Tag: steve albini

Episode 87 – Ghost of Music Industry Future

The Episode:


To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

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The Cash:

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Story:

1999, nearing the dawn of the millennium. Developers Shawn Fanning, John Fanning, and Sean Parker gave birth to Napster, and on this day music was set free. As the Internet has developed – faster download speeds and cheaper access, record labels have been forced to seek solutions, trying to fit their old ways of business, into a new world of technology, and minimise falling profits. The latest and favoured avenue for music consumption has become online streaming, which has made all music on a wide scale available thanks to the likes of Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music. The craze of having the latest music at your fingertips and instant access to your favourite jams.

This is all part of the surface illusion, as the artists are still sold short, still not adequately compensated for their creative works. Behind a complex system, with a careful formulae to direct and nudge the tips, money doesn’t go to the artists that you listen to – at least, not the way most would think. There are flaws in this streaming system; a customer is paying for a service and receiving a service – but one must consider:

  • The payment algorithm – How is the balance of fans vs plays?
  • Mathematical calculated – How are artist royalties decided?
  • Your choices – Do they count, and do you matter?

Amongst these issues, the major flaw in the “big money pool” – the way most streaming services distribute the revenue – is that it is does not distribute the money fairly amongst the artists. The system is being gamed and hacked. Active corruption plays a role in the form of click fraud – where the competition of fans vs clicks takes place. The system is manipulated to serve a targeted minority. There are other methods to manage streaming revenue distribution, such as stream payment VS subscriber payment. However, as long as the music industry is centralised and under control by large labels, these issues will remain inherent to the music industry, with fans and artists scrambling to find ways to publicise this plight.

Technology shifts are here again to change the game, providing the answer and guiding an alternate form of online distribution. The new Internet, powered by blockchain technology, will give ownership back to the artists and expand options for consumers. Artists understand that they are also the entrepreneur, in control of their brand, marketing via alternative media, personality via social media and responsible for their revenue streams. Startups such as Baboom and Peertracks are taking advantage of artist value, market needs and the technology, providing the answer to this industry fault. Baboom promotes fair-trade streaming combined with an online music store, they pay artists 90% of the revenue directly and support a paying artists for fan subscription. Peertracks will utilise the blockchain which will allow artists to connect with fans, by giving the fans the chance to trade unique tokens – a form of currency which can be used to fund albums, and buy concert tickets and merchandise from that artist, and to hold a share in the artist’s success. Companies that support a direct relationship between artist and fan will gain traction, allowing artists to independently build an income stream which reflects their real popularity. These interactions will create communities and ensure that artists remain inspired and supported in producing and giving to the world.

Join us as we explore the technological vortex which could lead to a whole new era of creative genius on the next episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Episode 65 – Ghost of Music Industry Past

Episode 52 – Juan Galt: The Panopticon and Your Privacy

The Links:

The music industry is a parasite and copyright is dead

The problem with music has been solved by the Internet

How the Internet solved the problem with music

Streaming music is ripping you off

How the blockchain could actually change the music industry

The music industry’s broken business could change in 2015

13 of the most insidious, pervasive lies of the modern music industry

Peertracks

Baboom

Banda Ms – Piénsalo

Los Tigres Del Norte – La Reina Del Sur

Julión Álvarez Y Su Norteño Banda – El Amor De Su Vida

Banda El Recodo De Cruz Lizárraga – Vas A Llorar Por Mí

El Bebeto – No Te Creas Tan Importante

Episode 65 – The Ghost of Music Industry Past

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Cash:

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link.

The Story:

In 1992, Steve Albini wrote his famous piece, “The Problem with Music”, giving the graphic image of a bunch of hungry artists clambering through a trench full of excrement in order to vy for a recording contract with uncertain and questionable terms. He explained how the music industry is full of a special kind of corruption, that takes advantage of the very people which make the entire industry possible by providing them with a healthy line of credit, then selling them back all the services needed to create an album at an extremely inflated price. One figure that has been thrown around is that record companies, on average, have a 5% success rate – 5% of all records go gold or platinum, and 95% well, they don’t. In any other industry, that would send a company down shit creek pretty fast, but in the record industry, most of the costs are borne by the artist, making the record label a rather undesirable business partner.

Music is a powerful tool in manipulating minds. Might some unscrupulous A&Rs decide to change how people think, act, what they glorify? Perhaps by using overt themes in music, or perhaps even by subliminal messages. There might be a lot of pressure on record labels from certain nefarious and hidden interests.

Now of course, the music industry has been forced to change, under the pressure of Internet piracy and the decay of copyright laws as any meaningful deterrent. But that is a story for another time… For now, let’s explore how the music industry screwed over many artists as we journey through another exciting episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Manual: How to Have a Number 1 the Easy Way
EM-ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN OCTOBER 2008-MAGAZINE
Beat It (Single Version)
In Utero
The Paradise Paradox – Episode 52 – The Panopticon & Your Privacy: Juan Galt
The Paradise Paradox – Episode 50 – Ethereum & The Future: Juan Galt
The music industry is a parasite and copyright is dead – Steve Albini
The problem with music has been solved by the Internet – Steve Albini
Courtney Love’s speech about piracy 2000
RT – Autotune and lip-syncing
Manipulating the charts – Neil Strauss
Unethical practices in the record industry
The Problem with Music – Steve Albini
The secret meeting that changed rap music