'Death to Spotify' Event Draws Interest From Some Musicians to Try Alternatives (theguardian.com) 42
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Guardian:
This month, indie musicians in San Francisco gathered for a series of talks called Death to Spotify, where attenders explored "what it means to decentralize music discovery, production and listening from capitalist economies". The events, held at Bathers library, featured speakers from indie station KEXP, labels Cherub Dream Records and Dandy Boy Records, and DJ collectives No Bias and Amor Digital. What began as a small run of talks quickly sold out and drew international interest. People as far away as Barcelona and Bengaluru emailed the organizers asking how to host similar events.
The talks come as the global movement against Spotify edges into the mainstream. In January, music journalist Liz Pelly released Mood Machine, a critical history arguing the streaming company has ruined the industry and turned listeners into "passive, uninspired consumers". Spotify's model, she writes, depends on paying artists a pittance — less still if they agree to be "playlisted" on its Discovery mode, which rewards the kind of bland, coffee-shop muzak that fades neatly into the background... The Death to Spotify organizers say their goal is not necessarily to shut the app down. "We just want everyone to think a little bit harder about the ways they listen to music," says [event co-founder] Manasa Karthikeyan. "It just flattens culture at its core if we only stick to this algorithmically built comfort zone."
So the goal was "down with algorithmic listening, down with royalty theft, down with AI-generated music," according to the event's other co-founder, Stephanie Dukich.
Basically some artists "are questioning whether it's doing much for them," says a professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin. The article cites performers who are trying Spotify alternatives, like pop-rock songwriter Caroline Rose, who released her new album only on vinyl and Bandcamp. "I find it pretty lame that we put our heart and soul into something and then just put it online for free," Rose says.
The talks come as the global movement against Spotify edges into the mainstream. In January, music journalist Liz Pelly released Mood Machine, a critical history arguing the streaming company has ruined the industry and turned listeners into "passive, uninspired consumers". Spotify's model, she writes, depends on paying artists a pittance — less still if they agree to be "playlisted" on its Discovery mode, which rewards the kind of bland, coffee-shop muzak that fades neatly into the background... The Death to Spotify organizers say their goal is not necessarily to shut the app down. "We just want everyone to think a little bit harder about the ways they listen to music," says [event co-founder] Manasa Karthikeyan. "It just flattens culture at its core if we only stick to this algorithmically built comfort zone."
So the goal was "down with algorithmic listening, down with royalty theft, down with AI-generated music," according to the event's other co-founder, Stephanie Dukich.
Basically some artists "are questioning whether it's doing much for them," says a professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin. The article cites performers who are trying Spotify alternatives, like pop-rock songwriter Caroline Rose, who released her new album only on vinyl and Bandcamp. "I find it pretty lame that we put our heart and soul into something and then just put it online for free," Rose says.
Just don’t use it (Score:2, Troll)
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Like I mentioned elsewhere but playing field isn't even. And we fired all the referees
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They need to do more than just not use it. They need to create an alternative distribution method for their music. And ensure this new network doesn't devolve into something that looks just like Spotify in the future. It is a pretty good goal, but it certainly won't be easy.
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Let's see how well that goes over with the record company.
If you don't like the internet (Score:4, Insightful)
Spotify has done all sorts of nasty anti-competitive crap in order to make it the only real option if you want access to an audience.
Like the old speech from Courtney Love, https://www.gerryhemingway.com... [gerryhemingway.com]
They control the access to the venues and the access to mass media in general. You can throw some music out there on the internet but without big money you want getting anywhere. And if somebody starts to get a foothold big money moves in and buys them out.
Like how all the small breweries got bought out or run out of business.
Basically we all pretended to even playing field when it's not. We fired the referees
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Very true... hell, we don't even design the website anymore... we go to wix or something and use stock layouts and graphics (even though it's not hard to do it in Notepad if you know your crap).
Of course, you're assuming that the music these 'musicians' are making isn't just noise that uses samples of other people's music as 'their own' or just Billie Eilish on LSD slowed down by 90%.
(I bookmarked that link to read later in full... sounds very interesting, and she sounds very coherent)
I'm pretty sure, if I
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"Bandcamp vs. Spotify? What are your thoughts as an artist? (here's my personal experience)"
I have no experience or opinion myself.
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It's most likely the record labels who make this decision.
Re:Just don’t use it (Score:4, Interesting)
If artists don’t like Spotify, just don’t use it.
The world is much more complicated than that. The problem is not that artists don't like Spotify, it's that they are stuck with an monopoly just like the rest of us are in other ways. For example, are you a Linux fan? Hate to be tracked? Just don't use Windows. Oh except if you go to work and suddenly you're forced to by corporate IT, what then?
