There was some great music from that time. Can I pick your brain a little on how you feel music declined? Is it recording quality, songwriting, instrumentation, etc.?
I saw a video last night on the format wars. When Cassette’s first came out they slaughtered vinyl sales. However, vinyl stormed back. Whenever a new format appears other formats take a kicking then vinyl comes back again. Audio steeaming is not collecting anything, not buyjng anything. This is partly the reason why gig tuckets sky rocket. People just don’t get it. Buy your music, simple.
Yes, I can see what you're saying! On the one hand, people don't always have the space or the money to collect physical copies of music - so for them streaming is clearly more convenient. But I can definitely agree that there's an element of traditional music listening that goes overlooked when not buying full albums or having some type of a collection of your favorite works. Not to mention, buying physical music is more helpful to the artist themself! Thanks for commenting (:
Your channel and videos are extremely well done. All content is both educational and entertaining. Thank you so much for all the time and care you put into these excellent mini documentaries.
An American Library or World Library of Music is a great idea. Seems to me we're in a transition & no one knows where the industry will go. Musicians have to just keep learning to be excellent & provide us with music that makes us better people, and the world a better place.
Entirely unrelated, but ok ok? by half alive (shown at 6:11) is one of my favorite songs right now. Really interesting ideas with a socialized streaming service too. Love the video and just subscribed!
You know what? I remember when the only music you knew was on the radio or in your local community. All the digital content opened the doors to music I would NEVER hear otherwise. If I were to list my top 10 artists, I could list the following facts about them: 1. No one I know listens to them. No one in my family. None of my friends. None of my coworkers. 2. None of the people in #1 have even HEARD of these artists. 3. None have ever been heard on any local radio station that I've ever heard. 4. None of them have ever held a concert within 100 miles of me that I'm aware of. 5. I found every single one by tugging on the thread of "music discovery" in streaming apps like Pandora. Otherwise, I would never even know that they exist. 6. The ONLY reason I have a subscription to a music streaming service is to hear these artists. 7. I would prefer to directly BUY their music like the old days, but with the death of Google Music and the typical limited storage on phones (pics, video, music... I use more storage on my phone than my laptop, yet my phone has less storage due to expense/availability). Here's another interesting fact: Before streaming, before iPods, before digital music became so widely available on the internet... When all the music artist knowledge you had came from the music store, the radio, MTV, and your friends and family... At that time, I actually believed that I just didn't like music. I didn't like anything I heard. It wasn't until music discovery on streaming services that connected me to a universe of music that I discovered I really love music. It just happens that I really dislike most common/popular music. Regarding a "public music library"... As described, that has to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. With the exception of expensive music instruments, there is literally no reason you have to make a living making music to be a great musician. If you can't make a living being a great musician, perhaps you aren't a great musician. I think the "problem" is that your expectation is that people should be able to make money because they want to make music. This is life, sister. If you want to be a financially successful chef, you have to make food that people want to pay you money for -- and opening and running a restaurant is way harder than uploading garbage music to a service and hoping you get some streams. An engineer that designs things no one needs will not make a living. A novelist that is no good won't make a living as an author... As this video progressed, the more it started to sound like a "life is hard" video. Yes, it is. Work harder. Rise up and meet it. Don't conclude with some juvenile, college-student, garbage about "government should do something about it".
Hi. First of all, thank you for taking the time to watch and share your thoughts. I appreciate it. I can tell you are passionate about the topic. I just want to point out that the public music library was not my idea, nor did I explicitly say that I thought it was the solution. I was simply trying to explore the issue that a lot of artists bring up regarding the digital streaming platforms, and present a few different perspectives on it. I also have found a lot of my favorite artists through these streaming algorithms and I am grateful for that! Based on your statements, it seems like your music taste doesn't really fit in the pop realm (unless I've misunderstood). If these artists aren't playing shows or playing on mainstream radio, and they aren't particularly well known by a lot of people, I'm curious about how they make their income. Since you've brought up a great point about storage on digital devices, do you think that subscription services that pay directly, such as Patreon, would be a better solution? Or are you suggesting that we just kind of stick with what we already have going, as it does work quite well for the average listener. I'm interested to know more about your thoughts on this!
I really enjoyed this video and look forward to checking out more of yours. I grew up with the format of the Album, and as an artist I work with the Concept Album as my starting point. I'd be interested to hear your take on how streaming has fragmented everything into individual tracks. For me, this really destroys the listening experience I'm seeking to create. I think it may work for very pop music, but not at all for what I'm trying to do. It seems to me to be a weird flashback to 1970s Top 40 AM radio.
