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How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

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Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#211

Post by dehrmann »

bazmattaz wrote: post #186
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 understand it’s trendy these days to shit on Spotify but when I read about this practice it kind of seems like a non-story. Spotify are adding low cost tracks to their curated playlists (which are usually quite boring) to save themselves some money. If you don’t like this practice just don’t listen to their curated playlists. There are so many better user generated playlists out there.

Something I've mulled over in the past is what a market-driven pricing model for streams would look like. Newer songs are generally worth more than older songs, and lean-in listening costs more because the user actually wants to hear a specific song, while in lean-back listening, anything with a similar vibe works.

It's probably a good thing it's hard to pull off because you'd see Taylor Swift streams going for 10 cents and aspiring artists paying you $0.0001 to listen to their work in the background.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#212

Post by bazmattaz »

dehrmann wrote: post #211
bazmattaz wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand it’s trendy these days to shit on Spotify but when I read about this practice it kind of seems like a non-story. Spotify are adding low cost tracks to their curated playlists (which are usually quite boring) to save themselves some money. If you don’t like this practice just don’t listen to their curated playlists. There are so many better user generated playlists out there.

Something I've mulled over in the past is what a market-driven pricing model for streams would look like. Newer songs are generally worth more than older songs, and lean-in listening costs more because the user actually wants to hear a specific song, while in lean-back listening, anything with a similar vibe works. It's probably a good thing it's hard to pull off because you'd see Taylor Swift streams going for 10 ce…

Sure that would be nice but how do you know what music is lean in/back music?

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#213

Post by dehrmann »

bazmattaz wrote: post #212
dehrmann wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I've mulled over in the past is what a market-driven pricing model for streams would look like. Newer songs are generally worth more than older songs, and lean-in listening costs more because the user actually wants to hear a specific song, while in lean-back listening, anything with a similar vibe works. It's probably a good thing it's hard to pull off because you'd see Taylor Swift streams going for 10 ce…

Sure that would be nice but how do you know what music is lean in/back music?

Active song selection and playlist engagement.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#215

Post by Projectiboga »

Gud wrote: post #109
bane wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I couldn't disagree more. Most radio stations only played the most blandest junk music, even from great artists. Seems they would rotate the top 3 songs even from the absolute most popular musicians. I must have heard Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden >500 times on the rock stations in Stockholm. The Prowler? 0. Maybe some 3am DJ could play some cool songs on occasion, like you said. There was always very little variet…

Before the mid 1980s radio was much different. Basically MTV started the era of music industry consolidation and the Billboard charts getting corrupted. Before the mid 80s there was more regional music and the charts pulled from most cities. Then they switched to just 8 or 12 markets and incorporated other factors that allowed for a #1 based on Corporate influence.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#216

Post by saaaaaam »

ZeWaka wrote: post #112
fallinditch wrote: post #79

There seems to be a lot of anger around Spotify these days, often misplaced I reckon. One of the biggest impediments to new artists making a living from recorded music is not the existence of Spotify and other streaming platforms, rather it's the massive and growing library of existing music, some of which is excellent. But it's not impossible. My neighbor manages his music career himself. In 2024 he went from having…

I find that the Spotify algorithm is great if you ignore all of the Spotify-branded recommendation junk, and just use the 'Keep Listening/Autoplay' feature. As in, put on a playlist, then finish it without having repeat on. I find some of my favorite music from the following tracks. It helps if you have a very varied playlist - it discourages just playing tracks from the same artists.

A lot of that music is now payola, placed into those "organic" autoplays via Spotify Discovery Mode, which requires artists and labels to take a 30% discount on royalty rates for their music to be played in this context.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#217

Post by dhosek »

izacus wrote: post #210
dhosek wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off the top of my head, how about the Beatles?

What about them? One of their biggest early issues was EMI as a publisher not doing enough to promote their songs. Sounds familiar?

I’ve not heard this claim, but even accepting that, it does not support your assertion, “There isn't a single story of a successful band that wouldn't hinge on having a big publisher exec approve them and work with them to change their music for acceptance.”

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#218

Post by whywhywhywhy »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #85
999900000999 wrote: post #41

>The Lofi style itself is nothing new, Lofi beats bear a striking resemblance to instrumental hip hop of the 90s and 2000s. Lofi IS instrumental hip hop. Dilla was doing this in the 90s.

It's probably better to say that lofi is a genre or type of instrumental hip hop. You wouldn't listen to e.g. Endtroducing... on the lofi girl stream.

You definitely would have played Endtroducing when it was relevant in places lofi hip hop is played today, used to be played in coffee shops, hairdressers and ad agency lobbies constantly

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#219

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

piltdownman wrote: post #207
bane wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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. If ever there was a more censorious medium, I have yet to see it. Not only content dictating _what_ could be played, it dictated _how_ it could be played. This wasn't just about contemporary HipHop and vulgarity - even instrumental songs like Nick Wray…

Songs banned by the BBC were banned by the management heirarchy.

Songs played by the BBC were, for the most part, chosen by the DJs (particularly true after 19:00.

Re: How Spotify Killed Lo-Fi Hip Hop

#220

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

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.

> It’s all one big blob available anywhere which drowns diversity in a sea of mediocrity.

I'm not interested in regional music or a regional scene.

The music on any given SomaFM station is not "a sea of mediocrity". It's generally excellent genre-specific stuff (old and new), and I love it (if I'm somewhat into the genre).

I can appreciate that others may not, but please don't over-generalize or assert that your preferences are the only ones out there.

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