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Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

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Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#51

Post by pier25 »

NateEag wrote: post #45
pier25 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why they haven't improved the platform. Anyone working on a better alternative? If you're into electronic music you can also check Bleep (by Warp records). No DRM, you download your files and play them however you want. https://bleep.com/

They have not improved the platform because the platform is there to make money, not help musicians. Making it better for musicians would likely reduce their revenues.

But it would also probably drive more sales and probably attract more artists.

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#52

Post by [deleted] »

Alupis wrote: post #21
unnamed76ri wrote: post #9

Artists to Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer afford to make $0.00174927 per stream.

Let's be honest. The amount Spotify/Pandora/et al pay the majority of musicians per stream is far more than they'd make selling CD's. The overwhelming majority of music is unknown, has few fans, and will never "go platinum" nor sell out stadiums - ie, most musicians are not Taylor Swift. For all those artists... access to millions of potential listeners from around the world is an amazing advancement. The number of a…

[deleted]

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#53

Post by vkou »

Hoasi wrote: post #41
oconnor663 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it could be depressing if we think of "your product" as "the most important part of what you do". But we could also think of it as "the thing that you need to make money from". If the music itself isn't the thing that you need to make money from, then instead of charging a bunch for it, now you want to spread it as widely as possible as cheaply as possible. That's a good thing!

> If the music itself isn't the thing that you need to make money from, then instead of charging a bunch for it, now you want to spread it as widely as possible as cheaply as possible. That's a good thing! It is, but only if the music gets better in the process. Unlikely to happen if you rush for faster releases. More production doesn't equal to more novelty.

Faster, smaller releases, compared to one new album every few years do not necessarily need to compromise on quality.

It's rare that an album contains all gems.

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#54

Post by jakelazaroff »

Alupis wrote: post #21
unnamed76ri wrote: post #9

Artists to Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer afford to make $0.00174927 per stream.

Let's be honest. The amount Spotify/Pandora/et al pay the majority of musicians per stream is far more than they'd make selling CD's. The overwhelming majority of music is unknown, has few fans, and will never "go platinum" nor sell out stadiums - ie, most musicians are not Taylor Swift. For all those artists... access to millions of potential listeners from around the world is an amazing advancement. The number of a…

Just speaking for my own band: we have had tens of thousands of streams on Spotify, yet we have made over 4x more revenue from music sales on BandCamp than we have on all streaming services combined.

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#55

Post by NamTaf »

pier25 wrote: post #44

Obviously the guy knows nothing about creativity and art. It takes time to grow as a person and cultivate new ideas. It may not be possible to do that if you don't get in and out of whatever it is you're doing. Imagine telling Hemingway he has to release a new blog post every week instead of a book every couple of years.

I'm almost sure he knows all of that about creativity and art, and simply does not care. He has instead decided that he is going to try to commodify music, and this is the result. Factory-farmed music benefits the distributors over the artists, after all, because it's reliable.

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#56

Post by shakezula »

jeffbee wrote: post #23
shakezula wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not about listening to something new; it’s about the wave of hype and promo you do around each release, it keeps you relevant and gives you something to talk about, keeps you fresh in peoples minds.

There must be a niche for artists who record so rarely that each of their albums is accompanied by a 10000-word thinkpiece in the New Yorker.

This is basically Tool, as someone else pointed out in this thread, but it’s not a reliable or sustainable model for 99.9999% of artists.

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#58

Post by chesterarthur »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #46
oconnor663 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it could be depressing if we think of "your product" as "the most important part of what you do". But we could also think of it as "the thing that you need to make money from". If the music itself isn't the thing that you need to make money from, then instead of charging a bunch for it, now you want to spread it as widely as possible as cheaply as possible. That's a good thing!

Not if you’re coerced into having to produce a piece of music every month/couple of months to keep the machine running. That’s just producing a commodity. Some groups have got it together and are able to fund years of quiet work before releases, but no matter how much I enjoy creating I would hate to be so bound as outlined above.

A lot of creative endeavors run on this timeline. It's just a shorter cycle and it's not new.

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#59

Post by 52-6F-62 »

pier25 wrote: post #44

Obviously the guy knows nothing about creativity and art. It takes time to grow as a person and cultivate new ideas. It may not be possible to do that if you don't get in and out of whatever it is you're doing. Imagine telling Hemingway he has to release a new blog post every week instead of a book every couple of years.

What’s especially funny about your example is Hemingway wrote for periodicals as a day job for a long time, and so he kept that kind of schedule.

Except some of his books came about because he didn’t keep to that schedule, and we don’t usually talk about Hemingway for his articles in the Toronto Star.

Re: Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”

#60

Post by shakezula »

mantap wrote: post #18
shakezula wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not about listening to something new; it’s about the wave of hype and promo you do around each release, it keeps you relevant and gives you something to talk about, keeps you fresh in peoples minds.

This only works as long as everybody else isn't doing it.

That’s objectively untrue, because in the music industry today, everybody is doing this.
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