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

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

#111

Post by smichel17 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 5:59 PM UTC

j1vms wrote: post #47

Looking at it in terms of one of the "golden ages" of recording music - back in the 1960s, think the Beatles - this would mean only returning to what has already proven possible before. Some artists in those previous eras were able to deliver remarkable music as much as twice a year over consecutive years. Perhaps it was a less competitive industry at the time, but certainly less efficient (and relatively more expens…

> Some artists in those previous eras were able to deliver remarkable music as much as twice a year over consecutive years.

I'll just leave this here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa_discography

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

#112

Post by ta1234567890 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:00 PM UTC

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.

> but only if the music gets better in the process. Unlikely to happen if you rush for faster releases

Actually, if you are constantly working at it, you'll probably get really good at it and the quality will get better and better.

There's a story about a ceramics professor that would divide his class in two at the beginning of the semester. He would grade one group by the quality of their best piece at the end of the semester and the other group by the weight of all the pieces produced during the whole semester. The professor said that invariably, the best pieces were produced by the people in the group that was graded by the weight of their pieces. His hypothesis was that people graded by the weight would produce a lot more pieces, so in the process they would also get really good at making the pieces, whereas the people graded by their best piece would just spend too much time on their pieces trying to make them perfect and wouldn't get enough practice to actually become better at making them.

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

#113

Post by k__ » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

I guess, that's why the best music I found was made by people who didnt do it as work.

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

#114

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #83

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gorillaz used to do their shows almost entirely hidden from the audience and the characters would be projected onto screens. If we get to the point where we can generate actual good music we can do it in a live setting with avatars.

it's not what I meant, not seeing the band is not 'not being live'

Ah, apologies. I had algorithm artists on my mind for whatever reason. Yes, that would still be a live concert and as someone who loves concerts I agree that there is no substitute.

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

#115

Post by api » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

shakezula wrote: post #4

I used to work in the music industry professionally, on the ground level doing booking and management. This trend has been happening slowly for nearly a decade but it’s finally here. Rap and Hip Hop figured out a long time before most other genres that rapid small releases was a far better way to keep hype and sales up. Before Spotify was a thing, the shift was happening with YouTube but it wasn’t as predominant. Now…

For everyone who actually likes music, there is Bandcamp.

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

#116

Post by avidphantasm » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

Don’t people write and listen to entire albums anymore? When I listen to music, I almost always listen to entire albums, not individual songs.

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

#117

Post by recursive » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #17

COVID-19 is going to completely wreck the music business and the spotify guy is right: only endless social media campaigns with procedurally-generated soundtracks will survive in the future.

I make music for fun. No gyrations or even complete death of the music business will stop that. That would require something to happen to the "real" music business. (instruments and such)

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

#118

Post by Juliate » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

oarsinsync wrote: post #95

singhrac wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not comparable - music is art.

The implication in your comment is that code isn't art, when code absolutely can be art. Functional things can be artistically beautiful too.

Plus the implication that music might not be a tool for a specific purpose (which it is also absolutely in some contexts).

The thing is that "music", is not "one thing". It all depends on the purpose, if there is one, and on the intention of the composer and of the players and of the audience.

Here, Spotify's CEO adresses a very specific market in the music industry, not "musicians" per se.

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

#119

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

Denvercoder9 wrote: post #94

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #33

I disagree. Musicians can do whatever they want. Not very many musicians spend their time riding a perpetual wave that they have to continually feed. Spotify benefits the most from this churn.

> Musicians can do whatever they want. They can, but only as long as they don't care about money. But musicians also need to pay rent.

How much money? Enough for personal private jets or enough to make a living? If the bar is to simply pay the rent then I still think that musicians can do what they want.

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

#120

Post by Uehreka » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

shindasingh wrote: post #92

gwd wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The music isn’t your product, the music is your marketing. The shows, the merch, your influence - that’s your product. > Man, that's depressing. If the CEO of an open-source company said, "Software isn't our product, software is our marketing", would you feel the same way?

isn't this true now for gaming? With the success of things like Fortnite seeing games being released for free and relying on the DLC's and skins and rewards as the product.

Yeah, and I’d argue that sucks too.