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Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

littlewhiteearbuds.com

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Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#11

Post by norswap »

This piece speaks of the democratization of the access to electronic music, but fails to properly address the democratization of its production. It is mentioned, but there is no suggestion that it may affect the sales average per producer.

Its basic supply/demand imho : internet brings perhaps a tenfold increase in electro demand, but also a hundredfold (or more if you count in the likes of http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/) increase in production.

There is also that, while demand rose, I don't believe that the core group that would buy the music if they couldn't get it for free augmented that much. Those are typically the people who pay for vinyls and for live performance nowadays.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#12

Post by froydnj »

JonnieCache wrote: post #4

The electronic music scene has always had lots of very unusual and interesting business models going on, right back to the late 80s. People in the early rave scene in london were doing stuff in the early 90s that looks modern today. Consider the idea that there have always been some records out there that DJs consider too good to even play, except at very particular and infrequent times and places. There are artists…

Sounds very similar to some of the themes William Gibson's recent novels have been riffing on (particularly _Zero History_).

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#13

Post by bittersweet »

JonnieCache wrote: post #9
bittersweet wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've experienced this a lot while going to Dubstep parties, there are a lot of DJs that indeed have those special ocassion records laying around. First party I went to a DJ called Skream played a track, later I found out it's one that he would never release and has a bit of a legendary status on the boards etc surrounding Dubstep. It was indeed amazing to experience it.

It should be noted that some of the time this is because the tracks in question have a massive, unclearable sample from a major label artist. Eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RJy2-F2irA It pains me that I will likely never get to own this record. However I have already paid to go and see someone who played it, and this was certainly part of my decision to do so. They've probably made more money off me from that t…

Yes of course some of it is because of clearance issues but this track is not coming out on purpose. You can find it here if you are interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbSUhryvC3Q

I agree, whitelabels are the best! I have a couple of great tracks on whitelabels.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#15

Post by leviathant »

norswap wrote: post #11

This piece speaks of the democratization of the access to electronic music, but fails to properly address the democratization of its production. It is mentioned, but there is no suggestion that it may affect the sales average per producer. Its basic supply/demand imho : internet brings perhaps a tenfold increase in electro demand, but also a hundredfold (or more if you count in the likes of http://www.newgrounds.com/…

I posted a comment on this page when it was originally published, pointing out that his analogy to political science misses the mark - it's not democratization, it's full on marxism. The means of production (and distribution) have rather suddenly become accessible to the workers.

This guy's rant is just another example of someone in the traditional music industry not quite getting it.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#16

Post by leviathant »

seanedevine wrote: post #6
JonnieCache wrote: post #4

The electronic music scene has always had lots of very unusual and interesting business models going on, right back to the late 80s. People in the early rave scene in london were doing stuff in the early 90s that looks modern today. Consider the idea that there have always been some records out there that DJs consider too good to even play, except at very particular and infrequent times and places. There are artists…

I know Aphex Twin was notorious for this and he even got to a point where anything released was run of the mill, middle of the road, remix stuff and was even entitled "26 mixes for cash".

I'd argue that some of Aphex Twin's best tracks were remixes he did for other artists, which later appeared on that career-spanning compilation. While it's arguable whether or not some of those remixes contained original source material from the tracks they are supposed to be remixes of, I think it's disingenuous to refer to that stuff as run of the mill.

I specifically pre-ordered that album not because it contained to chocolate Aphex Twin coins, but because it was way better than tracking down the dozens of singles that contained those remixes.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#17

Post by ctdonath »

ALXfoo wrote: post #14

Proof that good electronic music with artful classical influences gets zero attention is that this comment would be at the bottom of the page with a sub-zero rating. http://soundcloud.com/alxander/cravings

Proof that there is no such thing as bad publicity is that parent comment managed to differentiate itself and draw attention to its core content by leveraging, intentional or not, a sub-zero rating.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#18

Post by Roboprog »

Thanks for the article. This brought back memories for me of learning and making electronic music in the college lab back in the 80s -- analog gear on reel tape, and later digital + MIDI.

It requires some real dedication at this to make a living, and I wish the practitioners the best. I live in the sticks, so I don't think I'll be catching many performances (plus the family vs concert attendance). However, I think the download services (e.g. - Amazon, iTunes) do have something to offer if you can get hooked up, and get word of mouth support from friends of friends.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#19

Post by ALXfoo »

ctdonath wrote: post #17
ALXfoo wrote: post #14

Proof that good electronic music with artful classical influences gets zero attention is that this comment would be at the bottom of the page with a sub-zero rating. http://soundcloud.com/alxander/cravings

Proof that there is no such thing as bad publicity is that parent comment managed to differentiate itself and draw attention to its core content by leveraging, intentional or not, a sub-zero rating.

I'd like to point out that the initial comment said something along the lines of hi I'm part of the computer science community and I make unconventional sounds you might like. I only changed it after it was ostracized to reflect the reality of our disconnection.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#20

Post by jasonkester »

Interesting to note that his strategy for musicians to differentiate themselves from the Million-man race to the bottom in music is so close to the strategy you need to differentiate yourself from the Million-rentacoder race to the bottom in software consulting:

Differentiate yourself by being better, not by being cheaper or willing to bend over further than the next guy.

There's always a place in any market for really good stuff at a premium price. Slot yourself firmly in to that position, and you have a lot better shot.

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