next board meeting to file away. Does anyone actually remember that somewhat cool artists they discovered from the new playlist while waiting at the Apple Store while also texting their buddy?

I realize this is a pessimistic take on music media/technology/culture in 2022 but I do believe that there are many benefits of the current state. Do they outweigh the costs? Depends on my mood when I answer lol. I also do believe that one day things will be different and we won't be using our devices for consuming art and media as much. At least I hope.

 

[prdctvsm]

^ well put. makes us think of marshall mcluhan's apt phrases "the medium is the message", &

"we shape our tools & then our tools shape us."

[Lane Visitor]

Thanks prdct, and so well said on that medium/msg quote. It's an absurd state we've gotten to.

I left out a few more contributors that might be just as big as the rest imo:

-artists that want a big following or even just enough of one to be able to survive on their music have to follow certain sort of algorithm-enslaving protocols and to be social media influencers as an entire full time job. This leaves little time for actual music creation and process. Which also leads to and helps perpetuate this other contributor...

-said artists / producers that want to break are swayed into the allure of ever-evolving templates and tutorials to "make that xyz sound" but at the same time endless plugins, presets... flavors and options to tweak unil perfectly satisfied. "Follow these best practice production templates to make bangers the right way" but hey also... watch these shootout reviews and demos to decide what you like best... play with these digital tools to sculpt out your perfected product to a tee, exactly to your vision. Where this leaves the artist is a state somewhere between misguided hyper ambition and OCD option paralysis. ... Many who choose the easy path of 123 chords here, click here, loop this vocal wav (or emulate with real voice) from the pack and repeat are usually the same people who are good at charisma, stage performance, persistence, building following, BSing it, telling a story, and therefore that's what gets out there, esp. if it benefits entire industries built out of encouriging the template approach. The music itself? Just auxiliary to the "content" they are producing for their fans. Sad reality.

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by Lane Visitor

[prdctvsm]

[iococoi]

muah ha ha

 

[Zephyr_Nova]

This better not fuckin' hurt my playlist acceptance/streams.

[EdamAnchorman]

12 hours ago, iococoi said:

muah ha ha

 

To be fair, lots and lots of stocks are at or near 52-week lows.

[psn]

Stockify, the new service where you can share your stocks with the world and not get paid. 

[iococoi]

 

[iococoi]

 

[iococoi]

Quote

What Is a Stream, Anyway?

https://dadadrummer.substack.com/p/what-is-a-stream-anyway

[TubularCorporation]

On 6/10/2022 at 2:10 PM, iococoi said:

 

Say what you want about Beato, at least he's willing to give Ron Burgundy a second chance.

[TubularCorporation]

Recorded music was a loss leader to get audiences out to the shows that musicians earned most of their income from

Then live music was a loss leader to get audiences to buy the merch that musicians earned most of their income from

Then all music was a loss leader to get non musicians to become the beginner musicians that earn Fender and Roland most of their money

 

 

None of this has anything to do with actual music or  ...oo000~~~aRt~~~000ooo...

Edited July 19, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[thefxbip]

One thing that social media does is to try to convince you that everything is a number game.

Number of streams, number of likes, number of followers, number of sales. It is all so fucking pathetic. A human wall street of human interactions where you win by short terms validation to be repeated ad infinitum.

 

People let their life and their self-worth be defined and controlled by bot accountants.

The like button needs to be annihilated. 

 

[iococoi]

Quote

Inside the Multi-Billion Dollar Battle Royale Over Music-Streaming Royalties

https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/streaming-royalties-music-biz-dsps-spotify-1235327760/

[ignatius]

13 minutes ago, iococoi said:

https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/streaming-royalties-music-biz-dsps-spotify-1235327760/

“This is not the way people who have an economically interdependent long-term relationship treat each other.”

good article. interesting shit show of the industry etc. wtf. 

[ignatius]

neat

[zlemflolia]

F U C K israel

[ignatius]

good breakdown/take down style.. lot's of data which is good for people to see/hear but is pretty much what we've known for fucking years already... but he makes a good youtube 

 

 

[o00o]

The playlists are really cool but the audio quality is an affront to anyone that really cares about good music. Luckily you can export all playlists to other services quite easily 

[ignatius]