Absolutely 100%. Yes.
People who care about food don’t go to McDonalds, but look how successful McDs is.
There’s far more who don’t care than do. That’s the target market, not us.
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Once again, I must point out that I am one of the ones that values music, its quality and those that produce it.
I am just discussing why this is happening and that most people are not going to care.
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I would argue that reality is far more nuanced than that even.
I care about food but I still love me a McDonalds Apple pie. I love music but if I’m working and want some dub techno on the background I couldn’t give 2 hoots if it’s being played by DJ Wazzap or SpotifyAI#7.
I do care about its impact on the industry, though. But I don’t know what influence I or anyone really has over that other than shaking their fist from the sidelines. This will be one of the many new challenges artists (in all fields) find themselves with over the coming years.
Buy my artisinal art, made by my own hands! Music for your ears translated from my fingers, like our ancestors did!
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That’s reasonable.
I think that a lot of us (musicians) are frustrated with the systems that have taken over mass music distribution and promotion. Their application of capitalism is more brutal than the systems which came before, because they’re so automated and their owners seem to care less about music (and more about technology) than even the previous systems’ owners.
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I find it interesting to think about the comments made to Bob Moog about his abomination that was an electric music device.
Didn’t some guy ask him if he cared he was stealing a living from real musicians?
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Think there’s a similar anecdote about the first drum machine - caused an uproar.
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if Spotify uses AI music then …
even the AI for music production has to be developed and trained by real world coders and ai specialists aka humans. Its not the way an AI can develop an AI for making music. So the business part of that question is … is it cheaper to pay humans to develop an AI to produce music or is it cheaper to pay humans to produce music?
At the end of the day, main part of spotify business modell is, to collect data and sell this data for marketing campaings (or other stuff). And the music is more or less “a little help” to get more people onto the plattform … to collect more data, ofcourse.
Come to bandcamp, we have no cookies 
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Absolutely.
And as someone that is learning to make music and wishes that one day he might release an album, it’s sad to realise that I approach it with the feeling that no one will ever hear it and it will never amount to anything.
Just like a little painting I did of the sea that hangs on my own wall. The best i can hope for is that I enjoyed painting it and am proud of myself.
Or perhaps I’m too cynical of the industry?
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This has and is being done on eg TikTok to great effect at the moment, unfortunately. It’s the “Andrew Tate” approach to social media momentum. An artist will record a video where they pretend that they are coming up with a good hook on the fly in a super low-fi, homemade, intimate, front-camera filmed video. Then suddenly, people start to pick up on the spontaneous and authentic genius of that moment and start sharing it, duetting it, commenting on it…only thing, all those accounts are fake or paid for…because the same sound/theme gets shared and interacted with in a short time period by many accounts, TikTok considers the sound / associated #hashtags to be trending and starts pushing it through its funnel where it can then hit genuine users who are then more incentivised to share/duet because the thing is trending.
A few days later there’s a commercial release to the track and a tour is announced.
In the German market, the latest such promo I noticed on TikTok is being run by Jive/Sony Music for their artist Nina Chuba…it’s super annoying and manipulative.
EDIT: here another example of another type of plant, Gayle’s ABCDFU. Daniel Wall is the guy who’s been credited with discovering/exposing the thing.
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I feel like this sometimes. I ignore it. I have bigger musical challenges to face: actually making something I like enough to share, and finishing my sketches, and not buying too much gear, and making enough time around parenting and work to do the other items in the list 
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The good news is this definitely isn’t true and you shouldn’t let this stuff disuade you!
I’d argue that there’s never been a better time to release music and have people hear and enjoy it.
I’m constantly humbled by peoples reaction to discovering my music (especially as I’m not totally happy with my current releases), and using platforms like YouTube and Instagram can help connect you to other musicians that can inspire you and that you can inspire in return.
Even sharing your album in a community like Elektronauts will have a number of people hear and appreciate it - I’m not sure what analogy there would have been in the 90s. Give a CD to your mates? Good luck with that haha
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Never used spotify, never will.
I find it funny how so many musicians allowed their music onto it, given how so many musicians are always talking about how against capitalism/corporations they are. Walk the walk FFS.
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There’s a scifi book called Diamond Age.
One if the sections that stuck with me, was the description of a cyberpunk world where most people have implants, many that are audiovisual.
They talk about ads being served to these that show up in your vision even if you close your eyes. Ones you hear even if you walk away from the source.
Some people get hacked and the adverts stack up like popups on a porn site. They stop them sleeping. In the end the consumer goes mad and kills themselves.
In the 20 years since I read that and 30+ since it was written, we are only moving closer to that, not away.
It may be more subtle now, but the pervasive nature of adverts in every media stream reminds me of the guy who can’t even look at something without seeing an advert…
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Because people that create art often want to share it with others, and Spotify is the leading music streaming platform. We’re humble folk.
I have a lot of issues with capatlism but it’s kind of reductaive to suggest that the solution to that is to not engage with it at all, especially as that’s nearly impossible.
Anyone putting their music on Spotify to make money will be dissapointed, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t provide value for people.
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I appreciate the support.
Creating music is hard, and it’s very easy when things aren’t turn out how I’d like to get a bout of the “oh what’s the fucking point of doing this anyways”
I certainly agree with you that in many ways, music is more open and easy to get into than ever, but when is see how little talented people are being paid for their struggle, I feel bad for anyone trying to make a living in the industry and go and buy another CD.
looking at you, Radiohead. Now they’re on Bandcamp, hopefully they’ll pull out of Spotify.
One really insidious aspects of streaming are how it has replaced radio or DJs in many social listening environments. If you’re not on Spotify, there’s no way you’ll be played in coffee shops or those type of workplaces where people have music on in the background. Music is inherently social, so this is a big deal even if seems edge-case.
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Rapidly coming to the conclusion the internet is a failed project.
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For companies, its a highly lucrative project.
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For mankind
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Nearly 20 years a web developer and I’m moving away from web work (sorta. I’m in video streaming, which makes me a total hypocrite, but I’m hoping it’s a stepping stone to something else).
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