This is why musicians need help. It’s why I am going to need help to continue to produce music. I really really really want to.
But the systen is broken. Spotify and the major labels made billions as planned when Spotify went public. Phone manufacturers and carriers make billions every week selling devices and services that would be unsellable with out delivering music.
The money is there. Billions more could be paid out and it would make for better music. And better musicians and songwriters would make a better living. Even some trash ones. And that’s cool, because as Tom Petty said, “even the losers get lucky sometimes.”
Everyone has the potential to write a hit, and they should all have a chance to make a living off it if they do.
Musicians aren’t even really getting exposure. This is actually more exploitive than those legendary days when Black (and White) artists signed these terrible contracts.
Funny how we give lip service these aggregious acts of the past trying to sound Woke, while ignoring the real struggle of artists in the present. Oh lets mock the that the struggle is real, while in this case, THE STRUGGLE IS ACTUALLY real, and indifference is still a root cause of why it will continue unabated.
We can mock Mariah and say she’s already rich, but this is the canary in the coal mine.
Did these billioniares pimp the streaming of ever Christmas song in the World for a million large? A thousandth of a Billion is a million and a million is what gets made in a day or two at a grocery store. That’s pure greed and manipulation. And I am a Capitalist, with tbe socialist tendencies necessary to continue Capitalism.
That is some cold ass pimpin’.
But ah Hell, I can’t lie. I am going to keep going because I am a mad man chasing destiny. I write songs every day and this is what I was born to do.
But a lot of bands are quitting, never being born, and soundcloud rap and bad bro Country rules because music is not a profitabld exercise. It’s a loss leader at best. And musicians and songwriters are taking the L, so the new railroad barons of the internet can make billions.
I know I know, it’s The American Way. Sorry, I’ll write code instead until there is an App or AI for that.
I am fine, but this is not. Mariah made how much really because she did not write the tune.
No bueno.
It was better when evil labels could sell plastic discs.
Full disclosure: I love using Spotify. It’s great for consumers, and bad for creators, like looting. This Swedish company is literally a bunch of Vikings. You shouldn’t have every song ever for $10 if the people you are listening to are starving. A lot of people you’ll never hear about where involved in those recordings. It’s becoming a dead man’s art. We’re living off the bones of nostalgia.
Wyatt Powell thank you for sharing this link with me.
Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