This is a very interesting question! I have also thought about this a lot as an artist myself. I love concept albums and do think streaming has heavily impacted the art of the album in general. Before streaming, labels were looking to sell albums because they were the most profitable. Therefore, they funded albums more generously and artists were really able to dive into something like a concept album. Singles were merely vehicles to sell the album. Today, album sales don't matter as much as streams per song, so the single takes priority and albums become very expensive to make because they aren't profitable. I personally still try to buy physical albums when I'm able to, just because I want to support/sustain the art as much as I can. I don't want to the album to die! (thought I don't think it actually will) I would love to do a whole video on this topic; I have so many thoughts!
Wow! This was incredible! It didn't even feel like 24 minutes. So thoroughly researched and packed with information, and so enjoyably presented! I really enjoyed this video. Thank you MT. Looking forward to your next video!
The streaming services and recording companies knew that streaming was the future, and screwed the artists. Lowering the cost of an album and song and created the 360 deal. The music you once loved to play for people has now ,has turned you into a slave .
In my case, I pretty much stopped buying new music in the early 1990's, when I thought to myself, "Everything now sounds the same and all the singers are autotuned". I've stuck with my previously bought music featuring music from the 60's-80's and re-issues of music from before then. I have an older vehicle, never replaced the cassette player after it died, so luckily there's a local FM classic rock station that plays most of what I have in my collection. :-)
The AML is an interesting idea for a privately run business or non-profit or even for the Musicians Union to fund and back (Would make that union actually worth joining). In the hands of the government it would just end up like Copyright laws, broken at best, counter-productive at worst. Great video. My take-away is that Big Labels are making even more then they used to and the independent is still getting screwed unless they get very creative and multi-source their revenue streams. It's not an industry for people who just want a job.
Basically, when it became easier to download your songs from the internet for free than it was to go to the store to buy a CD, was when the music industry as we knew it died.
When I hear the music played on the radio , the conclusion is music killed its self. For the same reason, I don't listen to the radio a lot , although I do have the time to.
@@MusicTheoriesChannel Well , when I ask people , what do you like this song for , it's lyrics or the music ? The answer is, both , lyrics and the tune/beats. Same goes for me. When you say pop music, I will assume it's popular music of all genres , basically what is played on the radio , for instance. Personally I find the music lacking creativity, safe for the "masses " ? Lacking individuality . Lyrics can seem scripted or just annoying sometimes . A combination of all three mostly. You (me) can get tired of listening to same old stuff over and over again , yes ! In my opinion, there are only a handful (if that)of cool songs released each year. Personally I find instrumental/electronic music without lyrics a lot more enjoyable and interesting, simply because it takes a bit more creativity to capture the audience. Thanks for asking.
For me, it would already be a bit better if my subscription money at least goes to bands that I listen. Now around 80% goes to artist I don´t want to support. That makes paying for the subscription extra bitter. And seriously makes me consider to drop my subscription, besides that subscription only makes sense if you listen a lot, would rather buy an album than every two months. But I rather see a pay per listen. Just pay one cent to listen to a song. Would for me probably be much cheaper. Also all the music that I do own, I don´t have to stream, so would save more. Makes it beneficial to also buy singles/albums. Now with subscription services, you lose everything if you stop. And it feels as wasting money to buy physical because you already have acces to it. And maybe you can get some points for playing an artist. Which can be used for discount on merch or maybe use those to give your diehard fans first chance to buy tickets. Of course, open music library would also totally fine by me as consumer
The question, "Should artists be paid more?" is misplaced. Artists, like everyone else, should be paid what people are willing to pay for their product. The internet has made it possible for virtually anyone to declare themselves an artist and distribute their work, basically for free, to a large audience. Does this mean that they deserve other people's money? Does this mean that they deserve to make a living as an artist? No. The vast majority of artists will not make much money, as is true of the vast majority of people on the internet, generally, no matter what they are selling. And, no, the "solution" is not socialism. Taking money from taxpayers to fund artists that these taxpayers are not willing to voluntarily support is unjust. As was pointed out in the video, it takes a lot of time, money and effort to become the kind of artist that a lot of people are willing to support. Only a few artists are up to the task, and only a few will make a living at it. This is not a problem, it's a fact of life. Calls to "socialize" music, artistry, or any other value in life, tries to "fix" this fact of life by taking from those who have created what others value and are willing to pay for and giving their earnings to those who haven't. This fixes nothing.
