I’d like to talk about economics in art, specifically the music industry. If you have any input, be it anecdotal or whatever, please share. Let’s start with Is This It? by The Strokes. Released on October 9th 2001 (with promotion the summer before), this was a phenomenal album with three strong singles. It peaked at 33 on the billboard music charts. Their label told the band “If this had been released a year or two ago, it would have gone platinum.” So what happened? Peer to peer file sharing like Napster tanked album sales. Suddenly, musicians had to navigate a new media landscape. Indie rock bands had to get their songs in commercials to make money. An incensed fan base would accuse their favorite artists of “selling out”, ignorant of the fact they had largely been yet to be paid in the first place. The Strokes were featured in car commercials, Teagan & Sara in an Oreo commercial, Iron & Wine in an M&Ms commercial, and so on. And that was for artists popular enough to get their music featured in that space. The ensuing fallout meant bands needed to tour to survive. Merch tables went from selling T shirts for $20 to $40 or even $50. And burgeoning young bands who used to be able to load into a van and tour the country on a shoestring budget eventually had to go into debt to do so. When the fee to even enter the music world becomes prohibitively expensive, that’s bad for art in general.
>>129278077>Peer to peer file sharing like Napster tanked album sales.Fuck off Lars you stupid faggot.
>>129278088your insult is stock
>>129278077Do you know who the biggest rock band of the 2010’s was? Take a guess. That’s right. It was Imagine Dragons. If you love them, that’s fine. I think they’re terrible. Because they’re not really a rock band. They combined rock, electronic, rap, and anything else into this awful sonic soup that casts the widest net possible and pleases almost no one with taste. They played to the middle and won big. And if that’s what bands need to do to thrive in this new world, it doesn’t foster much hope for the future.
>>129278088We all thought “free music! Yippee!” Would have no consequences and I’m telling you, it absolutely did. In 2008, I went to see a band that was popular in the indie rock scene in the 90’s and the lead singer hated every single one of us. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why. And then it hit me: he had known a world where he could live off album sales and looked out at this sea of teenagers and thought “None of you bought my latest album.”
>>129278132>album sales>buy albumPeople don't buy albums anymore. People didn't buy albums after 08 because they were broke. People don't buy albums now because of streaming and also being still broke.
>>129278077>>129278118>>129278132All of that brings me to this. This is the most astroturfed band I have ever witnessed. If you like them, I can only come to one of a few conclusions:1) it’s the emperors new clothes syndrome and you’re afraid of contradicting the herd and being ostracized from it.2) You’re old and don’t want to be seen as old by the hip young people.3) You know how absolutely dire things are for rock music and you’re just happy there’s a band getting attention and hoping a rising tide will lift all boats.If you’re in the camp of option 3, sad to say it won’t. Because they have the massive advantage of being connected that others don’t. And all being said, I’m sure they’re very nice kids who don’t deserve the hate they’ve been getting lately. I don’t hate them, I hate what they represent. An economically stratified world in which only the wealthy can receive exposure. Do you know how many incredibly talented people are out there who never get that same kind of exposure simply because they aren’t as lucky? That’s the gripe. It’s the same with nepo baby actors. I don’t hate them personally, I hate that they represent a world in which it’s become so prohibitively expensive to pursue the life of becoming a successful artist, that the only people who can do so already come from means.
>>129278077>this was a phenomenal album
>>129278294In comparison to the butt rock, rap rock, nu metal that had hogged the radio airwaves in the years preceding, it was a breath of fresh air and you know it
>>129278077>Peer to peer file sharing like Napster tanked album sales. Suddenly, musicians had to navigate a new media landscape.2001 was the 3rd biggest year ever for the music industry
>>129278327>In comparison to the butt rock>Strokes isn't butt rockIt LITERALLY has a butt on the cover.
>>129278205it's never been easier to make money from music, rock being dead is a completely different subject
Digital distribution as a whole killed albums. Sure, superfans still buy an LP from Taylor Swift or some dogshit indie cassette tape. However, there's no longer physical media as a whole. Hell, even video games finally just dropped physical media. Spotify still uses the word "album", but they're more like playlists. I think money being tighter for people is also a factor. For the price of one CD, you can get a streaming license to as much music as you want. It's silly to even pay for a license to an album on Apple Music or whatever. Sure, you can go on Bandcamp and do that, but that's only for those people who have a desire to support a specific small artist. Anyway, Garth Brooks is going to be the GOAT album sales artist forever simply because the concept got outdated.
>>129278327ill relisten to it but i remember it being totally bland and forgettable. One of the /mu/core albums that didn't make sense
>Their label told the band “If this had been released a year or two ago, it would have gone platinum.”You are basing your entire argument, if one can even call it that, on a hypothetical>If>ifJesus fucking christ>So what happened?Is This It got to #33 on Billboard, not #32, not #31, not #1, 33>When the fee to even enter the music worldIt has never been easier or cheaper to record music in your bedroom, there has never been a point in human history where it is easier to set up a home studio than right nowWhat are you talking about?
Why is this place so full of exhausting faggots? Is This It is a classic.
>>129278646The Strokes became incredibly hyped and popular with their proto-landfill because their timing was perfect.There's been a decade-long attempt to rehabilitate Y2K but it truly was the worst time in music since before rock and roll, and the wider culture wasn't much better. That's where these guys came in, just as internet message boards and file sharing services were kicking off.The infrastructure that spawned around (or--in more nefarious cases--was appropriated by) groups like The Strokes was aided by file sharing, since that's where people alienated from boy bands, nu-metal and gangsta rap went.A pre-internet Strokes arriving just a few years earlier would've had no chance in the world of hard media.
Those who didn't live through those times might get the impression the Strokes were big.They were not. They were basically the first 'big' rock band that wasn't big. It was a harbinger for things to come. They became the new profile for rock bands that could only hope to become "indie popular" and get featured in ads to make a buck. And sure they had some big shows but that was it.Outside of that the Strokes were pretty much invisible to the big public. You only knew about them if you were specifically into rock. And even in that case, rock was already segmented, metal autists wouldn't approach Strokes with a pole
>>129278205I like their album, though I can't say I feel much like relistening after the initial thrillSure it's a reflection of the current state of social and cultural dissolution that only kids from middle class manage to break through in rock.Which doesn't make their music bad or make them less talented.I don't see much astroturfing. It was very common for a band that created a new sensation in the past to get a spot on the SNL. Sure connections can help but if your music is some amateur tuneless shit that sounds like the Meat Puppets live you won't make it to such venues.So there is some merit to their music, but they're no new Nirvana or anything>do you know how many incredibly talented people are out there who never get that same kind of exposure simply because they aren’t as lucky?It's never been easier if you're really talented to just upload your shit on Bandcamp for free and make a killing.Really if you are truly talented, you can find an audience, it's the easiest time in history someone unknown could find an audience. Like that Aussie guy, Sewerslvt, who became a cult figure in the EDM world, he has like tens of copycats now, it's a whole genre. And probably lives off the Patreon trickledown. If you are great, you're going to get noticed, even if you have a YT channel, Soundcloud or Bandcamp
