The Music Biz, from the Horse's Mouth by Steve April on The Pipeline at IndieMusicPeople

The Music Biz, from the Horse's Mouth
Billboard on Instagram has just posted a story about Bebe Rexha threatening to "bring down a BIG chunk" of the music industry if things don't change.
In the comments section, kev_the_wiz wrote this:
"
I worked in a top recording studio in LA for four years, so I can speak on this. When I got out of college I pursued a job in the ‘music industry’. That was almost impossible as it is. When I started working at this studio I thought that because it was part of the big industry(we had major label bookings multiple times a day) that everyone would be professional. I had to work 14-15 hour days, I got treated like shit from clients and from staff, and got treated like my personal life didn’t even exist(yeah all those late night calls asking to come in to record an artist who just ends up falling asleep).
I hate to say this but it was the most unprofessional clusterfuck I’ve ever seen(especially the closer you get to the top). First of all, the music industry isn’t even an industry. That is an illusion. It’s more like a conglomerate of trafficking industries layered on top of rich families and their close friends:
It consists of(in order):
1. Drug Trafficking
2. Sex Trafficking
3. Human Trafficking
4. Street Gangs
5. Arms Trafficking
6. Diamond Trafficking
7. Escort Services
8. Legal and Financial Services
9. Securities
10. Big Labels
11. Streaming Services
12. Radio and Social Media
I’ve seen so much fucked up shit in the studio that I have forgot most of it. You know when your mind blanks out shit because it was just too overwhelmed at the time?
To return to the point of this comment, the ‘music industry’(even though I don’t want to call it that) is terrible and most people don’t even know a hundredth of what actually goes on. It’s wild!"

(reposting from another site, thought it interesting...)

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Larree

7/2/2024 7:26:34 PM

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
? Hunter S. Thompson

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The CODE

7/2/2024 8:16:01 PM

Yeah, I've met some amazing, honest
people from the mus bus over the years,
but over the last 20 years the cuthroats
have moved in and destroyed the principles
that onced ruled the honest brokerage that
prevailed ... sad really, sad!

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Bryon Tosoff

7/2/2024 8:30:18 PM

yeah, music industry is done, but Taylor Swift did it her way, she is the way the most awesome performer, musician entertain all wrapped up in a package. no one will be able to duplicate what she has accomplished, greatest ever IMO do your thing, dont be sucked in to being like someone else. learn your chops, but also do learn other artists works, and play live, nothing like it, this is how we develop our chops and abilities.

Playing live is everything, nothing like it and I know those who have done it playing live is how it elevates your playing, helps improve your style, your confidence and your ability to connect to an audience and draw them in.

. then develop your style and own music groove, and if the cosmos thinks you are ready you will blossom, and if it is meant to be and you get your vibe out there you will be blessed. be yourself. enjoy the moment and be humble and be kind and caring. blessings to you all

take care,
the bryon guy

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Stoneman

7/2/2024 11:52:28 PM ---- Updated 7/2/2024 11:52:28 PM

Yeah, I have seen the worst and i have seen the best. I could tell a million horror stories about drug kings who masquerade as music execs. I have known so many artists that got ripped off by agents, managers and even other musicians. Its a crooked world and the music industry is reflective of that in many ways. The problem is not just a recent problem either. its been going on since the beginning and continues to get worse. that is why it is so important that good people continue to aspire to be the next vanguard of music professionals at the highest levels of control. Its going to take a complete change of culture and business acumen to save what is left of this expiring art form. Before long AI technology will be vomiting out cookie cutter recordings that the public will eat up and be fat and happy on. Virtual artists will assume the songs and become huge international stars while the true creative forces left on earth will die out from starvation. Its a very bleak picture we are looking at and the only people who can change it is us. We have to learn how to be better than AI and virtual artists. Talent is something so uniquely human that even AI cannot replicate it. We must remain dilligent in our pursuits and never give up on the art of writing, producing and performing original music.

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Neil w Young

7/4/2024 12:20:13 PM

.
One day in the near future, mp3's and their related mediums will be worthless, valueless, if not already, when the technology giants ditch them like they did CDs and cassettes before them for a new medium that will make those business behemoths yet even richer and will result in yet even further compromising and stagnating the creative foundation of musicians having being smothered out by the newest technological disease – a new generation of mindless Chat GPT-like brain rot.

