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”

#151

Post by Kalium » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:14 PM UTC

alchemyromcom wrote: post #139

I wish more people, especially tech CEOs, could understand the incredible sacrifice of time, money, and energy it takes to make an album people actually enjoy. Everything you listen to, unless you are willing to listen to raw demos, is a miracle. I've worked both as a sound engineer and and a software developer. It's orders of magnitude easier to make working software than it is to make a hit record. The way tech com…

Would you be more open and accepting to commentary if there was more kindness, more love, more empathy and compassion in discussions of how the old normal is gone? Expressions of admiration and awe coupled with opining that the old multi-year release cycle doesn't work anymore, and legions of hard-working humans making sacrifices for what they love may need to change?

Thank you for sharing. The world is always a better place with more human warmth.

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

#152

Post by bmitc » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:14 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.

This is a really silly argument.

There is an art to building software, no doubt, in terms of it being a craft. But I think you've misspoken about functional things being artistically beautiful. What you really should mean is that functional things can be aesthetically beautiful, which is true and different.

Art is primarily defined by expression and exploration, particularly revolving around human emotions. Software products, in the end, do not fit this category. There is a vast difference.

Edit: I defined it elsewhere a bit smoother. I define art as the exploration of emotional expression. Art products are the end result of that exploration. Live acts or art or performances could be viewed as a sort of merger between the two, either as a reenactment of the exploration or as a new exploration happening in the moment.

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

#153

Post by AsyncAwait » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:14 PM UTC

singhrac wrote: post #90

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?

It's not comparable - music is art.

Code (can be) a form of artistic expression and not every piece of music is art.

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

#154

Post by falcor84 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:14 PM UTC

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 don't know if this was intended sarcastically, but novels written in a weekly serialized form were a huge thing [0] and Hemingway wrote at least one novel this way [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_%28literature%29

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Across_the_River_and_into_the_...

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

#155

Post by agumonkey » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:16 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #114

agumonkey wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Personnaly some of the weirdest and deepest hours of my life were live music. It catchs your soul and also bonds people together. No spotify playlist can do this I believe.

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

#156

Post by shakezula » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:16 PM UTC

AsyncAwait wrote: post #145

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…

Fair. But doesn't that stifle genres that focus more on experimentation, deep philosophical lyrics etc.? I don't mean to imply that Rap is not that, just that some types of music, (including Rap & Hip-Hop in many cases am sure), require more time and experimentation to 'feel right' than others, they require research, studying history etc. Not sure these are fit for a single/month type of release. Even on a 12 song al…

I really don't think it does. If you spend 3 months straight on a single (which isn't out of the ordinary for my friends who are still in the scene) you're approaching the same level of time input per song, but you're still on a tighter release schedule.

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

#157

Post by betweeds » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:16 PM UTC

dyeje wrote: post #82

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/

What do you think Bandcamp should be improving? What would a better alternative look like? Genuinely curious as an artist pretty satisfied with Bandcamp.

I don't think there needs to be an alternative, but Bandcamp needs to put more effort into getting more artists on its platform and for those artists to expand their catalogs. I buy a lot of albums on Bandcamp but it's annoying when I see a new release somewhere and the artist isn't on Bandcamp, or when an artist only puts their latest album there.

Bandcamp could also put more effort into recommendations based on a user's purchases, or just when viewing an artist's page. Not "we recommend this new album that is trending" but "this artist is similar to this other one" in the style that the old what.cd site had, with its massive graphed connections from one artist to another based on style (within a genre) of music.

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

#158

Post by CydeWeys » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:16 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.

Sure, code can be art, but most isn't, and the software that the code comprises is almost always functional rather than artistic in purpose.

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

#159

Post by jxramos » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:17 PM UTC

dade_ wrote: post #109

Great, but 80% of it is crap either way. Does anyone else have difficulty finding good music suggestions? Recommendations from friends for movies and TV shows are usually very good, but not with music. My opinion of Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music recommendations is much worse. I find that I am better off randomly picking music tracks.

I've found some feeds where people produce mix of other people's work. It's been a great way to discover more great tracks in that particular genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg4sBFBtLRE

When I craze the music often enough I go and purchase those tracks in bandcamp. This particular music mixer has a ton of content and clearly goes out of their way to sift through a bunch of music in that space they think is worthy to compile into a collection which they do a good job of.

Their mixes are reposted to soundcloud too I think.

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

#160

Post by Johnny555 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:17 PM UTC

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.

Obviously the guy knows nothing about creativity and art.

He's not telling bands how to be successful artistically, he's telling them how to be successful financially in the modern music world.

If the band is only interested in promoting their art, they can do anything they want. If they want to earn a living too, they need to provide the market what it wants.