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”

#711

Post by PierceJoy » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 6:51 AM UTC

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #666

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…

Except this very model has prevented hip hop from evolving and instead we ended up with mumble rap which feels like a step backwards in multiple ways. Music has become all gimmick, fueled by celebrity gossip and social media bullshit. It's samey as hell and stagnant and lacks innovation.

I prefer good lyrics over mumble rap, but music is entirely subjective. You think it's a step backwards, but young people think it's a step forwards.

Mumble rap is essentially just natural selection. Some random rapper started doing it, people liked it, and so it propagated. If people didn't like it, it would have died out quickly. You just aren't one of those people.

> It's samey as hell and stagnant and lacks innovation.

I've said the same thing about metal since the first time I heard it. Metal fans disagree. Who's right? Does it even matter?

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

#712

Post by sneak » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 6:51 AM UTC

haram_masala wrote: post #110

jdoliner wrote: post #86

I prefer the Kanye West model in which every 8 months or so you promise to release an album on a specific date. Then that date comes and you go completely MIA, and pretend you never even announced the album. Then a few weeks later once all the hype has turned to dismay you quietly release the album and the dismay turns back into hype. Maybe that model only works if you're Kanye though.

Kanye West is a singular being. He is a human work of art, this generation’s Warhol. Perhaps even more fascinating than Warhol, if less self-aware. I’m a huge fan of his brilliant public trajectory, yet I despise his music.

I struggle to find anything that Kanye has ever done, in or outside of the studio, that will be held as artistically relevant or meaningful in any way in twenty years. His music isn’t groundbreaking or innovative, and anyone can be an asshole to people.

At least Warhol had interesting and relevant things to say.

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

#713

Post by dchest » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 6:57 AM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #420

7thaccount wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend once explained this to me a decade ago. I would buy albums, but he would torrent everything. In his eyes, music has shifted to the public domain now. He said the best way to support a band now would be to buy t-shirts and go to as many concerts as you can. I still buy all my albums, but finally see his point. I mean now, all artists have their entire collection of music on YouTube. If everyone almost always…

I feel like they must make a decent amount of money from ads on free streaming sites.

Correct! I’m not sure why comments here equate music on YouTube with giving it away - while it devalues it by making it free to listen, artists still get royalties from advertising.

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

#714

Post by enneff » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 6:57 AM UTC

mosselman wrote: post #710

wyattpeak wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we ended up with mumble rap > It's samey as hell and stagnant I don't follow rap, but these two claims seem contradictory. Is the first not evidence of evolution in the genre, if in a direction you don't like?

If anything mumble rap is a devolution. Add auto-tune to this and you are left with a worthless corpus of shitty rap, hip-hop and also pop music. It is samey, because everybody does the same thing. You can’t really differentiate music by different performers anymore. Each song is the same. There used to be a cost to producing music; you needed a studio, producer, physical copies of the samples you wanted to use (in c…

You’re just saying the same things older people have been saying about new music since time immemorial.

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

#715

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 7:08 AM 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.

[deleted]

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

#716

Post by majani » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 7:08 AM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #700

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except this very model has prevented hip hop from evolving and instead we ended up with mumble rap which feels like a step backwards in multiple ways. Music has become all gimmick, fueled by celebrity gossip and social media bullshit. It's samey as hell and stagnant and lacks innovation.

New Yorkers said the same thing about all southern rappers decades ago and now many of those artists and songs they panned are considered classics. Rap doesn't have to fit some narrowly defined category where all artists are doing the same style during a given period. You can also like conscious rappers calling for social change and still enjoy a club banger asking women to shake their butts. They aren't diametricall…

Ah, yes I remember the Great Laffy Taffy Debate that brought division between the North and the South

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

#717

Post by dri_ft » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 7:10 AM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #303

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?

Kinda, yeah. I think it's a little sad that you can't write some great software that solves a problem for people and get paid for it anymore. Or at least not as easily as in the past. The changing business model has a lot of negative externalities, too. Like the temptation to monetize user data instead of monetizing the value of the software directly, and the temptation to push the line on privacy.

The spiritual rewards of doing good work have never, in any field, reliably aligned with the worldly rewards of popularity and success.

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

#718

Post by MrsPeaches » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 7:19 AM UTC

analog31 wrote: post #658

shakezula wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, it definitely hasn't always been this way. When vinyls were the predominant media form, it was prohibitively expensive for most artists to press a master, cut vinyls, package them, market it, and distribute it. I can do all of that in 10 minutes with Spotify now. Tapes made this a little bit faster. And then CDs made it a little bit faster from there. And then MP3 players made it quite a bit faster. And then do…

Oddly enough, in the decades before the phonograph, there was a sheet music industry with almost every feature of the recording industry. There were superstar composers, such as Scott Joplin, shady deals, composers getting rich and then getting screwed, the whole nine yards. People bought sheet music to play on their parlor pianos. There was plentiful work for pianists and organists in movie theaters before the talki…

> from the git go.

Not sure if this is intentional, but it's a great HN style eggcorn.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn

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

#719

Post by swinglock » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 7:21 AM UTC

whiddershins wrote: post #628

The way in which Spotify (and other streaming services) hurts the development of music isn’t what most people say. The problem with per-stream plays is that it is based on pop music logic: more streams equals more money. Fair! But many recording artists made a modest living by releasing music that you might not want to listen to over and over and over. This music is often labeled ‘art’ or ‘experimental’ or whatever,…

They could stop paying out flat per listen.

If I pay $10 and listen to 50 tracks, I want $10 (minus the provides fee) to be split among precisely those 50 tracks.

The difference is if you only listed to 50 tracks your listens are worth more that someone that diluted their listens over 5000.

Throwing everyone's fees into one big vat and dividing that according to the total listens, is bullshit. I want my favorite artist to be paid by me and I don't want to subsidize the worlds most popular artists that I never listen to.

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

#720

Post by baby » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 7:22 AM UTC

whiddershins wrote: post #628

The way in which Spotify (and other streaming services) hurts the development of music isn’t what most people say. The problem with per-stream plays is that it is based on pop music logic: more streams equals more money. Fair! But many recording artists made a modest living by releasing music that you might not want to listen to over and over and over. This music is often labeled ‘art’ or ‘experimental’ or whatever,…

Streaming services (music, movies, books, etc.) are completely user-centric. It’s one place for you to consume your content. Discovery was never great there.