Independent musicians complain about being broke and the devaluation of their art, yet day after day, they keep feeding the very corporations doing exactly that.
this is so good. thank you for such a thorough breakdown. as an indie artist who has always just done the meta ads / spotify ads / content machine thing because it’s “just what you have to do” i’ve spent the last 6 months consciously tapping out of this weird industry hustle mindset and am in the midst of planning the strategy for my upcoming album campaign. it seems completely ridiculous that i would pay for a spotify marquee campaign and then turn around and complain that spotify aren’t paying artists enough. the whole system traps artists into constantly paying for reach and feeling that they have no other option if they want their music to get heard. honestly at this point i’d rather put $1000 into printing posters and sticking them up around my fav venues than giving my money to big tech. can’t wait for part 2 of this!
Hey Annie, thanks for reading and sharing. I'm super happy you enjoyed it! It's so good that indie artists are realising more and more about this trap and choosing differently. Sending you the courage to keep on what youre already doing! 🕊
For a brief moment in time, Spotify created the illusion that an independent musical artist could make a living off of their royalties. It was a clever marketing ploy. They abandoned this a few years ago. My 2 cents to any artist struggling to build an audience is to spend most of your time making great music and building face to face relationships with real people. Social media and music streaming platforms can't be ignored but they should be secondary in my opinion. Thanks for the great post!
Independent composer here, 22 years. No hits. Business entity. I manage my catalog and release and/or license whatever I want under many different names.
I’m not on the tech doom scroller mouse wheels. I’ve never bought an ad. I completely ignore Botify these days because of their shenanigans. Somehow, I’ve managed to survive.
Vanity metrics are toxic to artists. They must be ignored. Fame is not a problem to be solved with an ad. There are no cheat codes. If you got into the arts to “make money”, that’s hilarious. I made zero money in the first 9 or 10 years or releasing music. I didn’t do it to “make money”.
Thanks, Natalie. Nothing is indeed really new here for some, but I had the urge to put it all together in a clear, dense way so it will echo the message loudly. Thanks for reading!
Figuring out years ago that Facebook was putting my own followers/audience behind a paywall put me off using their platforms. I still post to FB/Insta/TT, but I don't put anywhere near as much effort into them as I do Substack or YouTube. I really hope this is the beginning of the realization for a lot of musicians that these platforms are vampires and that placing all our hopes in reaching people through them is rather silly especially when making connections is secondary to selling ads to these companies.
Thank you so much, Ayuli, for your incredibly insightful piece. You very accurately describe what is going on right now, and things are as difficult as ever for new music creators. 10 years ago, 45% of US streaming consumption was new music. That figure is 27% today.
So we are accelerating in the wrong direction, and things might get a lot worse with the proliferation of generative AI right around the corner.
Hey Darius! Thanks for reading and writing back, definitely going to read your essays. I'm always happy to get more perspectives on this burning topic. Cheers
A very good deep dive into the mechanics of the system. The underlying issue is that the whole machinery is designed (or has evolved) to perfectly serve potentially easy money - meaning large numbers but also a high margin, and minimal effort in taste shaping. It is the equivalent of flipping burgers at a drive through. An existing gigantic easily reachable market for plain junk food is just so much more tempting and promising to be profitable than putting effort into original slow-cooked whole foods-based menus that might be an acquired taste. The top-performing Spotify “artists” are the equivalent of the huge food franchises. Mass-producing low effort, flat-tasting, non-nutritious quick bites that inevitably will mess up your taste buds, make you nauseous if you consume too much, and facilitate health issues down the line. Independently creating original concept albums is an uphill battle in this setup, but one that I will fight till I draw my last breath.
Unfortunately..that’s what is so clever about it all. We bang on about the technology..algorithms etc, but that’s what our brains do. Do we notice? Our brains are filtering..narrowing our perceptions of reality all the time.
Don’t get me wrong..I loathe all this technology upheaval.. but let’s try to keep our minds on the ‘knife edge’ of believing what we see (or think we see) .
Hope this makes sense. Our brains protect us from ourselves, otherwise we would not cope.
