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”

#211

Post by pier25 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

falcor84 wrote: post #154

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_...

My point was not that artists need a long or short time to produce something, but rather that they need to pause and reflect on things between projects.

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

#212

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:36 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…

> It's orders of magnitude easier to make working software than it is to make a hit record.

True, but hardly apples-to-apples; it's orders of magnitude easier to make music than it is to make a viral app. In either case, the barrier to entry is low, the standard for doing it professionally is surprisingly high, and making a hit is a huge undertaking.

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

#213

Post by AsyncAwait » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

ta1234567890 wrote: post #112

Hoasi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 th…

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

That's true for engineering, but for music it only goes so far. A lot of musicians working this way will, after a while, find a formula that repeatedly sells, but loose a lot of originality in the process.

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

#214

Post by JJMcJ » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

quacked wrote: post #12

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…

> 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.

This is more a reflection of the royalty structure for recorded music than anything else.

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

#215

Post by carlinmack » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

quattrofan wrote: post #191

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…

And why most is utter dross. People still buy millions of classic albums from the 70's and 80's, in 30 years time very few artists will have that same comfort.

every generation has older people thinking the new generation of music is bad :)

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

#216

Post by NikolaeVarius » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #131

avidphantasm wrote: post #116

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.

Not really. Most people hated getting and paying for whole albums, out of which most stuff was garbage. Few artists have whole albums worth listening to.

I dont know why people listen to artists who can't put out reasonably consistent music. If only 10% of an artists output is not garbage, are they any good at all?

Reviews for metal bands will trash albums that only have 1 or 2 good songs.

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

#217

Post by lucb1e » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #131

avidphantasm wrote: post #116

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.

Not really. Most people hated getting and paying for whole albums, out of which most stuff was garbage. Few artists have whole albums worth listening to.

Call me young but I didn't really realize until now that having to buy a whole album was a thing. I grew up with Kazaa, Ares, The Pirate Bay, Google Video, Newgrounds, YouTube, Grooveshark and Spotify (in that order). CDs existed but were something my parents used; I didn't like much music in the first place as a teenager and the stuff that I liked I never saw anyone own a CD of. Heck, I don't think I knew anyone that liked metal in the first place at that time.

In hindsight, I should have paid artists fairly, that much is clear to me now (I paid ever since Grooveshark).

Nevertheless, not having experienced the music album phase, it seems like an odd thing to pay for things you know you don't want and have to switch CDs the whole time to get to what you do want. I can't think of a single album I'd listen A-Z. There are a few rare bands where I like most of their songs (because they're very similar), and some bands where I don't like most songs but I like most from one or two of their albums, but I don't think there exists a single album where I like all songs, nor that I like >=50% of the songs in 50% of the albums of which I like >=1 song.

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

#218

Post by tguedes » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

arthurofbabylon wrote: post #192

As my musician friend told me -> “In music, you don’t get to update your songs. Once it’s out, it’s there for the world to see.” (Or something like that.) It’s not like software where we can iterate/improve as we learn. In music, you capture a moment, a sensation, an experience - and you had better capture it as intended, even if that means an extra month in the studio. This same musician told me that the increased u…

It's interesting cause Kanye intentionally or unintentionally experimented with updating Life of Pablo several times. He changed track order, changed the production, changed the lyrics a bit. I believe he released 4 different versions.

It was super interesting at the time and a lot of internet music circles were talking about the potential of this going forward considering it's only possible because of the streaming services. But unfortunately it didn't seem to catch on and I haven't seen any other examples.

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

#219

Post by pkulak » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:37 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.

If I had one second to say the word that means the opposite of "art", I would say "engineering".

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

#220

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

gwd wrote: post #81

quacked wrote: post #12

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.

>> 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?

> If the CEO of an open-source company said, "Software isn't our product, software is our marketing", would you feel the same way?

Yes, absolutely, 100%! By all means care about image and marketing, but if your actual product isn't good (software, music, or anything else), then who cares?