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

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

#141

Post by shakezula »

7thaccount wrote: post #124
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…

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…

Your friend was absolutely right. I never cared if people pirated my bands music (or later the bands that I was managing) because the real thing I wanted was them showing up at shows, buying merch, posting us on facebook, asking events to bring us on, etc...

At a certain point, Taylor Swift and larger artists _do_ make a good chunk of change from their actual music sales, but it isn't a feasible strategy to rely on that for indie and DIY artists.

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

#143

Post by microtonal »

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…

There are still plenty of musicians doing that. I haven't kept track lately, but John Zorn used to release albums every 2 months or so. Thee Oh Sees and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are also constantly putting out new albums (King Gizzard had 5 albums in 2017).

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

#144

Post by JCharante »

drchopchop wrote: post #63
Alupis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest. The amount Spotify/Pandora/et al pay the majority of musicians per stream is far more than they'd make selling CD's. The overwhelming majority of music is unknown, has few fans, and will never "go platinum" nor sell out stadiums - ie, most musicians are not Taylor Swift. For all those artists... access to millions of potential listeners from around the world is an amazing advancement. The number of a…

No way. How can music simultaneously be "unknown, has few fans" but also benefit from "access to millions of potential listeners"? If they get millions of listens they aren't exactly unknown anymore. One CD sold at a gig for $10 is equal to about 2,000 Spotify plays. A t-shirt sale is double that. A mid-level band can play to 200 people a night and do $1000 daily in merch, easy (and I've personally done it). Sure, if…

On the other hand I think it's more common to send a friend a link to a music streaming service for them to listen to a single track than it is to send an amazon link for them to order the CD. Streaming lets you capture revenue from people who may end up not liking your song(s), doesn't it?

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

#145

Post by AsyncAwait »

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 album that used to come out every 3-4 years, you only have enough material for a single year now, at that pace.

Quantity is often said to come at the expense of quality and for a good reason.

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

#146

Post by _7fvc »

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?

"Software isn't our product, software is our marketing"

I think this is fairly accurate. In software, you can write some for marketing, but keep some proprietary.

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

#147

Post by leetcrew »

Uehreka wrote: post #120
shindasingh wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree with you on DLC. I'd rather just pay $100 upfront (or whatever it needs to cost) to get a finished product.

on the other hand, I think F2P monetized with cosmetic items is a pretty good model for a multiplayer game. anyone with a computer can enjoy the game, and the people who care the most (or have the most disposable income) support ongoing development without messing with the balance.

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

#148

Post by microtonal »

smichel17 wrote: post #111
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

I love Zappa. But I think John Zorn wins:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zorn_discography

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

#149

Post by germinalphrase »

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.

More like Fortnight realizing that they need to push merch hard at target, etc.

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

#150

Post by skykooler »

majormajor wrote: post #133
BosunoB wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be true if Spotify's monetization was distributed fairly, but instead it's basically redistributive to the biggest players. In short, instead of splitting a person's premium payment equally among all the artists they listened to, it's split among all artists on the platform. E.g. if Lady Gaga is 2% of all Spotify plays in a month, they get 2% of the money, even if you personally didn't listen to Lady Gaga…

Does this really work out differently? It probably gets complicated w/ ads vs premium subs, but if I was 1 subscriber and there were 100 total subs, and I listened exclusively to 1 artist, but 99 other people listened to a different artist... the artist I listened to gets the same amount if they get 100% of my fee or 1% of the total fees, right? I guess users with idle subscriptions is another edge case here.

I wonder how that is influenced by demographics, i.e. if the people who are on a family plan or a free plan are more likely to listen to certain artists and less likely to listen to others.
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