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Individualism is Ruining Music
Why your music choice doesn’t make you the ‘main character’
I am currently engaged in the futile effort of publicising my new album (it comes out on the 6th of September). I say futile because releasing music today feels pointless.
Unless you are with a major label or independently wealthy, your music will never be heard by the same kind of audience it once might have been. The streaming market is saturated with, not just thousands of artists uploading their music to every available platform practically every month, but AI tracks filling up the internet with aural slurry. Not only that, even if you are lucky enough to ‘go viral’ — and there are specific algorithmic requirements for that — a million streams won’t even cover two month’s rent. Combine this with a dwindling live music sphere, with venues closing and acts performing original material often not getting paid for sets, or, worse, directly or indirectly, being made to pay to play, and you have a functionally hostile environment for anyone trying to be a musician today. Meanwhile, the platforms and labels make billions. Because, ironically, people are listening to more music than ever. Having all music available at all times is the greatest boon for recorded music since its inception. And yet, despite it being essential to modern life music has never been valued less…
