7 Ways Technology Made The Music Industry Weird
Last Friday night, sat in my bed before sleep - I stream-of-conscious-typed-out this post/Thread/Meta-tweet:
It garnered some interesting thoughts and conversations and motivated me to explore this further, and with more depth. As a fan, commentator, participating industry professional, I have felt and seen a lot of these things play out - not only over the last few years, but decades - from Limewire and Last.FM to streaming and TikTok.
A word of caution, I am a product of my time, and that will only ever colour my judgement. But the sense I have right now is one of unease, that something isn’t right. Which is unusual for me as I am always optimistic. But for the first time in a while, I’m…cautious. A little uneasy.
My sense is, the accumulation of the above (and below) will likely bring about a shift in the industry, at some point soon. Let’s explore.
1. Being a fan is confusing
There’s more music than ever, and more artists than ever. The entire history of recorded music is one click away. But yet, the one question I get asked more than any is: “how do I find new music?”, which is astounding considering the access we now have.
Being a fan was largely passive - consuming through TV, radio, record stores and magazines. I’m not an old man to say it was objectively easier. Simpler.
Now, the fan must actively participate in the act of mass content filtration - of their playlists and social media feeds. We are the Brita filter that must take in and sort through all the impurities, one algorithmically curated playlist at a time. It’s overwhelming and somewhat numbing.
And what’s worse, with the accuracy of audience tracking and metrics, the onus falls much more on the heads of the fan to assist in the artist’s success. Pre-save to show support! Follow, like, save and share! It’s true that if a fan doesn’t engage immediately, because…maybe they are busy…the artist is punished. “There’s no traction behind the song” “it doesn’t seem to be connecting” is what the industry will say. Or perhaps music has a timeline of its own outside of a two week window? TOO BAD TOO LATE! Succeed fast or be another track on the pile.
Take YouTube for example. The home page used to be filled with engaging videos that came out over the last 1-2 weeks - it had a sense of recency and relevance. Now there are videos as old as eight years on my home page - because YouTube would rather win the click than have you close the tab. Similarly, the streaming services would rather serve you Frank Ocean’s Nikes for the 10,000th time than risk you listening to a brand new artist that might prompt you to have an ear-break and pause the music while you quietly tap away on your laptop with your headphones on, silently.
In 2023, being a fan means to have a long session time and high click through rate above anything else.
2. Spotify Top 5 Killed the Video Star
The trackability of a “listen” is in terrible opposition to the intangibility of culture defining music. I liken it to basketball. Luca Doncic is a generational talent because he has a feel for the game. What does feel look like on paper?
For musicians, success and significance these days is mostly derived from the amount of streams they get at any one time - a decision that Spotify has leaned into, but Apple Music has not (likely because their numbers won’t be as big as Spotify’s by comparison).
On the one hand, streaming success has made charting less significant. Don’t get me wrong, people still want a #1 album so that they can put it on the vinyl sticker on their clear-sparkle-vinyl-variant-Target-exclusive. But its reputation is quickly being superseded by the hallowed one-billion-stream-club. Which IS impressive. But also kind of hilarious because…how many “streams”(plays) has Bohemian Rhapsody had since its release? I think they’re already in the one-trillion-(Galileo)-Galileo-(Galileo)-Galileo-Galileo-Figaro-magnifico club.
While on the surface, streaming numbers are a fun metric to analyse trends and popularity, it also gamifies music in a way that pits artist v artist without factoring in things such as: lyrical and cultural impact and significance, live performance and number of die-hard fans. All things that should go into whether an artist gets signed, but is much less important that the amount of monthly streams you garner. In the content creator/influencer space, it is reported that follower count will mean a lot less than number of engaged fans in 2023 and beyond. Will the same go for the music industry? I feel they’re yet to catch up to that notion.
