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Post by BettyNewbie on Dec 23, 2019 19:30:27 GMT -5
Even if you don't follow music much, this video is worth a watch.
The rise of Spotify and other streaming services hit the music industry like a truck this decade and have caused it to nearly hollow out. It's exactly why the only people you see in music anymore are either long-established artists who have been in it for 10+ years or no-name rappers and EDM producers who disappear as quickly as they show up. Streaming has made music entirely about being cheap, fast, and easy to market, quality be damned. One of the most straightforward examples of capitalism killing art, IMO.
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Post by Tim on Dec 24, 2019 0:20:11 GMT -5
Welcome to the 21st Century, folks.
And this is how it's going to stay. In a few decades, there won't be anyone left from the pre-streaming days of good music. I weep for those people.
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Post by Melinda Halliwell on Dec 24, 2019 3:02:52 GMT -5
Before streaming came out the way of getting music was either buying tapes or CDs from music stores other than recording the latest songs on blank tapes from the radio.
Those were the days.
I remember when Top Of The Pops was on the BBC and it used to count down the chart throughout segments of the show whilst artists sang otherwise and that's how you knew what the number one single was for that week.
Everyone used to tune in because that was the only way you fought out which happened barring the weekly countdown shows on Radio 1 and Capital FM.
Once streaming came in the singles chart was made up of CD and download sales which unless artists music came out via the latter they didn't stand a chance under the former before officially being made up of Itunes sales also.
The second way helped establish singers like Ed Sheeran who benefited well from downloads with his last album 'Divide' giving him 3 singles in the top 20 two of those in the top 10 all at the same time which was amazing feet compared to older bands we knew who only had one single around at the time.
Young people now listen to songs on their phones, laptops, and tablets through apps like Soundcloud, Now That's What I Call Music and Spotify or downloaded ones from Itunes, Amazon Prime only hearing radio music when their parents play that which tells you the what influence streaming has now on people's tastes.
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Post by Tim on Dec 24, 2019 12:05:23 GMT -5
Heck, I bought music on LP records (remember them).
How times have changed.
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Post by Melinda Halliwell on Dec 24, 2019 13:05:17 GMT -5
I remember LP'S also and the turn table players used with them.
Heck I even recall Grammarphones although never used or had one of course.
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Post by Squad 51 on Dec 24, 2019 14:17:06 GMT -5
Yeah, I remember those as well. I still have cassettes, by the way but mainly CDs now. I use them for my car where a CD player is.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Dec 24, 2019 18:04:28 GMT -5
It seems like a couple of things are going on here.
First of all, the music industry has failed to adapt to changing technology. At the start of the new millennium, they put all of their eggs into the download basket and were betting on mp3 sales being the next big thing. That didn't exactly work out. Most people ended up getting their downloads for free, and what existed of the paid download market got quickly demolished by streaming. It happened so abruptly and unexpectedly that the industry failed to adapt correctly, and we ended up with the current situation of several artists and even entire genres getting shut out of the spotlight because they can't make bank in a post-Spotify world.
And, it's also becoming increasingly apparent that Generation Z does not listen to music in the same way as previous generations. Video games (ie. Minecraft, Call Of Duty, Pokemon GO) and franchise movies (ie. Marvel, DC, Star Wars) have gotten their attention far more than any specific artist or genre. They have less of a desire to build up a record collection, and they have even less of a desire to start a band and jump into creating their own music. To them, music is just something to put on as background noise and occasionally dance/exercise to. Services like Spotify are tailor-made for this kind of music listening, which is one reason why streaming tends to favor bland, mid-tempo rap and EDM over more intense pop and rock music. The music industry can't entirely rely on older audiences and older artists to stay afloat, and without strong support from the youngest generation, it WILL die out.
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Post by Tim on Dec 25, 2019 0:30:14 GMT -5
Indeed they can't. Within a few decades they'll all be dead or too old to care.
And what will be left then?
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Post by Melinda Halliwell on Dec 25, 2019 2:15:11 GMT -5
Nothing which is a shame the way the music industry is going these days.
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Post by Tim on Dec 25, 2019 12:30:12 GMT -5
Yeah, it is a shame. Because I don't see things changing anytime soon.
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Post by Squad 51 on Dec 25, 2019 18:01:29 GMT -5
I miss the good ol' days where music was still music, and some other things as well.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Dec 25, 2019 19:15:30 GMT -5
Related to the topic at hand:
This spoof is from 2012, so it slightly predates the Spotify takeover, but it still hit the nail right on the head.
MTV stopped playing music videos for pretty much the exact same reason everything else went sour in the music industry in the Internet Age. Changing consumer habits left less money to go around for artists, so music videos became more expensive and less profitable to make. This is why MTV became dominated by crappy reality shows about pimped rides, pregnant teens, and spray-tanned idiots. Those shows are dirt cheap to make, so it's extremely easy to turn a profit off of them, unlike music videos.
Again, it all circles back to the same core issue -- the music industry failed to adapt to new technology and is now paying the price.
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Post by Tim on Dec 26, 2019 0:38:10 GMT -5
I remember when MTV stood for Music Television.
Now most probably think of it because of rubbish like Jersey Shore (and all its mutations). Another tragic result of the old ways dying.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Dec 26, 2019 11:31:43 GMT -5
To be fair, the death of music videos on MTV (and VH1) probably became inevitable the moment YouTube started. Once it became far easier to upload/share videos online, there was no longer any need to wait for new videos to turn up on TV. And, you could also watch old videos anytime you wanted, which was usually impossible outside of certain hours on MTV.
It's obvious that MTV had to rely on more than just music videos to stay afloat. The real issue is that they became dominated by crappy reality shows that had nothing to do with music, whatsoever. Fewer people would've complained had MTV continued in the direction they were going in the 90s, with live shows (Unplugged) and musically-influenced cartoons (Beavis & Butthead and Daria) supplanting the music videos. Why the shift away from music-based programming altogether?
Again, profits. As the music industry started contracting in the new millennium, any kind of programming based on music (not just music videos) became less profitable and marketable. On top of that, TV was also starting to feel the squeeze from the internet, especially networks with traditionally younger audiences like MTV. That is why almost every basic cable network eventually became taken over by generic reality TV in the 00s and 10s. It became all about maximizing profits as efficiently as possible, and since reality shows are dirt cheap to make, they can make $$$ very easily.
As I keep saying, the culprit is capitalism, aka. the bigwigs clinging to old business models that don't work in the Internet Age.
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Post by Tim on Dec 27, 2019 0:34:01 GMT -5
If this keeps up, they may as well shut down MTV and all the other cable networks. No one will be watching them anyway, once the pre-Internet generation dies off.
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