Hey, thanks for writing. I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say in the context of this essay. If you feel like elaborating on this a bit? Thanks!
The truth is, I basically begin many coaching sessions with artists by helping them turn off / ignore articles like this - at least the first 75% of it - because those authors that don’t follow up all this overwhelmingly bad news with anything actionable just create a brutal negativity trap and powerlessness that is extremely hard to overcome, especially for the artists I tend to work with who are coming back to releasing music after a hiatus or heartbreak.
I totally hear you, Syd! Part 1 is depressing af! I'm glad you held out for the last 25%. Here is part two; I hope it sparks some inspiration, a sense of community, and hope! 🕊 Stoked to hear your thoughts!
this is so good. thank you for such a thorough breakdown. as an indie artist who has always just done the meta ads / spotify ads / content machine thing because it’s “just what you have to do” i’ve spent the last 6 months consciously tapping out of this weird industry hustle mindset and am in the midst of planning the strategy for my upcoming album campaign. it seems completely ridiculous that i would pay for a spotify marquee campaign and then turn around and complain that spotify aren’t paying artists enough. the whole system traps artists into constantly paying for reach and feeling that they have no other option if they want their music to get heard. honestly at this point i’d rather put $1000 into printing posters and sticking them up around my fav venues than giving my money to big tech. can’t wait for part 2 of this!
Hey Annie, thanks for reading and sharing. I'm super happy you enjoyed it! It's so good that indie artists are realising more and more about this trap and choosing differently. Sending you the courage to keep on what youre already doing! 🕊
Hey Annie! Part 2 is out; would love to hear your thoughts! https://lendanear.substack.com/p/the-algorithm-is-changing-how-we-ac3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=74kd2d
For a brief moment in time, Spotify created the illusion that an independent musical artist could make a living off of their royalties. It was a clever marketing ploy. They abandoned this a few years ago. My 2 cents to any artist struggling to build an audience is to spend most of your time making great music and building face to face relationships with real people. Social media and music streaming platforms can't be ignored but they should be secondary in my opinion. Thanks for the great post!
Hey Bradley, thank you, cant agree more!
I will be touching on this on part 2! 🕊
Waiting impatiently for part 2!
Hello Nicolas! Part 2 is out there 🕊
Lmk what you think
https://lendanear.substack.com/p/the-algorithm-is-changing-how-we-ac3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=74kd2d
Thanks! You can just scroll in the meantime 🤣
Hahaha. I won't ever become a scroller 😬
100% agree. You have completely nailed it.
Independent composer here, 22 years. No hits. Business entity. I manage my catalog and release and/or license whatever I want under many different names.
I’m not on the tech doom scroller mouse wheels. I’ve never bought an ad. I completely ignore Botify these days because of their shenanigans. Somehow, I’ve managed to survive.
Vanity metrics are toxic to artists. They must be ignored. Fame is not a problem to be solved with an ad. There are no cheat codes. If you got into the arts to “make money”, that’s hilarious. I made zero money in the first 9 or 10 years or releasing music. I didn’t do it to “make money”.
Can’t wait for part 2.
Thanks Mark! Sounds like you have strong, healthy instincts we should all learn from lol
Aylui,
Thank you for taking the time to write this very in-depth article. I am left with the question :
What is the solution?
Looking forward to part 2.
Damien
Thats a great question. I am trying to touch on this and give alternatives in Part 2. I hope you'll find it interesting and worth reading. Thanks!
This is such a clear, devastating lens for anyone who still hasn’t seen the ugly truth. Thank you writing it.
Thanks, Natalie. Nothing is indeed really new here for some, but I had the urge to put it all together in a clear, dense way so it will echo the message loudly. Thanks for reading!
Extremely well said! Its a minefield out there, and people are just choosing to pretend its not
Yes, I can understand their position though, it's hard to read the map when everyone around you does it too.