I wonder if Nirvana would have streamed well if Spotify was around in 1989. I wonder what their profile picture would have been…
3. Virality is a virus
It’s 2023, the social platforms are just starting to mature - with better infrastructure and technology to deal with identity theft, bullying and screen addiction. But they are still very crude when it comes to the moral and cultural impact they have by making something (or someone) go viral.
That sounds a bit extreme - but when my social channels really started to “blow up”, I found it overwhelming - for the amount of love, hate and attention I had suddenly generated. I thanked my lucky stars that I was old enough to handle it, but I know many young people that haven’t fared so well - suffering from debilitating complexes, and bouts of depression and anxiety.
Having felt the effects of virality first hand, it disappoints me that the goal of most artists and labels is to “go viral”. Sure, music has had one-hit wonders in the past, but now a person can mumble into a iPhone and get millions of streams, be signed to a record deal, before staring down a catalogue of lukewarm, rushed singles and a failed music career that they never even wanted. Not to mention a boardroom full of executives pointing fingers in their face saying “it’s all your fault”. I know artists like this first hand.
How did “viral” become so aligned with success? Prior to internet virality, the word viral was associated with infections, that either must heal on its own, or halted in its tracks. And similarly in music, I feel as though “virality” trends toward outputting worse products over the course of time, rather than better. We have allowed the infection to spread, and we’ve now seen how the body reacts. The result is Lil Xan.
4. Who keeps moving the goal posts?
In 2023, our version of the battle of the formats (vinyl vs tape vs CD) is the battle of the platforms. The first reverberation of this was “video killing the radio star”. Now it’s…pivot to blogs! Pivot to YouTube! Pivot to Playlists! Pivot to TikTok! Pivot to NFTs!
I shudder to think about the expense and salaries spent turning the slow moving ship of labels, marketing and PR firms to the next best way to blow up. The rate in which the next platform emerges and threatens to revolutionise the music industry leaves in its wake millions of dollars of thinking time, spent on how to crack the code.
My sense, both in experience and observation, is that you can refocus your lasers all you want - to be the first, or to be early in adopting a new platform - but ultimately the ones who actually win are the ones that exist outside of a platform’s gravitational pull. Where the artist knows who they are and what they’re saying, as opposed to how they say it.
5. Playlist vs Pacifists
I’m going to classify 2019 as the peak of playlists. The newfangled way for artists to be discovered and successful: get in a prime position in a flagship playlist, and turn your fate around and float downstream.
In order to be considered for flagship “editorial playlists” as they call them, it’s a pincer-approach of labels, distributors, playlist editors, managers and artists impressing upon the streaming platforms to bestow an artist with a high ranking placement in a popular playlist. Even I get lobbied to add songs to my playlists (I don’t). They call them “playlist wins” - the modern equivalent to a “radio add”. I’m sure you’ve seen it, the artists are then obliged to thank the streaming services on their social channels - a circular relationship where the artist makes the song, the team lobbies, the service adds the song, the artist promotes the platforms on their channels, and both streaming service and artist might benefit from an extra play, or click-through.
But reflecting upon my subjectively defined “peak” of 2019, I fear these playlists were a honey trap, for labels and artists to fly desperately toward, before being swatted away with a big Joe-Rogan-$200m-podcast-deal fly swatter - raising the stock of these platforms for a few podcasts to benefit. I liken it to a billboard salesman saying “you have the potential to reach 100,000 viewers per day with your ad” equalling “you have the potential to reach 200,000 ears being added #89 in the New Music Daily playlist. I’d love to see the conversion rate on that kind of addition. I would argue that the real benefit are the free ad impressions that the streaming services get from the artist posting a “thank you tile” to their feed, rather than the other way around.
Instead, the real success (“or streams”) largely come from being added to “algorithmic playlists” (such as Discover Weekly), which is bestowed upon you if you have a variety of factors going your way - an uptick in pre-saves, streams, playlist adds, shares, listen lengths, replays etc.
But while algorithmic playlists are good for pumping in your streams, alongside the universal cry that radio is not important, why do I get the feeling that radio is even more important now than ever?