"Artists, like everyone else, should be paid what people are willing to pay for their product." Well, that's the problem though, isn't it? If you review the portion of the video beginning at around @12:30 , I discuss the issue with middlemen (Spotify and major labels) taking the majority of the money that people are "willing to pay for their product." So your solution is not quite that simple. Even if people are willing to pay, the money is not reaching the artist. On top of that, the label decides who is "talented" and thus promoted, streamed, etc. etc. etc. So, there's a huge pitfall for those who aren't under a label, but do have tons of fans willing to support them and pay them. Furthermore, I think you've sort of jumped the gun on what socialized music would mean. I encourage you to read the two sources I spoke about at that point. It helps to understand exactly how these things would potentially function before assuming that the government would be blindly reaching into your pocket. Which, when you put it that way, comes off as excessive. But, that's not what he's suggesting at all. There's actually a whole section of his outline called "How Will We Pay for This?" that explains further. The model presented by Henderson Cole specifically states that the idea of royalties would be somewhat reinvented. It would, more or less, cut out the middle man I spoke of above. This way, the money IS going directly to the artists and they ARE being paid what people are willing to pay, so by your standards laid out above, it's actually closer to what you're suggesting than Spotify is. But of course, these things are really complicated and no one is suggesting that they're not and that it's an easy fix. So with that, I ask you what do you think the solution is?
@@MusicTheoriesChannel Most music by RUclipsrs is either WTF, or cringeworthy The SoundCloud rap boom of the mid to late 2010’s, most (MOST) of them sucked TikTok having bad taste in general I miss the days when rock was more mainstream
Should artists be paid more? What do you all think the solution is?
Music started to decline around the 1990's, Prince was correct when he said the 60s-80s were the golden years
There was some great music from that time. Can I pick your brain a little on how you feel music declined? Is it recording quality, songwriting, instrumentation, etc.?
Not OP but songwriting (at least for mainstream) is not well to put it nicely.
I saw a video last night on the format wars. When Cassette’s first came out they slaughtered vinyl sales. However, vinyl stormed back. Whenever a new format appears other formats take a kicking then vinyl comes back again. Audio steeaming is not collecting anything, not buyjng anything. This is partly the reason why gig tuckets sky rocket. People just don’t get it. Buy your music, simple.
Yes, I can see what you're saying! On the one hand, people don't always have the space or the money to collect physical copies of music - so for them streaming is clearly more convenient. But I can definitely agree that there's an element of traditional music listening that goes overlooked when not buying full albums or having some type of a collection of your favorite works. Not to mention, buying physical music is more helpful to the artist themself! Thanks for commenting (:
Your channel and videos are extremely well done. All content is both educational and entertaining. Thank you so much for all the time and care you put into these excellent mini documentaries.
Such a nice comment ❤️ thank you so much for the support!
An American Library or World Library of Music is a great idea. Seems to me we're in a transition & no one knows where the industry will go. Musicians have to just keep learning to be excellent & provide us with music that makes us better people, and the world a better place.
Agreed!!
Entirely unrelated, but ok ok? by half alive (shown at 6:11) is one of my favorite songs right now. Really interesting ideas with a socialized streaming service too. Love the video and just subscribed!
You know what? I remember when the only music you knew was on the radio or in your local community. All the digital content opened the doors to music I would NEVER hear otherwise.
If I were to list my top 10 artists, I could list the following facts about them:
1. No one I know listens to them. No one in my family. None of my friends. None of my coworkers.
2. None of the people in #1 have even HEARD of these artists.
3. None have ever been heard on any local radio station that I've ever heard.
4. None of them have ever held a concert within 100 miles of me that I'm aware of.
5. I found every single one by tugging on the thread of "music discovery" in streaming apps like Pandora. Otherwise, I would never even know that they exist.
6. The ONLY reason I have a subscription to a music streaming service is to hear these artists.
7. I would prefer to directly BUY their music like the old days, but with the death of Google Music and the typical limited storage on phones (pics, video, music... I use more storage on my phone than my laptop, yet my phone has less storage due to expense/availability).
Here's another interesting fact:
Before streaming, before iPods, before digital music became so widely available on the internet... When all the music artist knowledge you had came from the music store, the radio, MTV, and your friends and family... At that time, I actually believed that I just didn't like music. I didn't like anything I heard. It wasn't until music discovery on streaming services that connected me to a universe of music that I discovered I really love music. It just happens that I really dislike most common/popular music.