Thank you very much, Ayuli. I sent you a DM via Instagram:)
Figuring out years ago that Facebook was putting my own followers/audience behind a paywall put me off using their platforms. I still post to FB/Insta/TT, but I don't put anywhere near as much effort into them as I do Substack or YouTube. I really hope this is the beginning of the realization for a lot of musicians that these platforms are vampires and that placing all our hopes in reaching people through them is rather silly especially when making connections is secondary to selling ads to these companies.
AMEN!
Looking forward to part 2! Thanks.
Hey ho part 2 is out! https://lendanear.substack.com/p/the-algorithm-is-changing-how-we-ac3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=74kd2d
Thank U 🕊
Thank you so much, Ayuli, for your incredibly insightful piece. You very accurately describe what is going on right now, and things are as difficult as ever for new music creators. 10 years ago, 45% of US streaming consumption was new music. That figure is 27% today.
So we are accelerating in the wrong direction, and things might get a lot worse with the proliferation of generative AI right around the corner.
I am really looking forward to your part 2.
P.S. I wrote two essays. One is about generative AI and algorithms (https://dariusjagjag.substack.com/p/rise-of-the-music-making-machines) and the other is about market concentration (https://dariusjagjag.substack.com/p/the-struggle-for-independence-in). I also wrote a piece about what a new artist is contending with in the current climate (https://dariusjagjag.substack.com/p/episode-4-song-of-the-year-you-didnt).
If you have time to check them out, I hope you find some of what I wrote interesting. A lot of it aligns with thoughts you include in this piece.
Hey Darius! Thanks for reading and writing back, definitely going to read your essays. I'm always happy to get more perspectives on this burning topic. Cheers
Precisely.
Sometimes all you need is one word 🙃 thanx!
A very good deep dive into the mechanics of the system. The underlying issue is that the whole machinery is designed (or has evolved) to perfectly serve potentially easy money - meaning large numbers but also a high margin, and minimal effort in taste shaping. It is the equivalent of flipping burgers at a drive through. An existing gigantic easily reachable market for plain junk food is just so much more tempting and promising to be profitable than putting effort into original slow-cooked whole foods-based menus that might be an acquired taste. The top-performing Spotify “artists” are the equivalent of the huge food franchises. Mass-producing low effort, flat-tasting, non-nutritious quick bites that inevitably will mess up your taste buds, make you nauseous if you consume too much, and facilitate health issues down the line. Independently creating original concept albums is an uphill battle in this setup, but one that I will fight till I draw my last breath.
Hey there, loved the fast food comparison, so true. Thanks for reading and taking the time to write this impactful reply. cheers!
I'm so happy to find someone else sharing those thoughts out loud and realising that I'm not the only one who feel the same.
Unfortunately..that’s what is so clever about it all. We bang on about the technology..algorithms etc, but that’s what our brains do. Do we notice? Our brains are filtering..narrowing our perceptions of reality all the time.
Don’t get me wrong..I loathe all this technology upheaval.. but let’s try to keep our minds on the ‘knife edge’ of believing what we see (or think we see) .
Hope this makes sense. Our brains protect us from ourselves, otherwise we would not cope.
Hey, thanks for writing. I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say in the context of this essay. If you feel like elaborating on this a bit? Thanks!
Hi Ayuli,
Yes I see your point. Me being me, it seems that I had only read your post to a certain point before I thought about a reply. My apologies.
Looking forward to the follow up.
The truth is, I basically begin many coaching sessions with artists by helping them turn off / ignore articles like this - at least the first 75% of it - because those authors that don’t follow up all this overwhelmingly bad news with anything actionable just create a brutal negativity trap and powerlessness that is extremely hard to overcome, especially for the artists I tend to work with who are coming back to releasing music after a hiatus or heartbreak.
So, here’s to finding a way forward!
I totally hear you, Syd! Part 1 is depressing af! I'm glad you held out for the last 25%. Here is part two; I hope it sparks some inspiration, a sense of community, and hope! 🕊 Stoked to hear your thoughts!
https://lendanear.substack.com/p/the-algorithm-is-changing-how-we-ac3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=74kd2d
Great, reading now. Put a link to pt. 2 in this one so people can get to the hopey changey stuff!
Good advice!