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

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

#81

Post by wwweston »

partisan wrote: post #75
20after4 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy does it all alone, never gets hardly any recognition and yet he's still pumping out great songs after a bunch of years: https://soundcloud.com/plastic-pieces

Also, btw, the problem need to be solved for the software industry as well, which at this point is starting to resemble the arts: few big earners stoking the dreams of the many, and many, many others fighting over the scraps. The world today is still kind to the western developer, but how do we solve this problem for developers now so that we don't have to figure it out in the future?

Programmers are the new rock stars.

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

#83

Post by Maarten88 »

marincounty wrote: post #41
0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #20

Some people write songs about the music industry sucking. Hotel California is one (I bet). It would be fun to study this idea. Oh, another one could be Don't Download this Song by Weird Al. Edit: I wonder if Mr. Miller ever tried something like that.

When I was in college, I took my girlfriend on a summer vacation. We were both broke, so we decided to camp out along the CA coast. My car was on its last days, and the transmission didn't feel right, but we wanted that vacation. She was a great sport, as I tried to make it work. It seemed like nothing was working as I planned, except the sight of her in that bikini. I had a bunch of camping equipment, and thought, "…

Funny. Indeed, the song is not about the recording industry, but about (loosing) innocence (I think).

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

#84

Post by Animats »

Musicians getting rich was a brief phenomenon. Historically, musicians ranked below bartenders. Making phonograph records was a process with expensive tooling, manufacturing, and distribution costs. Radio was an industry with limited airtime and a small number of stations. These factors created an industry with few songs produced in large numbers, resulting in the "rock star" industry.

That's over. Through heavy promotion, there are still stars, but they have a smaller fraction of overall plays and the margins are lower.

And we haven't even had much AI-generated music yet. That has to be coming soon.

When a Vocaloid learns your job, what are you going to do?

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

#85

Post by andreis_ »

thomnottom wrote: post #51
yolesaber wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, to be fair, Steve Miller is like the blandest of bland dad rock. And Miles Davis is literally the coolest person who ever lived.

To be fair, Miles Davis regularly beat his wives...

Related-ish: someone linked to this fantastic read [1] today in some HN thread, and after going through it in awe, I come across the guy's Wikipedia page [2]. Yikes!

1: http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/javaorigin.html

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Naughton

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

#86

Post by proksoup »

Animats wrote: post #84

Musicians getting rich was a brief phenomenon. Historically, musicians ranked below bartenders. Making phonograph records was a process with expensive tooling, manufacturing, and distribution costs. Radio was an industry with limited airtime and a small number of stations. These factors created an industry with few songs produced in large numbers, resulting in the "rock star" industry. That's over. Through heavy prom…

Ha, you had me til the AI part. Personally I figure the musicians will have the last jobs, along with designers. Really artists generally speaking will be the most difficult AI, no?

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

#87

Post by cgh »

dudifordMann wrote: post #14

I always thought the age of the internet, especially with modern bandwidths, could be the end of large labels for the music industry (or publishing houses for literature). I understand (to a naive degree) that the labels establish large networks, and complex licensing with public avenues like the radio or concert halls. It is also interesting that that most self published artists get the semi-derogatory term of "Indi…

Basically, what's needed is an Image Comics but for music, where the creators maintain control of their works and are paid the lion's share of the profits. Surely there must be a label like this out there.

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

#88

Post by user_0001 »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #29
baldfat wrote: post #23

I owned a SMALL Record Label and Studio. I was (still?) good at picking out talent in bands. The Whole Industry Sucks I had two bands that ended up on Major Labels and Toured the World. I met a kid on the street wearing one of my Bands shirts and struck up a conversation. They still love the band 10 years later. These guys per person made at the TOP $7,000 in profit after expenses were paid. One band did a KickStarte…

I used to work in a record shop and found out first hand how much promotion a band needs just to sell a few CD's. I can't tell you how many insanely good bands died because either the label didn't promote them, or they just ran out of cash and quit. The only problem I see nowadays is there's virtually no vetting process. It used to be the good bands would eventually rise to the top and the shitty garage bands would b…

>>It used to be the good bands would eventually rise to the top and the shitty garage bands would be relegated to small venues.

really? Are you sure? Plenty of big bands did not deserve it but were well marketed and plenty of smaller toilet stop tour bands deserved it and never made it.

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

#89

Post by Dwolb »

baldfat wrote: post #23

I owned a SMALL Record Label and Studio. I was (still?) good at picking out talent in bands. The Whole Industry Sucks I had two bands that ended up on Major Labels and Toured the World. I met a kid on the street wearing one of my Bands shirts and struck up a conversation. They still love the band 10 years later. These guys per person made at the TOP $7,000 in profit after expenses were paid. One band did a KickStarte…

Just a side note, I saw the founder of Pandora speak and he said their mission is to create a middle class for musicians by making it easier to discover, listen, and support non-hit artists.

I'm not sure if their plan had a broader strategy, but I felt the vision was at least admirable due to its mission beyond just firm profits.

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

#90

Post by fiatmoney »

Animats wrote: post #84

Musicians getting rich was a brief phenomenon. Historically, musicians ranked below bartenders. Making phonograph records was a process with expensive tooling, manufacturing, and distribution costs. Radio was an industry with limited airtime and a small number of stations. These factors created an industry with few songs produced in large numbers, resulting in the "rock star" industry. That's over. Through heavy prom…

"Making music" is a very small part of the "musician" package; a lot of it is pure ethos. Difficult to identify with algorithmic output, even if you put a fancy brand on it.
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