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How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

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Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#161

Post by cess11 »

yapyap wrote: post #147
itsoktocry wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I trying to figure out where the author got this from? I laughed at this too. Oh yeah, back in 2005 there was no way to get good sound from that dusty old equipment. I mean, some of the best sounding albums of all time are 50+ years old.

> I mean, some of the best sounding albums of all time are 50+ years old That is.. arguable

I'd count Tom Waits' Nighthawks at the diner as such an album. Do you disagre on some other ground than it being just almost fifty years old?

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#162

Post by goosejuice »

Retric wrote: post #160
goosejuice wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but there's so many internet and college radio stations out there. Even with mainstream consolidation I would find it surprising that there are less overall now than ever before. I mean just look at boiler room and club culture in general. The amount of tastemaking DJs out there is pretty vast.

Internet DJ’s can’t feed off each other to produce regional music. It’s all one big blob available anywhere which drowns diversity in a sea of mediocrity. College radio stations aren’t dramatically increasing to make up for the vast consolidation that removed something like 80-90% of radio DJ’s. 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s flowed into each other but the stuff was all very distinct in a way that 2000’s vs 2010’s isn’t.

So the problem is globalization? What do you mean by regional music?

Genres span borders now. Look at the Midwest emo / mathrock scene and how it made its way to Japan and Taiwan.

We can romanticise the old days of radio but local scenes aren't dead and these little genres are still going and new ones are popping up.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#163

Post by RiverCrochet »

bane wrote: post #101
nluken wrote: post #60

I would highly recommend that folks read Liz Pelly's Mood Machine , which is referenced here via the Harper's excerpt, not just because it shows artists' perspectives on the long tail model that tech pitched to them, but because it can be read as an indictment of the platform model that increasingly dictates how we engage with art and society at large. Pelly's account really gets to the heart of the problem: these pl…

The "post-radio" world is a weird one. An algorithm selecting songs for streaming audio just isn't the same as the kind of curated-for-genre/channel experience that radio used to provide. Sure songs would get overplayed, but radio also did a pretty good job of keeping that absolute tripe off the air. Good radio stations would also surface good local bands and cater to regional tastes. As much as I love the fact that…

> An algorithm selecting songs for streaming audio just isn't the same as the kind of curated-for-genre/channel experience that radio used to provide.

Ad-supported radio eventually guarantees that only genres with desired-by-advertiser demographics exist on the radio. So it's hard to say if any curation radio was ever doing was out of love for music, or the genre, or simply to keep a certain timeslot valuable.

I will say up until about 1997 I feel things were meeting in the middle fairly well. Radio was cool up until then. In the early 90's at least where I was from there were 8 or 9 radio stations of various genres, so lots to hear.

> We're lost somewhat in quantity now and there's really nobody who's helping form and shape taste

This is what freedom looks like. But not everyone wants it. AI will be the thing to keep them happy and contained at some point and that is the prize for not caring. These same types of people would not have cared about the difference between Queen and Nickelback and probably have barely really listed to any song on the radio other than a few lyrics that resonate with them.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#164

Post by goosejuice »

portaouflop wrote: post #150
goosejuice wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also wouldn't know about many of the artists in the first place.

It’s trivial to discover new music on platforms like bandcamp, soundcloud, YouTube or even Spotify and then go and pay for the music where it reaches the artists.

Exactly. I've spent thousands to that effect.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#165

Post by trinsic2 »

I highly recommend people stop using music streaming services, they take away the control of the music listener and producers.

Bandcamp might be a different story since it has a policy it stands by (for now), provides access to the music downloads and doesn't try to artificially alter their listings, but that can soon change with the new ownership.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#166

Post by [deleted] »

Gud wrote: post #110
goosejuice wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will read that but... I'm so tired of this anti-Spotify crap. Artists and listeners are free not to use it, just as they are free not to use Tidal, SoundCloud, bandcamp, YouTube, etc. It's a platform and the market is free. If it's not working out for you find a different way to market yourself. It's not like top 40 or the Grammys are fair either. Art isn't a fair industry and never will be. How many amazing artist…

Agreed. it's not like we have to choose. I find Spotify to be pretty good if you want to listen to the rock classics and adjacent music(b-sides). If you want to discover new music, YouTube Music and SoundCloud seem superior.

