Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

> The question I always come to is how big can you get without a label? and will there ever be a day when artists have full creative control of their craft? This would mean that the artist would need to value and understand business practices, distribution methods, contracting, etc.

If you're interested in this question, someone to watch closely is Chance the Rapper.

He started his music career just over four years ago when he received a 10 day suspension during his senior of highschool for allegedly having marijuana on campus. During those 10 days, he recorded the entirety of his first mixtape, 10-Day, and released it to datpiff.com and had relatively large success. The album was angry at times-- mostly complaining about the suspension, but also very fun and nostalgic. It was a third of Breakfast Club, half Dazed and Confused, and a sixth Ceelo-Green Fuck You. The production was sometimes great and sometimes really lacking, but on the whole it was impressive for an 18 year old with nothing but an old Macbook and 10 days of free time.

If I recall correctly, it received something like 10k downloads before his next album, Acid Rap, and that is where he really blew up. It was choir-inspired psychedelic rap with flawless production. It had dark moments talking about Chicago violence and losing friends. It retained the CeeLo-theme of "Screw you, I can do this myself." But this is where he got millions of downloads and became a household name to a sizable portion of 14-28 y/os-- and in only just a bit more than a year since his suspension.

At this point he started getting label offers like crazy, and he didn't like it. He saw the wild success he had in all of one year and didn't want to sign a label, and to today he still hasn't. He talks a lot about making a union for up-and-coming music artists.

One song he has that talks solely about this can be found here: 'https://soundcloud.com/chancetherapper/chance-the-rapper-the...

    Young black boy, how he got the labels scared?
    A&R's like, "Chano, you ain't playin' fair!
    You gon' set a bad example for the average bear
    You a Yogi, you should idle while in child's position"
    I be like, naw, these my sons, this prenatal care
    I'mma show em how to make it here and make it fair
    Take it there, they could kill me and I ain't gon' care
    You is just an ankle weight, lighter than some angel cake
    Sweeter than some maple syrup, easier than Ableton
    Make a plate and make a player
    Make em play it
    Just don't count your sheep before they hatch
    You chickens 'fore your eggs
    Eat your dinner 'fore you say your prayer

    [...]

    Young tactician, just got my taxes finished
    Beat the tortoise by a hair in an '04 Ford Taurus
    On a spare with a wax finish
    There's a lot of metaphors, you just lack vision
    You just bad business
    UH!
    All your shit been lower case
    Lower class, lower key
    I'm the only minor minority in priority
    Sippin' gin and tonic while I plot upon authority
    Author of my horoscope, feeling like the oracle
    Ain't no rules, nigga
    IGH!

Clearly continuing his "Fuck you!" mentality, now aimed at record companies instead of his highschool principal.

He's stated that one of his biggest idols as an aspiring Chicago rapper was Kanye West, and as someone who was watching him prior to Acid Rap, it was really fun to see that on West's most recent album he was featured in multiple songs-- still without a label. His dream was realized in a matter of a few years, and I think that clearly shows that mobility is at least possible in this day and age without a label

The question is if these platforms (soundcloud, datpiff, genius to an extent) can provide enough value to these artists that a symbiotic relationship is sustainable after they become popular. One of Chance's close friends, Vic Mensa, also came to popularity through soundcloud and datpiff, but he signed with a label soon after. Things worked out for him, too-- he has worked with West and appeared on SNL. Chance is more political and principled and is definitely an outlier-- so these platforms can't rely on artists having that mindset.

Well, Image exists and seems to do okay, and the creators benefit to the extent that they are ditching the Big Two (Marvel and DC) in favour of creator-owned. I'm not sure what the exact revenue split is. Image's books don't get huge marketing pushes or movies either.

Re. losses: yes, that's how it works. You do a bunch of work up-front and if it flops, you don't make anything.

How do you measure similarity to capture what you want?

The obvious approach is that you look for "people who like this, like that". This is easy to measure and understand. And when you're faced with a person who liked this, it is usually the right answer.

The problem is that you don't know WHY people who like this, like that. Often it is simply, "Heard both at an impressionable age." What you want it to be is, "On the musical criteria that I can recognize, this music is similar." But that's a complex piece of logic, and it is not clear how to do so.

Which makes the tools really good for rediscovering all of the stuff from your childhood, and really bad for discovering new music that is similar to stuff you like.

aw shucks

Teenagers growing up don't only have a plethora more of opportunities & tools -- they also have a plethora of distracting activities that can take away from the careful attention needed to make great music.

Sometimes I believe the guys in the 60s & 70s ironically had it easier because they just sat around, maybe smoking some dope, and played music. There wasn't a smartphone at their hip vibrating every few minutes, so they could really just pour their heart into the music and hey, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Beatles, Dylan, etc... you name a great, probably came out of that time period. While I like a lot of stuff today, I do question if it'll hold up to the test of time and personally feel very little of it will when compared to how much did & will continue from the 60s/70s.