AlexKzillion
02.09.21 | this week on "alex needs to go to fucking bed": |
sixdegrees
02.09.21 | *puts on Lo fi beats to chill/study to* Yes |
porcupinetheater
02.09.21 | Word, pretty on target. But how much really changes, tbh? Like shitty as it is, playing music hasn’t been a sustainable financial pursuit for a long time, and definitely hasn’t been since streaming was a thing. Most people don’t spend time listening to/supporting small time artists, and the people that do are going to keep doing that. And there’s always going to be the drive for live music and music as a shared human experience, Y’know?
Like, agree completely that streaming services are corporate monstrosities that can devastate the musical landscape, just think that kinda already happened |
porcupinetheater
02.09.21 | Or maybe Martin Shkreli gets out of prison and starts a supergroup with Jesse Lacey and the Wu-Tang Clan and they save music |
el_newg
02.09.21 | this one goes right to the top we need detective Ars on the case |
el_newg
02.09.21 | btw for great chill piano music check out my friend Jonathan Ong and his album Reflections. sounds like you'd dig it to study to, and can confirm it is made by a real human! |
AlexKzillion
02.09.21 | "Like, agree completely that streaming services are corporate monstrosities that can devastate the musical landscape, just think that kinda already happened"
Idk I just feel like this is different/more extreme in that it's like the music equivalent of cashiers getting replaced by self-checkout stations, as opposed to the typical trend of artists just making less and less money from their music over time. And while music is just a product at the end of the day, it's also an artform that we all love and cherish seeing as were all here on sputnikmusic.com. When a streaming service can essentially create their own music and push it to the forefront of their platform like that, it makes music feel more like any other plastic product fresh off the assembly line, almost unignorably so. (a quote I'm sure someone will reply to with "how is this different from netflix and literally and all the other streaming services do with their original shows/movies?" like a fucking dolt)
This isn't some roundabout way of saying "DELETE YOUR SPOTIFY, ONLY BUY VINYL RECORDS FROM YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORE AND BANDCAMP" or anything cause I fucking love Spotify. Couldn't live without it. But this is a disturbing trend that I see no reason for Spotify to stop doing. They aren't just paying artists peanuts anymore, they're displacing them entirely to cut corners. Small artists but artists all the same. |
robertsona
02.09.21 | still sorta like this playlist titled "studying" I made in 2014. the only one of my playlists to get passed around to any extent https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Qg5YwNAArDPKnqIh0DCJ4 |
AlexKzillion
02.09.21 | (Also: I've read a ton of articles regarding these playlists. Spotify has vehemently denied that they do this, but plenty of internet plebs have found otherwise. This really is not a conspiracy theory, even though my less-informed self made it sound like one in my original list last night.) |
widowslaugh123
02.09.21 | DELETE YOUR SPOTIFY, ONLY BUY VINYL RECORDS FROM YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORE AND BANDCAMP
This but unironically |
Ryus
02.09.21 | bobertson your study playlist is looking suspiciously similar to mine w/ jelinek, opn, and hecker |
Feather
02.09.21 | This has already been elaborated on since 2018 in various articles, but essentially Spotify pays an upfront price to a company to license their library of music. these companies have artists pump out tons of material under various fake artist names. Spotify then promotes these "artists" to dilute the amount of money they need to pay out to the big 4 record labels. It is highly controversial. The biggest company they did this with was Epidemic Sound.
I just finished listening to a new book called "The Spotify Play" which is extremely interesting if you are interested in spotify and the history of streaming. The book discusses this a bit at the end, but if you wanna learn more specifically on this, just google "epidemic sound spotify" and I am sure you will get some hits. |
Feather
02.09.21 | "When a streaming service can essentially create their own music and push it to the forefront of their platform like that, it makes music feel more like any other plastic product fresh off the assembly line, almost unignorably so."
They dont create their own content, but yeah, it is messed up they have the ability to push this no name music on us just because they make more money on us streaming this instead of anything else. |
Feather
02.09.21 | @robertsona Nice! A study playlist isnt a study playlist without a track from Kid A and some Aphex Twin. |
Trundle
02.09.21 | this is interesting stuff, i don't have spotify so this was a good read |
porcupinetheater
02.09.21 | "I just feel like this is different/more extreme in that it's like the music equivalent of cashiers getting replaced by self-checkout stations"
Just still feel like most of the damage is already done, there, I guess. Like music is innate human need, so there's always going to be people making it, and a lot of the people that would theoretically be turned off by not being able to make a living off it aren't going to stop, and it's always going to be the human stuff (or at least the stuff where the mechanization is part of the artistic intent) that gets passed around music communities.
That said yeah fuck spotify fuck streaming support artists buy merch |
Feather
02.09.21 | "support artists buy merch" and go to shows (once we can again) |
porcupinetheater
02.09.21 | God I miss the Empty Bottle |
Feather
02.09.21 | ahhh my chicago man!
I miss Lincoln Hall and Schubas the most probably. Thalia, SubT, Concord, Bottom Lounge and Aragon as well I suppose. Didnt get out to Empty Bottle nearly enough.
|
porcupinetheater
02.09.21 | Last show I caught was an Empty Bottle freebie back in March like a week before the shut down when we were all so innocent and naive lol
Lincoln Hall and Schubas are an amazing pair, God we had it so good on the venues. Cobra Lounge, too. Fuck, hope they're all able to make it |
AlexKzillion
02.09.21 | Feather from the top rope to set the record straight!
I'm def gonna check out that book out. This stuff is sorta fascinating to me, |
SitarHero
02.09.21 | "This has already been elaborated on since 2018 in various articles, but essentially Spotify pays an upfront price to a company to license their library of music. these companies have artists pump out tons of material under various fake artist names. Spotify then promotes these "artists" to dilute the amount of money they need to pay out to the big 4 record labels. It is highly controversial. The biggest company they did this with was Epidemic Sound."
This is fascinating and I had no idea. Do you have some links for this? |
Keyblade
02.09.21 | this is why i don't listen to any spotify curated playlists except for the ones of my listening habits. happier to meticulously make my own whenever I get around to it |
Hyperion1001
02.09.21 | ive genuinely believed for years that the songs on these playlists are all generated by an algorithm. theres this one called lush lo-fi that im almost positive doesnt contain a single real artist. |
SitarHero
02.09.21 | "Algorithm is gonna get you" - P4UL4 A3DU7 |
Feather
02.09.21 | @Sitar https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-fake-artists-return-but-whos-faking-their-plays-within-user-accounts/
Here is a good starting point sir!
@MrAlexK the book was great! Walks you straight from the start of file sharing up until covid-19. Highly recommended.
@Hyperion part algorithm, but some of the algorithms used (like discover weekly) predominately compares your taste to other users, finds similar users and then recs things they have listened to that you have not.
@Keyblade the wild part is that your meticulously crafted playlists are what they algorithms are using to build their playlists that feed other users. You are setting trends without knowing it!
@Porcupine COBRA LOUNGE. Been to a few there, great place! |
Feather
02.09.21 | https://hackernoon.com/spotifys-discover-weekly-how-machine-learning-finds-your-new-music-19a41ab76efe
Here is a really cool article that explains in relatively simple terms how the 3 primary algorithms powering discover weekly playlists work. |
SitarHero
02.10.21 | Much obliged for the links Feather! |