[deleted]

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#167

Post by trinsic2 »

goosejuice wrote: post #95
nluken wrote: post #60

I would highly recommend that folks read Liz Pelly's Mood Machine , which is referenced here via the Harper's excerpt, not just because it shows artists' perspectives on the long tail model that tech pitched to them, but because it can be read as an indictment of the platform model that increasingly dictates how we engage with art and society at large. Pelly's account really gets to the heart of the problem: these pl…

I will read that but... I'm so tired of this anti-Spotify crap. Artists and listeners are free not to use it, just as they are free not to use Tidal, SoundCloud, bandcamp, YouTube, etc. It's a platform and the market is free. If it's not working out for you find a different way to market yourself. It's not like top 40 or the Grammys are fair either. Art isn't a fair industry and never will be. How many amazing artist…

Did you know the musicians get paid very little for there music on Spotify? Look I understand the support from music listeners, but Spotifiy as a service really harms musicians. Its really shortsighted to only look at part of the equation.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#168

Post by Retric »

goosejuice wrote: post #162
Retric wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internet DJ’s can’t feed off each other to produce regional music. It’s all one big blob available anywhere which drowns diversity in a sea of mediocrity. College radio stations aren’t dramatically increasing to make up for the vast consolidation that removed something like 80-90% of radio DJ’s. 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s flowed into each other but the stuff was all very distinct in a way that 2000’s vs 2010’s isn’t.

So the problem is globalization? What do you mean by regional music? Genres span borders now. Look at the Midwest emo / mathrock scene and how it made its way to Japan and Taiwan. We can romanticise the old days of radio but local scenes aren't dead and these little genres are still going and new ones are popping up.

> Local scenes aren’t dead.

I might just be out of touch, so show me the innovation.

Rap simply didn’t exist in the 60’s. What’s around today that wasn’t in the late 90’s? Not just minor evolution but new ideas. It’s been 25 years any other stretch of that length since 1900 had several radical new ideas.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#169

Post by goosejuice »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #145
goosejuice wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will read that but... I'm so tired of this anti-Spotify crap. Artists and listeners are free not to use it, just as they are free not to use Tidal, SoundCloud, bandcamp, YouTube, etc. It's a platform and the market is free. If it's not working out for you find a different way to market yourself. It's not like top 40 or the Grammys are fair either. Art isn't a fair industry and never will be. How many amazing artist…

People are also free not to have a FB account. Doesn't mean that we shouldn't criticize the problems that FB has created, amplified or perpetuated through its practices.

I would defend the right to criticize. My point is that artists and consumers have a choice.

Maybe there's a significant percentage of Spotify customers that give two shits about the art and just want to play some background music. That's ok. There's also artists that can thank Spotify for new fans and new listeners that can thank Spotify for new artists to listen to.

This moral outrage over Spotify tends to overlook that there are tradeoffs and every market has these problems. Blaming Spotify for killing a genre is crazy dumb to me. I'm not going to stop listening to lo-fi hip-hop cause Spotify has ghost artists and AI music on it. These bedroom artists have done what would have been impossible 40 years ago and the fans they've gained aren't going to go away. That's a testament to streaming platforms.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#170

Post by tartoran »

quintes wrote: post #57
ixtli wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats because there is no answer. Marx and all of the people who developed his theories after him have exhaustively and scientifically proved this. That's really whats happening: its not that people dont have an answer is that they're not admitting to the exploitative nature of private capital accumulation. The main internal contradiction of capitalism leads to the system creating large amounts of wealth but also equ…

So communism it’s the answer cuz Marx?

No but some form of socialism mixed with capitalism
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