The issue is the same here. Spotify pays a pittance, screws over artists, promotes the production of AI muzak rubbish, but where else do you go? All the potential customers are on Spotify. That's the whole problem with market power and monopolies, you don't have the option to "just don't use it".
We're even a bit like that on the consumer side. Sure I want to support a service which supports artists more, but what do I give up? My car has Spotify, my speakers have Spotify Connect, my friends use Spotify so the Spotify Jam function will stop working too if I switch. There's many market forces other than the basic music, or other than the pay to the artists that draw people into using Spotify.
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Musicians are assholes. They deserve to be shafted.
So are you, is this just jealously that you weren't invited to their gangbang and were told do to shaft yourself?
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They're commies in spirit only, they're looking to get paid MORE, but don't dare to call it capitalism. For example, "depends on paying artists a pittance" and "just put it online for free", so apparently they like getting paid. I can sympathize that streaming music decimated album sales, I get it, but that old model is gone, and it's not coming back. If someone is looking to make a living playing music, they'd better learn to write music a LOT of people want. Is that selling out? Yes, of course it is. If n
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Sounds like they need more capitalism.
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I've gained a lot of respect for Spotify as a subscriber and now investor. One of my favorite pastimes is music discovery and its suggestions have introduced me to so many new great bands
If that's what you really think then you should support this action. Spotify's discovery process has been completely enshitified in the past decade and used to be far better. I discovered a whole world of new music in the past, today ... most of what is being pushed to me is forgettable and other services provide far better discovery.
Concept is being framed poorly (Score:2)
what it means to decentralize music discovery, production and listening from capitalist economies
This one is pretty easy. Music would become a hobby, not a profession. Either treat your profession as a profession, or you aren't going to make much money doing it.
Musicians are free to create some kind of "employee-owned" distribution network for their music. But that network would still need to compete in our capitalistic economy. I think it's a great idea and would love for it to happen in music and plenty of other industries. We just shouldn't ignore that to be successful it needs to be run like any ot
I have a more complex opinion (Score:3)
I like stuff that is less popular. The Spotify recommendation robot is excellent at recommending great new bands. It has never recommended stuff I disliked and it recommended lots of stuff I like a lot. Many of the bands I found were either hobbyists or had a very small number of followers, but they were all excellent. In the past the only way to discover bands like this would be to live in the same city where they lived and know somebody who knew the band
On the other side, Spotify pays VERY poorly and any musician who is trying to make a living doing music will be very disappointed. The pay is fine for a hobbyist, but it sucks for wannabe professionals
I don't care one bit about pop music
Re: I have a more complex opinion (Score:2)
Spotify pays poorly per play, but per play is a rotten metric.
Payout works the same (all subscription fees are pooled, then paid out according to total plays) so music services are "punished" according to the payout-pet-play metric for connecting people to the music they will listen heavily to.
The best services on on this metric, will be services which most subscribers don't even use - maybe because they don't even know they have it because they got it bundled with their cable TV etc. Obviously this is not
I Use Amazon music (Score:2)
I buy music from Amazon. I don't use spotify. .mp3 s and copy them to my mobile devices.
(And I don't stream the music, I download the
I don't know what the artists share of that revenue is, but I'd guess its better than spotify.
Re: I Use Amazon music (Score:2)
I don't get it. What's your issue with Spotify that you imagine Amazon, of all companies, is better at?
I've Said It a Million Times Now (Score:4, Insightful)
Spotify Has Gotten Really Sleazy (Score:3)
Raw deal for musicians (Score:2)
As a musician, I would not publish anything now, it's just going to be ingested and copied.
Your alternatives are publish and get ripped off, or don't publish and have little to no audience. Pretty sad.
My experience (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not a musician, but I did a few comedy tracks on an ensemble album. My tracks are available on Spotify, and have also been played on Sirius XM.
I've received north of $1000 in royalties from Sirius XM.
I've yet to break the $5 minimum withdrawal amount from streaming services (including Spotify) for more plays than I've had on Sirius XM.
So yes, Spotify and the other streaming services are rapaciously exploitative and deserve to be boycotted. Go on, boycott them... not gonna cost me very much!
$300 (Score:2)
I've tried.... (Score:2)
Just last week I cancelled my Spotify Premium and tried to move over to Youtube Music.
It lasted less than a day, and it was entirely due to the user interface, which Spotify seems to have nailed to perfection.
When I'm at home, I 'm playing Music over one of my two Sonos Amps, or my older Yamaha Receiver (two Sonos in the house, Yamaha the garage, in ceiling speakers all around). When I'm on the road it's my headphones, or the car stereo. When I'm at work it's the Sonos Roam that sits at my desk. From