Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thefader.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 861 posts

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

#71

Post by Alupis »

drchopchop wrote: post #63
Alupis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

No way. How can music simultaneously be "unknown, has few fans" but also benefit from "access to millions of potential listeners"? If they get millions of listens they aren't exactly unknown anymore. One CD sold at a gig for $10 is equal to about 2,000 Spotify plays. A t-shirt sale is double that. A mid-level band can play to 200 people a night and do $1000 daily in merch, easy (and I've personally done it). Sure, if…

You're forgetting all the expense of printing the CD's. It can be thousands of dollars, for a basic bi-fold paper cover. Selling CD's at $10 can, and often is, a loss.

"Mid-level" band playing to 200 people who don't know who they are, and might buy a few T-Shirts isn't making much either. Plus they have to quit their jobs and travel, or settle for local shows once a month (or right now, zero shows for practically the entire year). The bar or "house" might pay the band $250 for the show, split 4 or 5 ways... plus deduct any overpriced alcohol and food the band consumed. They often walk away with barely enough money to put into the gas tank.

Heck, most of the professional, full-time "mid-level" bands can hardly afford their practice space monthly rent.

Very, very few "Mid-level" bands make money. It's a passion project. Very few get lucky enough to make it to the next level and tour with some known bands.

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

#72

Post by boring_twenties »

jeffbee wrote: post #43
agumonkey wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people enjoy music for various reasons but there are a few deep ones: beauty and live no system can replace a good live concert, it's a high grade experience (sometimes religious even) if the music industry goes toward absurdism, the "customers" will just find the real drug elsewhere

The only live music I'm getting these days is when my neighbors hang out on their respective porches. They are Berkeley's best trombone-and-banjo duo, probably. The last concert tickets I bought, for which I paid a rather incredible $540/pair, have been postponed to 2021 and realistically there's no reason to believe the concert will ever happen.

> $540/pair

Tool?

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

#73

Post by 52-6F-62 »

chesterarthur wrote: post #67
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.

Isn't that how Dickens wrote at least one classic novel? The history of creative endeavors if rife with short deadlines.

And that’s also how you hear about how much writers hate writing and are only happy when handing in a manuscript for publication. (See: Vonnegut)

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

#74

Post by jeffbee »

boring_twenties wrote: post #72
jeffbee wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only live music I'm getting these days is when my neighbors hang out on their respective porches. They are Berkeley's best trombone-and-banjo duo, probably. The last concert tickets I bought, for which I paid a rather incredible $540/pair, have been postponed to 2021 and realistically there's no reason to believe the concert will ever happen.

> $540/pair Tool?

What the hell is the deal with HN and Tool?

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

#75

Post by 1123581321 »

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.

It’s still possible to batch composition and production with this release model. The lead time saved from releasing digital only can be used to polish the earlier tracks in the schedule.

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

#76

Post by tyre »

chesterarthur wrote: post #67
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.

Isn't that how Dickens wrote at least one classic novel? The history of creative endeavors if rife with short deadlines.

Yes. A Tale of Two Cities was written and published in dozens of serial parts

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

#77

Post by ZinniaZirconium »

Yup. Musicians are releasing like 20 new tracks per hour to Jango. I know because I'm on a mission to collect all of it. And like 71% is from independent artists who will never make it big and nobody will listen to. Not even me even though I like obscure stuff but even I can't keep up with the amount of new music that gets released all day every day.

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

#78

Post by boring_twenties »

jeffbee wrote: post #74
boring_twenties wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $540/pair Tool?

What the hell is the deal with HN and Tool?

Heh. Not sure what you mean, I don't think I've seen them mentioned on here before.

I was just taking a guess based on the obscene price.

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

#79

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

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 think he just sees the norms of traditional songwriting as not his job. If I'm the CEO of Chipotle, I'm going to focus on getting my customers good food at reasonable prices, and I'm not gonna take it tremendously seriously if chefs complain they can't express creativity well in my kitchens.

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

#80

Post by jahlove »

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.

Are you talking about Spotify or Bandcamp? I believe OP was talking about Bandcamp.
Post reply on HN