Tell me ONE THING* that has OBJECTIVE VALUE.
* other than quality marijuana

 

I find this trait admirable in anyone and I believe in fairness. As such, I also reciprocate and apologize for snapping back in kind.
The problem we face is Global, not just in music. We have an environment this century where the obscenely wealthy will do whatever they like, regardless of the morality, or ethics, and regardless of how many get hurt in the process. The only way they can be stopped is by being taken to task. So they take whatever they want, giving little back in return and unless someone of similar financial standing takes them to task, they will keep doing it for as long as they can get away with it. As you, me and everyone who looks can see, nobody has taken them to task. The big streamers have paid off the major labels so they are left alone. Short of an unknown winning a billion dollars and using all of it to litigate, because that's what it will take, they won't stop - in any discipline.


I wish I could say this was only in music, but sadly, in every country, yours, mine and the world, it is in every area that involves being able to make a lot of money. We as people have to stand up and say no, we do not want to be screwed over. The day we all stop fighting it and disagreeing with our work being exploited, there will cease to be anyone who can make a living anymore, in any field. There would only be the rich and the rest will be beggars.

We have to look at everyone not just ourselves. Just because someone came in and we as the people let them screw us over, does not mean we have to continue letting it happen. I truly believe that. we work, we get paid. This is how everyone was raised. Nobody should be able to tell us any differently, no matter what the job is.

 

I called my ASCAP publishing "Catch Penny Music" because that made sense and was funny-ish when I created it back in the 1980's. Now I need to rename it "Catch .003 Penny Music" to keep up to date with current norms and which is very, very sad.

 

Your experience is valid, but it sounds limited in scope. That's understandable. Who the hell has time or the mental energy to investigate complex business models or study how much the industry has changed in the last 30 years?

The majors and platforms don't want you to understand, they want you to be impressed that more people are listening while they feed you scraps.

But you are definitely being shafted by a cartel of major labels. They thrive because of your apathy. The modern system has been manipulated, it's not how things used to be.

It wasn't 'harder in the old days'. Pre 2000 profits were massive and spread far more evenly across the industry. The 70's to 90s had astronomical album and singles sales that are impossible with the current system. 95% of the biggest selling albums ever are pre 2000's.
At the other end, there were profitable independent music scenes popping up every 3 to 5 years for nearly 50 years. Young new musicians were able to make a comfortable living in these scenes, and these scenes delivered many of the largest artists of the 20th century.

We have amazing technology now, but a whole financial infrastructure has been removed. On purpose.

The evidence is out there, supported by rock solid data. There are many articles clearly explaining how unhealthy the current streaming model is for ALL musicians and the music scene in general. People are fighting for creatives like you right now. It's worth finding out why and supporting them.

Beyond the royalties issue, corporate manipulation of streaming formats has also completely stifled innovative new genres, and stopped indie labels from surfacing their artists in the charts, like they once did.

A radical overhaul of the system would benefit our ears as well.

 

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Ja

IIRC radio stations and record companies trying to avoid unions more or less started Rock‘n Roll back in the days.

Just saying…

 

As long as people refrain from buying CDs, records and the like but expect to get all music almost for free via streaming services, the situation will not change.
Either the musicians take full ownership of their music and create their own streaming services or this will continue indefinitely.
The music industry is full of parasites and smart guys who have never managed to come up with anything creative on their own apart from ripping off the artists - that's where their creativity sadly lies.

 

Quality marijuana made me realize there's no objectivity LOL

I remember this one weed I received years ago, Berry Bomb. Man, as soon as I opened the vacuum sealed bag, my entire house smelt like blueberry juice mixed with whatever it is that gives life meaning. It was so goddamn tasty, I would just put some in a clean acetone washed bowl and inhale without lighting it up. Thinking of it now gives me a semi-ladyboner. Imagine my disappointment when I immediately ordered a huge quantity of the same thing and received mostly bottom of the bag shake, dust etc. with practically no terpenes left

 

elon musk should be a DJ

 

Did The Beatles, Dylan, Stones, Jackson, Elton John, Queen, Pink Floyd ect ect need to licence their brand to a perfume or clothing range? Or licence their likeness for advertising? (Lest we forget that hedge fund owners own most of these classic musicians music now...)

