⚖️ Is the internet good or bad for musicians?

For Musicians
#1

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

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

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

#2

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.

#3

Good for musicians, bad for ‘music business’.

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

I can’t really see any sense that the internet prevents anybody from making amazing music.

#4

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.

1 Like
#5

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.

3 Likes
#6

Probably the blandest question you could ask about music tbh

#7

Depends.

1 Like
#8

Dunno.

#9

Yes.

#10

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

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#11

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

Where is this pressure from?

It doesn’t seem to have much/anything to do with music/being a musician. It seems like they could just NOT do that, if they don’t want to.

#12

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

#13

7 Likes
#14

I read it, but it doesn’t answer the question. Never mind though; each to their own.

#15

Yes it’s good

#16

Somewhat

#17

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

#18

No issues with that, obviously.

#19

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 https://www.submithub.com/influencers too - I tried it for an artist and the impact was hard to discern

1 Like
#20

When wasn’t there a time when musicians signed up for cash-cow status, only to complain about the milking sheds?