#musicians deserve better

[gregrambles]

Moving away from Spotify

Be aware, this is a three part post. The first is about my own frustrations, how I think Spotify can do better, and why they probably won't. Two and three focus on alternatives, legal and otherwise.

Generally speaking. I like Spotify - the service, not the company - but the company is unfortunately bundled into that experience. Their business practices since 2023 have been disheartening to say the least. I'm sure that there has been sooner signs than mass layoffs, including the layoffs of the team that helped designed the API and algorithms that made their service so much better for taste recommendations, but that was where I started to see things turn sour for my music listening habits.

You could probably track this back to Joe Rogan's insanely expensive exclusive contract for moving his podcast to Spotify when they were starting to expand into the podcast space, or the writing on the wall when they introduced that god-awful AI DJ hosted radio station that says the same three things every 6 songs and somehow manages to be less engaging than your hometown's Ryan Seacrest clone. But for me, I started paying attention when the passionate creator of Everynoise.com, Glenn McDonald, was let go.

If you're not familiar with Glenn's work, I highly recommend popping over to the website linked above and clicking around while Spotify still allows it to function. It's a fantastic display of what Glenn and the team he worked with built during their time at Spotify that forms this beautiful gradient of genres, most you've definitely never heard of. You can also read his blog where he posts insightful anti-corporate tech articles about music, your data and more.

Since then, they've been actively working against artists and customers on the platform, relying on AI generated playlists to fill what used to be a good discovery system for new music, alongside 2024 changes that split royalty payouts between audiobooks and musicians, resulting in a reduction in overall $/per stream. Most recently, Spotify has turned to withholding royalties from artists who receive less than 1000 streams in a 12-month period.

This last change affects more than 80% of all music on the platform.

Now, on the last topic, I'd like to acknowledge there's a very real reason for this change even if I don't think it's the right direction. As beneficial as streaming has been for self-published artists that would have previously had no means to get their music out on a world stage, there are those who would abuse the system for their own gain. In Spotify's blog post discussing the threshold changes, they discuss this.

You might not feel like you have much reason to trust the company who benefits by reducing how much they need to pay out, but artificial streaming, AI generated music and noise playlists have been a large problem as less ethical individuals have realised that simply uploading a large volume of songs or generating looping playlists of 30 second tracks can be an easy way to farm payouts in a way that directly harms real artists on the platform. You can lump this kind of fraud in with ad fraud, generating falsified listens or clicks on tracks so as to simulate large numbers of real accounts, or just capitalizing off of someone's sleep playlist. There's even botting services that you can pay for to boost streams.

It just so happened to be a win-win for Spotify in that they could chop back payouts to real artists while also making it much harder for fraudsters and grifters to create an easy paycheque for themselves. This also came with a reclassification of the more problematic, long-play categories of music like ambience and noise. Overall, I'd be willing to bet that alone solved most of the problems.

Instead, an artist could release an album, have a hit but then maybe the rest of the album doesn't get picked up by the algorithm and some songs don't cross that 1000 listen threshold, and as such nothing is earned from them. And they really do mean, nothing is earned. Those 1000 plays earn nothing. Even if you cross the threshold, it doesn't start generating royalties until then (per Spotify's own language in their blog post).

Overall, I am an advocate for paying for music. I think musicians deserve their due. Even if those 1000 streams only add up to roughly $3 USD in lost royalties, that's still $3 people paid to listen to that music that the artists never see. That's money the artists deserve to receive. Even something like Apple's payout threshold is a better option here, because at least the money still comes in.

The music industry has shifted substantially, with concerts becoming inaccessible, expensive and predatory (*cough* ticketmaster *cough*). Streaming is part of why this has become the biggest avenue for artists to get paid. It's also why I buy albums, I buy merchandise and why (when I can afford it) I do go to concerts. I almost always have music playing, and the people who make that music should be paid for their place in my life. So who's actually paying artists best then?

[darkrooklobby]

Klavier playing guitar~ 💜🎵

Ok so - they re-released the Apollo Justice trilogy (ironic name) (i'll release a rant post later) and I kinda forgot Klavier Gavin existed & that he was a musician? Looking at the games with a fresh perspective I think he takes the spot of my favorite prosecutor (at least, in the one game he's treated like a character and not a cameo 🥲)

I added a purple stripe in his hair because i think IT SLAYS. Thank you for coming to my ted talk 💅

Anyway! Enjoy cozy Klavier hours / jam session~💜🎵

[hopefulomens]

thinkin bout…. the musician,,,,,,, darkwood the musician save me… save me darkwood the musician…

[ripgray-moved]

Can you stop talking about Peter as if he's the only character in the movie?

how strange that i, a Peter Graham Blog, would talk about... Peter Graham.