Regarding a "public music library"... As described, that has to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. With the exception of expensive music instruments, there is literally no reason you have to make a living making music to be a great musician. If you can't make a living being a great musician, perhaps you aren't a great musician.
I think the "problem" is that your expectation is that people should be able to make money because they want to make music. This is life, sister. If you want to be a financially successful chef, you have to make food that people want to pay you money for -- and opening and running a restaurant is way harder than uploading garbage music to a service and hoping you get some streams.
An engineer that designs things no one needs will not make a living. A novelist that is no good won't make a living as an author... As this video progressed, the more it started to sound like a "life is hard" video. Yes, it is. Work harder. Rise up and meet it. Don't conclude with some juvenile, college-student, garbage about "government should do something about it".
Hi. First of all, thank you for taking the time to watch and share your thoughts. I appreciate it. I can tell you are passionate about the topic. I just want to point out that the public music library was not my idea, nor did I explicitly say that I thought it was the solution. I was simply trying to explore the issue that a lot of artists bring up regarding the digital streaming platforms, and present a few different perspectives on it. I also have found a lot of my favorite artists through these streaming algorithms and I am grateful for that!
Based on your statements, it seems like your music taste doesn't really fit in the pop realm (unless I've misunderstood). If these artists aren't playing shows or playing on mainstream radio, and they aren't particularly well known by a lot of people, I'm curious about how they make their income. Since you've brought up a great point about storage on digital devices, do you think that subscription services that pay directly, such as Patreon, would be a better solution? Or are you suggesting that we just kind of stick with what we already have going, as it does work quite well for the average listener. I'm interested to know more about your thoughts on this!
I really enjoyed this video and look forward to checking out more of yours. I grew up with the format of the Album, and as an artist I work with the Concept Album as my starting point. I'd be interested to hear your take on how streaming has fragmented everything into individual tracks. For me, this really destroys the listening experience I'm seeking to create. I think it may work for very pop music, but not at all for what I'm trying to do. It seems to me to be a weird flashback to 1970s Top 40 AM radio.
This is a very interesting question! I have also thought about this a lot as an artist myself. I love concept albums and do think streaming has heavily impacted the art of the album in general. Before streaming, labels were looking to sell albums because they were the most profitable. Therefore, they funded albums more generously and artists were really able to dive into something like a concept album. Singles were merely vehicles to sell the album. Today, album sales don't matter as much as streams per song, so the single takes priority and albums become very expensive to make because they aren't profitable. I personally still try to buy physical albums when I'm able to, just because I want to support/sustain the art as much as I can. I don't want to the album to die! (thought I don't think it actually will)
I would love to do a whole video on this topic; I have so many thoughts!
woah this chanel deserve 1 mil subscribers
Thank you! I hope someday ☺️
Wow! This was incredible! It didn't even feel like 24 minutes. So thoroughly researched and packed with information, and so enjoyably presented! I really enjoyed this video. Thank you MT.
Looking forward to your next video!
Thank you for the support ☺️
Yes, please do a video on the music industry.
This👏 Is👏 Quality👏
Thank you so much!
The streaming services and recording companies knew that streaming was the future, and screwed the artists. Lowering the cost of an album and song and created the 360 deal. The music you once loved to play for people has now ,has turned you into a slave .
it's true that artists receive peanuts for streamed music 😔
Superb presentation! Rock on, MT! - Heather
Thank you kindly!
In my case, I pretty much stopped buying new music in the early 1990's, when I thought to myself, "Everything now sounds the same and all the singers are autotuned". I've stuck with my previously bought music featuring music from the 60's-80's and re-issues of music from before then. I have an older vehicle, never replaced the cassette player after it died, so luckily there's a local FM classic rock station that plays most of what I have in my collection. :-)
I agree
Thank you I love this channel and I’m happy to have got in on the ground floor
Glad you enjoy it and glad to have you!
The AML is an interesting idea for a privately run business or non-profit or even for the Musicians Union to fund and back (Would make that union actually worth joining).
In the hands of the government it would just end up like Copyright laws, broken at best, counter-productive at worst.
Great video. My take-away is that Big Labels are making even more then they used to and the independent is still getting screwed unless they get very creative and multi-source their revenue streams. It's not an industry for people who just want a job.
Great points! Thanks for sharing (:
what a powerful video🏖
So glad you thought so! Thanks for watching
Thank you 🎵
Basically, when it became easier to download your songs from the internet for free than it was to go to the store to buy a CD, was when the music industry as we knew it died.
That definitely was a huge turning point!
When I hear the music played on the radio , the conclusion is music killed its self. For the same reason, I don't listen to the radio a lot , although I do have the time to.