I think a lot about the word ubiquity: “the fact of appearing everywhere or of being very common”. I have yet to see many artists rise out of the white hot flames of algorithmic playlists to gain the coveted “ubiquitous” status. I’ve heard of (and know) artists that have had viral songs thanks to algorithmic additions, who can’t sell out a bathroom stall. Conversely, I see and hear artists gain the ubiquitous status from being played three times an hour across 100 national radio stations for six week straight.
Radio, while dwindling, has the power to annoy the fuck out of you until Montero by Lil Nas X starts to sound good. Radio has the power to keep your Uber driver, dentist receptionist and forklift driver entertained all day, with talk, news, weather reports and a Montero marathon.
The power of the passive listen and “forced earworm” goes unmatched.
6. What Exactly Is a Visualiser?
There is no better way to engage and attract new audiences in 2023 than through short form video. I’ve experienced it myself. But the demand for content and engagement means that for any one single release, an artist must make a music video, visualiser, Spotify Canvas, Apple Music and Tidal Animated Album Covers, profile photos, banners, teasers, music video cut downs and a whole lot more.
Recently I’ve been thinking about visualisers. You’ve all seen them on YouTube - not quite music videos, not quite static images. They are a stop gap for people who want to listen to the song on YouTube while placating YouTube by saying “we’re not being lazy and just uploading a blank screen”.
But tell me this - when was the last time you walked away and said “man…that was a GREAT visualiser”. Meanwhile, some motion graphic designer got paid anything from $200-$2000 to make that visualiser, just for you to tab away and scroll through your favourite bakery’s IG page as you listen to the intended song in the background.
Like the crown demanding a show of fealty, streaming services ask the artist and their team to deliver the goods in the form of custom assets, to show that they are dedicated to their platform and the “audience” they provide for them. And what ends up happening, is said artist spending the aforementioned budget to demonstrate loyalty, all so a song on Spotify has a little cute animation in the background.
But, after all these years, I’m still trying to rationalise the tangible, valuable function of a visualiser, or Spotify canvas. As a music fan, I can’t say these assets have ever elevated the experience, or even added to it slightly for the listener. I should’ve started a Visualiser production company…
7. Culture is context
Where do the conversations and cultural contextualisers go in 2023? There are the NME’s, Rap Radar’s and Billboard’s of the world. But perhaps the better question is - who reads them?
As a music commentator on the internet, I am very big on providing context around artists. Where they came from, why they’re significant and what impact they are having. This space used to be filled by (mostly) well run blogs and music publications, and written by journalists, or at worst, enthusiastic writers. But I can’t remember the last time I actively sought out a blog to read about an a new artist.
But fear not! The eyeballs have moved to TikTok! But fear lots…the journalists mostly didn’t make it across the divide. Music entertainment is at an all time high! Credibility…at an all time low! Hot takes - devoured! Nuanced and well researched journalism - who cares! Watch someone listen and react to an album I just finished listening to via YouTube - I feel less alone, I feel validated!
Without quality journalism, and a clear place to consume it, musicians are closer to content creators than artists. Placeless, faceless, and judged by a 50px by 50px thumbnail and shuffle button.
Oh the doom! Oh the gloom! But here comes optimistic Derrick. I truly feel that the industry is more confusing than it needs to be - and that rather than the streaming services and tech companies changing, I feel as though artists, labels and their teams are beginning to wisen up.
At this point, they’ve seen the cycles. They’ve made the assets. They’ve been playlisted. They’ve had millions of streams. All the while their friend’s band has blown up for making good songs and getting played in everyone’s cars three times an hour, and their artist is streaming well, and no one could care less.
Perhaps the rebellion, or the revolution isn’t an act of violence, but rather an act of apathy - a slow backwards walk from the algorithmic overlords and a polite tip of the hat on the way out while saying: “well, that was fun while it lasted, I’ll see myself out”.
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