[leatherbookmark]

"I know why you want to return to our world, Meggie! You just miss your boyfriend! But we haven't seen everything of this beautiful world yet!" Mr Mortimer sir your wife was enslaved for working as a scribe disguised as a man. In this world women are punished for learning their fathers' craft and your thirteen years old daughter would be already married if she was born in this world. I know the books are very pretty but Mo your wife is pregnant. I don't think they have c-sections here :(

[thewhizzyhead]

I know the reunion concert was literally just 2 days ago but my bros my guys my dudes I miss WATT so so much and I really do want this show Actually Revived because I miss my cheerleaders, pma's stories and music are fucking great and I wanna hear more, watt has so much room for improvement, and I wanna see watt thrive aaaaaaaa

[baycitystygian]

how did this audience not react at all to this absolute gem. if I was in the crowd and he told this joke I’d be screaming like a hyena with laughter

[thecolorsfucked]

uk it wasnt self love and deserving better that made me end my 12year situationship it was the callous and selfish way he talked about our friend(MY friend) blowing his skull off like he used it as a plot point in his own life and i had to guess who it was i had to use context clues bcuz he couldnt even acknowledge erik was a full person who mattered outside of the effects he had on this piece of shits life

[hellcheerficdatabase]

Inescapable

Author: @theladycarpathia

Rating/Warning: General

Chapter Count: 1/1 (for now)

Description:

Eddie understood the idea of a lock-down in theory. He just didn't quite understand that it also included being around Chrissy 24/7.

It's been a day so far and he's not sure how many more he can manage without telling her he loves her.

Tags: Alternate Universe- no vecna, alternate universe- modern au, pandemic au, musician!Eddie, Author!Chrissy, roommates, AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES, mutual pining, strangers to friends to lovers, Eddie POV, one-shot, for now, status: Completed, for now

[dinosaurwithablog]

I love this guy. He played it and sang it so well!!

Musician: Jesse Welles

Posted 11Dec2024

[cyarsk52-20]

They could’ve just scheduled the conjugal visit and left it at that… I just feel like he suck dick with his eyes closed

[deliciousmicroplastics]

some of the best of modern music is being wasted on ads

[asukastylescenalynch]

I'm tired of this & since I can't defend myself on twitter cuz everyone even people I've never engaged with jumps on me like a pack of disease ridden fucking animals I'm gonna do it here. all of this happened because of you m*nika, c*roline, n*na, & s*lvia way back then. we were all friends until m & c decided it would be fun to start bullying me out of nowhere. I got tired of how you treated me & your disgusting attitudes & toxic behavior so I told you to fuck off & you didn't like it. n joined in simply because she's a fucking lunatic & s didn't like her ex best friend sided with me (which she did cuz s was being an insufferable bitch) I made several new accounts trying to escape you, blocking all of you & you still found ways to harass me. then out of nowhere b*gum had a problem with me, who for some reason got pissed off when I blocked her after she blocked me first. & even all of her accounts I know of blocked she still managed to some how quote my posts relentlessly harassing me. st*phanie & l*sa I simply just don't like & find annoying & sickeningly phony, so I blocked them too. all this time I have never said anything to about any of you, I kept all of you blocked & just ignored you, & minded my own business. now this whole new thing started cuz this bitch j*ss or whatever blocked me & instead of just simply blocking me & leaving it at that she felt the need to make a post badmouthing me when I never did anything & here we are again full circle with you cunts bothering me. you guys can never just fucking leave me alone when I have left you alone, you are constantly talking about me behind my back lying about me acting like I started it when I literally did nothing. you just can't shut the fuck up about me & instead of keeping it amongst yourselves you sic your followers on me to bombard me with insults when they don't even know me, only the lies you all told them. & that's the truth. I'm not gonna let you continue to blame me, I don't start shit. & as always you will continue to believe you did nothing wrong. if I recall a lot of you had shitty relationships with your parents so no wonder you all act the way you do when you have families who hate you or just don't like you. you are all so fucking psychotic I've never been so disgusted. there is something seriously wrong with all of you & I hope for the absolute worst for you all.