Interesting. Can I ask what it is you don’t like about pop music? Just out of curiosity 🙂
@@MusicTheoriesChannel Well , when I ask people , what do you like this song for , it's lyrics or the music ? The answer is, both , lyrics and the tune/beats. Same goes for me. When you say pop music, I will assume it's popular music of all genres , basically what is played on the radio , for instance. Personally I find the music lacking creativity, safe for the "masses " ? Lacking individuality . Lyrics can seem scripted or just annoying sometimes . A combination of all three mostly. You (me) can get tired of listening to same old stuff over and over again , yes ! In my opinion, there are only a handful (if that)of cool songs released each year. Personally I find instrumental/electronic music without lyrics a lot more enjoyable and interesting, simply because it takes a bit more creativity to capture the audience. Thanks for asking.
For me, it would already be a bit better if my subscription money at least goes to bands that I listen. Now around 80% goes to artist I don´t want to support. That makes paying for the subscription extra bitter. And seriously makes me consider to drop my subscription, besides that subscription only makes sense if you listen a lot, would rather buy an album than every two months.
But I rather see a pay per listen. Just pay one cent to listen to a song. Would for me probably be much cheaper. Also all the music that I do own, I don´t have to stream, so would save more. Makes it beneficial to also buy singles/albums. Now with subscription services, you lose everything if you stop. And it feels as wasting money to buy physical because you already have acces to it.
And maybe you can get some points for playing an artist. Which can be used for discount on merch or maybe use those to give your diehard fans first chance to buy tickets.
Of course, open music library would also totally fine by me as consumer
Thank you so much for watching and sharing your perspective!
Music finished at 00.00 1999 📣
The question, "Should artists be paid more?" is misplaced. Artists, like everyone else, should be paid what people are willing to pay for their product. The internet has made it possible for virtually anyone to declare themselves an artist and distribute their work, basically for free, to a large audience. Does this mean that they deserve other people's money? Does this mean that they deserve to make a living as an artist? No. The vast majority of artists will not make much money, as is true of the vast majority of people on the internet, generally, no matter what they are selling.
And, no, the "solution" is not socialism. Taking money from taxpayers to fund artists that these taxpayers are not willing to voluntarily support is unjust. As was pointed out in the video, it takes a lot of time, money and effort to become the kind of artist that a lot of people are willing to support. Only a few artists are up to the task, and only a few will make a living at it. This is not a problem, it's a fact of life. Calls to "socialize" music, artistry, or any other value in life, tries to "fix" this fact of life by taking from those who have created what others value and are willing to pay for and giving their earnings to those who haven't. This fixes nothing.
"Artists, like everyone else, should be paid what people are willing to pay for their product."
Well, that's the problem though, isn't it? If you review the portion of the video beginning at around @12:30 , I discuss the issue with middlemen (Spotify and major labels) taking the majority of the money that people are "willing to pay for their product." So your solution is not quite that simple. Even if people are willing to pay, the money is not reaching the artist. On top of that, the label decides who is "talented" and thus promoted, streamed, etc. etc. etc. So, there's a huge pitfall for those who aren't under a label, but do have tons of fans willing to support them and pay them.
Furthermore, I think you've sort of jumped the gun on what socialized music would mean. I encourage you to read the two sources I spoke about at that point. It helps to understand exactly how these things would potentially function before assuming that the government would be blindly reaching into your pocket. Which, when you put it that way, comes off as excessive. But, that's not what he's suggesting at all. There's actually a whole section of his outline called "How Will We Pay for This?" that explains further.
The model presented by Henderson Cole specifically states that the idea of royalties would be somewhat reinvented. It would, more or less, cut out the middle man I spoke of above. This way, the money IS going directly to the artists and they ARE being paid what people are willing to pay, so by your standards laid out above, it's actually closer to what you're suggesting than Spotify is.
But of course, these things are really complicated and no one is suggesting that they're not and that it's an easy fix. So with that, I ask you what do you think the solution is?
The internet didn’t kill music, Bad Music was easier to make and, as such, was brought to the surface, good music got buried underneath bad music
What would you define as “bad music”? Just curious!
@@MusicTheoriesChannel Most music by RUclipsrs is either WTF, or cringeworthy
The SoundCloud rap boom of the mid to late 2010’s, most (MOST) of them sucked
TikTok having bad taste in general
I miss the days when rock was more mainstream
fukk spotify, buy music instead to support artists 😁
I'm not paying for any music in this economy.