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Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

theguardian.com

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Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#61

Post by l33tman »

petesergeant wrote: post #10
iamsanteri wrote: post #2

Yeah, nothing fishy here at all. Why pay tribute to other artists if you can make a deal with one and promote him on all the playlist to pocket back your money. Just give him the machinery and funding to create all of it and voila!

Is there the suggestion that he’s getting a sweetheart deal there? I missed it if so

You can apparently trade off 3/4 of your royaltys for a higher placement on the coveted Spotify-owned playlists of different types of ambient music, childrens songs etc. According to the article. But stuff like that is not very transparent I guess..

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#62

Post by l33tman »

publius_0xf3 wrote: post #32

Okay, what is it with Swedes min-maxing their way to the top of pop music? How do they do it? Even Pewdiepie is like another case of chasing algorithmic success.

In this case it's not pop music, it's instrumental ambient music and childrens tunes.. Very particular set of playlists, Spotify-owned, that if you get into them you're essentially guaranteed millions of streams (as those playlists have tens of millions of followers that I'm sure just have them on repeat often - guilty here as well..)

Aside from the sketchy issue with faking 750 artist names, apparently the music is good and has good artistic intent within the genre.

According to the article, you can do deals where you trade away part of your royalty for a higher placement on those Spotify-owned playlists, which in his case seems to be the right business choice to make by far.

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#63

Post by card_zero »

falserum wrote: post #45
BriggyDwiggs42 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, isnt that sort of the exact opposite?

I think what parent meant was, all poplar art tries to sarisfy some “algorithm”. (Algorithm of what will masses listen to) 20 years ago that was trying to pick good ratios of bass, haircut, and marketing to get into mtv top ten.

I'm reminded of The Manual:

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

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#64

Post by juitpykyk »

TylerE wrote: post #55
juitpykyk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the fraud if people like it? You are entering into the hundreds year old "what is art" debate.

When there is no human in the performance loop at all, that's flirting very close to selling a cheap blend as as 18-year old single malt.

Where does Spotify say "our music is 100% organic human sourced, no algos involved"?

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#66

Post by [deleted] »

chongli wrote: post #52
nojs wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily, it might be better to stratify by genre (like buying a separate domain for different product verticals), to make the algorithm think each one is super relevant and specific.

Exactly. Listeners expect an artist to stay in their lane. A cross-genre artist would be wildly unpopular. Think of a guy releasing both country and hip hop music: he would be disliked by both listeners.

[deleted]

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#67

Post by tekla »

edu wrote: post #17
hobs wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing that's sketchy is Spotify directing everyone to the same content, making stuff that appeals to the audience isn't against the rules.

Agree. Actually I’m feed quite feed up with Spotify, and this week decided to get a proper HiRes audio and buy music from places like BandCamp or the CD edition and ripping it. I miss curating my collection and playlists. It seems that the convenience of having almost all music available in a couple of clicks is making the listening experience less valuable.

You can just listen to albums and not be a diva about it.

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#68

Post by Aromasin »

juitpykyk wrote: post #47
publius_0xf3 wrote: post #32

Okay, what is it with Swedes min-maxing their way to the top of pop music? How do they do it? Even Pewdiepie is like another case of chasing algorithmic success.

My conspiracy theory is that the weather is so depressing that you stay inside and make music. Maybe this also explains UK success in music :)

It's also no surprise that Iceland has the highest number of authors per capita!

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#69

Post by marginalia_nu »

juitpykyk wrote: post #47
publius_0xf3 wrote: post #32

Okay, what is it with Swedes min-maxing their way to the top of pop music? How do they do it? Even Pewdiepie is like another case of chasing algorithmic success.

My conspiracy theory is that the weather is so depressing that you stay inside and make music. Maybe this also explains UK success in music :)

Probably one of several factors.

It's a pretty well known secret that a large part of why there is a Swedish cottage music industry is the historical ease of welfare fraud, on top of the already generous grants for cultural activities. You could basically get the government to not only pay for your rent, but your studio and equipment as well. Generations of Swedish musicians were living off unemployment checks while getting started. That era has drawn to a close, but there's still significant momentum left in the music industry it spawned.

Re: Swedish composer becomes Spotify's most-famous musician you've never heard of

#70

Post by justanotherjoe »

you have to remember this is the tactic food industry have understood for decades by selling multiple branda of potato chips masquarading as 'choices' to capture as wide a market as possible. Can you blame a person for doing the same.
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