What megastars of the past two/three decades haven't had to diversify their businesses? Or all modern musicians pluto-meglamaniacs in disguise?

I blame copyright law. It should expire within the lifetime of the generation who lived it. The Beatles offspring shouldn't be getting royalties for 100 years after their passing...

As always when discussing music business, heres the customary link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise:_The_Political_Economy_of_Music

 

For this one, for the AI takeover, and practically for every other aspect of a healthy society, unionizing is always the right answer. But then you got people like Grape Ape that comes with that learned indefension mentality and that tries to soothe everything down and are fine with whatever shit the system throws at them, surrounds themselvels with people with the same mentality, and then they're usually the ones who would start signing contracts with the streamings platforms if when the union goes on a strike.

 

Something has been terribly wrong for the past 40 years. Art and commerce have always made strange bedfellows. But 45k for a billion plays is criminal. As long as the uniparty crony capitalists are in charge. Mega corporations will continue to rape the creators… Wish Elon would make a fair streaming platform for artists, but that dude has way bigger things on his plate at the moment. Maybe his Gmail & Google search engine rival is a start in the right direction.

 

@Demloc Unions sound great in theory. But they always lead to yet another club of a select few with all the power & money that eventually become just as corrupt as the old slave masters.

 

Either you're the greatest sarcastic commentator I've come across since myself, or you are as delusional as Elon Musk

 

I'd rather catch a football in the darn NFL, and be O.J. Simpson, than do the hustle with music. Dammit!

 

while i agree to an extent, what im talking about is commercial value - at least here in the U.S. theres a minimum wage for regular jobs, if someone decides to make a song in their room, theres no objective value to determine how much they should make from that being made commercially. theres no objective value in music alone, its value comes from everything else outside of it

money, even though its values is flux. if i find $20 dollars, you know what is worth. if you find some persons song you have no idea what its valued at commercially

 

Tesla, SpaceX, X, Starlink, cofounder of Paypal. Or am I missing something in this guy's track record of success?

 

what im now seeing is a big misunderstanding of what i was saying, to be fair; i wasnt sober last night, so my wording wasnt great. streaming isnt perfect, theres a lot of benefits to the music listener that werent there years ago, it was harder to listen to new music than it is now. i enjoy streaming, before that we would buy bootleg CDs or rip music from limewire. because we didnt have money to buy new records, my experience with most most new music was from the television or with music videos, older music family members bought, not my own taste. as a listener; streaming opened up a lot for what i was able to listen too, which affected my taste, which made me able to make great music that resonates with so many people

before i even signed to an indie label, my music was shared by people around the world because of streaming, i didnt have the money or position to go out and book shows. people that cant afford to spend money on my records, they can still hear my music, share it support it online by following me (which has value) and when im there, possibly buy a ticket to see it live. i make a lot of money from live music, i know a lot of artists that do. ive been on the indie level and did regional tours with artists barely making even from touring; i wasnt in the industry before; but even older artists ive talked with, some you consider legends, think we have it way easier because of the technology and streaming plays a big part; its not this big evil in my eyes. its not perfect but theres a lot of upside for the art form, in that it makes music for accessible to people everywhere. before when industry was a lot more gated, you had less options in a lot of ways, that still affected artists negatively

 

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if you pirate any cracked software from sister site, dont start acting like youre some saint whose not profiting off of others exploiting that; or that you only buy records and dont listen to music on streaming. im not against unionizing, but i also understand life isnt black and white; theres good side in streaming, as ive stated more clearly above. if its hitler, stop using it

 

Last edited: Mar 9, 2024

the D oh Double G just got a different perspective, he probably make more selling weed in a month.
the "music" was just to get him brand status, so he could sell his other shit.but he was pretty good in "dolemite is my name" as a DJ..

Most of the money in music was in publishing before the invention of recording and broadcast, it was all sheet music sales.

Public performance is the golden goose for musicians who can perform, but ticket prices will kill that eventually.