Record Labels Dig Their Own Grave. And the Shovel is Called TikTok.
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/record-labels-dig-their-own-grave
Tracking what happens after TikTok songs go viral
Vox's Estelle Caswell and The Pudding did a seven-month data investigation into how TikTok is shaping the music industry.
@corlin
That was a beautifully produced video with great analysis, but it made me quite sad.
The "content" these artists are churning out is rather shallow, but that's not necessarily their fault because it's part of a feedback loop where that kind of thing is being rewarded.
The idea of changing the power balance between artists and labels falls flat for me. This "new" system is just feeding two bigger predatory companies.
@voltronic
Ther is a point to be made, that the quality of any single new piece of music, is inversely proportional to the number of streams or likes.
@corlin
I wouldn't go quite that far, but the number of likes / streams of anything "viral" definitely cannot be trusted as being organic, as the video you posted proves.
We still haven't gotten past Payola, and we probably never will. The Internet and social media greatly amplify it, while at the same time making it less obvious it's happening unless you bother to look closely.
@corlin
What we seem to be missing right now is a good, healthy counter-culture who understands unpopular can be super cool. I feel like my generation had the last one of those.
Still, I have hope. I only discovered one of my favorite jazz ensembles because one of my high school students recommended them to me years ago. Speaking of which, here comes a relevant post.
@voltronic
Yep.
I wish they had spent more time talking about real talented musicians that refuse, or just don’t want to play that game. What happens to them?
@corlin
They make actual MUSIC instead of jingle/meme "content", and take it somewhere like Bandcamp.
@corlin
[ Insert hackneyed tropes about modern consumerism and disposable culture. ]
When I play a great piece of music for my students, at least one of them will ask, "how many views/likes does it have?"
I try to explain to them about how that is not necessarily an indication of quality, it might have corporate promotion, etc. It's very hard to get them to understand this though, because they've grown up in a world where "viral" is all that matters.