[roseteagreen]

If I can add on, I highly recommend watching this video (not mine):

Megan Thee Stallion's "Cobra" is extremely vulnerable, and it's very brave of her to put struggles out into the world, especially when it comes to her suicidal ideation. Additionally, considering her personal life and struggles have played out on the world's stage, I admire her candor.

And for someone of Meg's status, it can be hard to admit to being depressed despite being what other people would describe as "blessed."

Very rarely in mainstream media do Black women get to be depressed. We are often encouraged to be and are often pigeonholed into being "strong."

Sometimes, we're hurt and angry, and in all honesty... depressed. And it's OK to admit that we're not OK.

However, I do admire how Meg's song implies that a snake sheds its skin and starts anew. Leave the past in the past. It's OK to admit that something hurt you, but you can put it behind you and move forward.

Also, let me point out: everyone has their own timeline for healing. Don't allow anyone to rush it. People process grief in various ways.

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Liam was a boy, and then a man, who suffered so much trauma and pain. He was bullied as a child and then lived a nightmare that I think none of us can really imagine of having that triggering experience replicated on a literally global public scale. He became a man who inflicted trauma on others. He was an addict who was unable to find a way out of that disease, and now never will, but who was open and vulnerable about his struggles. He was an incredibly talented musician and artist and an absolutely integral part of one of the most important bands of a generation; his voice and songwriting and skill in the studio shaped every aspect of what One Direction became at their best. He loved that band and being a part of that experience with his whole being and would never have stopped celebrating what they meant to us and to the world. He had problems and did bad things; that doesn't mean he was a bad person who didn't deserve to be loved and helped to heal- everyone deserves that- and the fact that that's not something that can ever happen now is devastating. I was very distressed by many of his actions; and I cared deeply about this man I didn't know and wished for better for him than this outcome.

I'm so deeply, deeply SAD tonight. I'm sad for Liam, who will never now have the chance to look back on this hard time and reflect on how far he's come, and for Liam's family, for his parents and his sisters who loved and supported him so much, and for everyone in the 1D band family and circles. And I'm sad for us. It feels like nothing will ever be quite the same, and that's hard and sad and shocking. It's a special kind of doubled grief, to mourn the loss of the person, and also of what he meant to us in this strange world of parasocial fanning, for the real him and also for the version of him that we made up and attached so much meaning to and for the escape that brought us. For him, and also for the easy uncomplicated joy of listening to those beautiful songs from happier times, which might never feel the same again. For the other boys, who we love so much and wish we could shield from suffering and loss and pain. For our fellow fans, who we also worry about the impact of this on. Everything about this is terrible, and I am sending so much love out to all of you. We are not alone, and it's okay to feel complicated emotions and it's okay to mourn and it's okay to care about how it effects you and your life, whatever you're feeling- it's okay. We are here with you. We are 1D family.

[thislovintime]

Photo 6 by Paul Natkin.

“In my eyes, Peter was a seasoned pro. He was easy going, humorous and took his music very seriously. [...] I am very proud to have played music with Peter. [...] He loved playing music with other musicians and loved being in a band.” - Jim Gibson, interview for This Lovin’ Time, September 2023 (x)

“[In the early 1980s, in NYC] I remember we went down to the China Club, and I took Peter down there, and… and I felt that a lot of the musicians, you know, disrespected him. He didn’t play, but I introduced him, ‘This is my pal, Peter,‘ and they were kind of, like, blowing him off a little bit, and I remember seeing, you know, that pained look on his face as these guys were being rude — or condescending; not so much rude, it’s just condescending, like, ‘Oh, you were the Monkee, pfff,’ you know. And… and I know it troubled him. [Once the resurgence and 20th anniversary tour came around] that’s when Peter started — when they started giving him, you know, some regard. - James Lee Stanley, The Monkees Pad Show no. 11

“Music has been a strong part of my life. That’s why I get so upset when I hear people talk about The Monkees not being able to play instruments,’ he asserted. […] ‘None of us, and I’m talking about [Micky] Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones and myself, were non-musical. We were real musicians and we played real music,’ he emphasized. ‘There was a lot of commercial hype involved with the emergence of The Monkees. Without at least a dollop of commercialism, you can’t make it in the business. Talent and commercialism go together. People liked to put us down, but we were there and we will be remembered,’ Tork offered.” - Citizens’ Voice, October 19, 1983