⚖️ Is the internet good or bad for musicians?

[sean]

Like, on balance.

Connecting to fanbases, top marks… as long as you do it via email

Ease of communicating with global teams (maybe too easy sometimes)

Streaming income, not so great but the ability to be heard and discovered isn’t so bad

I think the key issue right now, other than earning a living from your actual music rather than from performing it once you reach a certain level (1000+ capacity sold out shows or big brand partnerships…), is the onus on artists to be “content creators”

Thought Tim Exile distilled this pretty well

Tim Exile

And this piece I shared in a thread earlier by Self Esteem is spot on

Sean Adams

So… the internet… good or bad on balance for musicians? (Maybe worth doing a separate thread for music fans?)

[sean]

Also worth adding that the impact of the current demands from labels and platforms on artists is causing burnout. Music Managers Forum have been doing a lot of great work around this.

MMF-DIGITAL-BURNOUT-REPORT-4.pdf

[fitzcarraldo]

@sean

I think the key issue right now, other than earning a living from your actual music rather than from performing it once you reach a certain level (1000+ capacity sold out shows or big brand partnerships…), is the onus on artists to be “content creators”

I think this has trickled down even further than that to be honest. If you look at the social media of some even smaller acts it’s just wall to wall “wacky” videos or acoustic covers of larger acts trying to go viral.

The pressure to create “content” and the time it takes to film/edit is fucking exhausting.

[guntrip]

Remember when I read Our Band Could Be Your Life and how everyone in it was booking vast US and Euro tours by just ringing people up and how exhausting and insecure that must’ve been. It’s one thing just having the contacts in the first place, but all the stories about bands tuning up after three months on the road to find that the kid promoting it had done no work so there was no audience or that the show just wasn’t happening. Brutal.

Now you can just… look venues up on a computer.

[jordan_229]

Probably the blandest question you could ask about music tbh

[bugduv]

Depends.

[Funkhouser]

Dunno.

[phantom_heart]

Yes.

[Konichiwa_Bitches]

I don’t know but it’s definitely one or the other

[guntrip]

Maybe read the Self Esteem piece in the Guardian as a starting point.

[drastic_measures]

https://tenor.com/view/sometimes-maybe-good-maybe-shit-gif-15610659

[beastie]

Yes it’s good

[Ruffers]

Somewhat

[sean]

@AttackDuck

The bad stuff surely impacts very little on musicians compared to those wishing to profit by the exploitation of musicians.

What if musicians want to profit from their own work? Or rather, recoup some of their costs?

[sean]

@AttackDuck

I don’t understand how ‘musicians’ (whatever gender; female in that piece) are under pressure to deliver viral content?

Where is this pressure from?

Record companies, mainly.

Sometimes from management, especially when trying to get an artist signed or needing “a story” for media or promoters or streaming platforms, which signifies success.

Often it’s artists themselves feeling pressured after being told you need to post 3 times a day and go all in to get exposure to millions of people, and tbh I have some data that shows a TikTok track becoming a viral hit can lead to huge spikes in streams, which in turn leads to more editorial and algorithmic support from Spotify, etc.

However, those reports were based on artists using things like https://songfluencer.com/ and http://preffy.com or https://streamstrudel.com/

I guess some people must do ok using SubmitHub too - I tried it for an artist and the impact was hard to discern

[jordan_229]

@sean

Sometimes from management, especially when trying to get an artist signed or needing “a story” for media or promoters or streaming platforms, which signifies success.

Excluding steaming platforms this is something that has always existed though obviously. It’s why bands were doing guerilla gigs and out every night til 4am in shit pubs in Camden back when anyone gave a shit about the NME for example.

[stickboy]

I think it’s good for the reasons you mentioned

But also bad for the other reasons you mentioned.

Happy to shut the internet down

[SunnyB]

Column A: forming local communities and non-local communities bound by commonalities in politics and sound has never been easier. The underground is absolutely thriving and provided that’s where you are happy to be then it is a golden age

Column B: if you want to make your living from music then playing the soul-crushing corporate game of social media image management for the basest scraps of streaming revenue must be a truly brutal existence

[Icarus-Smicarus]

Easier than ever for small bands to self-release stuff and find a decent local audience isn’t it? Harder than ever for them to turn music into their full time job. Obviously only a lucky few ever got to make that leap anyway, but now it’s harder for even the ones who do get a good following.

So imo it’s the best time ever to be a musician for fun but I guess the worst time ever if you’re wanting to be a musician as a career.

[jordan_229]

@Icarus-Smicarus

So imo it’s the best time ever to be a musician for fun but I guess the worst time ever if you’re wanting to be a musician as a career.

Agreed