Try to imagine Google winning a Grammy or going to a Chat GPT concert ... F***ing brainless!!.

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Bryon Tosoff

7/4/2024 6:23:17 PM

hi Neil
good to see you here. glad you gave your thoughts on the Music Biz subject

cheers and hope all is well

bryon

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The CODE

7/4/2024 7:38:58 PM

Thumbs up Neil, great observation!

Rock On >>>

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Scott

7/4/2024 9:01:02 PM

Really nice to see you here, Neil!

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Neil w Young

7/5/2024 11:09:31 PM

Thank you, Bryon, The CODE and Scott for your kind words about my post concerning the music business - the one that serves only the mega business behomeths such as Daniel Ek, the co-founder and CEO of Spotify, whose net worth at May of this year, 2024, was estimated at 4.9 billion by Forbes, and who it has been reported as saying he "can't afford to pay artists" any more than the measly dust from crumbs artists currently receive - that's if they're lucky enough to reach the required number of streams of their digital mp3's on the Spotify website which only a miniscule have any chance of ever reaching.

So f***ing generous of you, Daniel.

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Father Time

7/6/2024 6:11:48 AM

Spotify should give IMP/IAC credit for the station innovation they built their site around, I personally had a bad experience with them, spent band funds promoting us there and then mysteriously the bottom dropped out of our efforts. i came to believe the site was built around scamming artists. A lot of promoters making a lot of money selling placement on playlists with questionalble results.

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Neil w Young

7/6/2024 10:51:20 AM ---- Updated 7/6/2024 12:00:34 PM

The music world is infested with scamming promoters, they're like cockroaches lurking in every greasy slimy corner. I cancelled my SoundCloud account because they were coming out of every hole ... besides, SoundCloud's pathetic "Help/Support" department was MIA - obviosuly taken off life support years ago!!

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James Stanley Howen

7/6/2024 11:09:46 AM

Spot on Cowboy!

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The CODE

7/6/2024 2:36:10 PM

Rock on NW, the music biz is like
politics, totally fucked! Only headed
one way, and that is down the tube!

Hey ho ...

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Steve April

7/7/2024 4:26:39 PM ---- Updated 7/7/2024 5:01:26 PM

Yes, you tell em, Neil, and all...Spotify is part of the sulfurous device that modern music seems to tend to...

"When you look at Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (compiled in 2004 and updated in 2010)...

The breakdown is as follows:

1940s : 2 songs, 0.4%

1950s : 68 songs, 13.6%

1960s : 196 songs, 39.2%

1970s : 131 songs, 26.2%

1980s : 55 songs, 11%

1990s: 22 songs, 4.4%

2000s: 26 songs, 5.2%
--from quora

p.s.

There's good music out there, but it's suppressed, and trash rises to the top due to (big $$$s) imhv...

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Steve April

7/8/2024 5:41:55 PM ---- Updated 7/8/2024 6:39:07 PM

Scott, maybe you could write a letter to Rolling Stone, introducing them to the site, and this thread, we'll come outta nowhere, we never know...email the group maybe, we could work on this together...

Maybe they'll do a feature story about the site...

Rock on...

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8/25/2024 11:01:23 PM

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Lastchancelance

8/25/2024 11:44:41 PM

I need to simmer down myself! AI is currently replacing everything from the writing to distribution. The tech guys are eliminating everyone except those who can fill stadiums for tickets and sell anything from bathtubs to buggy whips. Just do it and enjoy!

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Lastchancelance

8/25/2024 11:46:05 PM

Just don't quit your day job!

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Lastchancelance

8/25/2024 11:49:57 PM

It's the one case where "Branded" is a good thing if it's about money. Branded has nothing to do with the music itself really either. Ya gotta have the shows and widgets to sell, endorsements, blah blah...

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Lastchancelance

8/25/2024 11:51:08 PM

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Lastchancelance

8/25/2024 11:52:07 PM

Ya gotta make it profitable for them first.

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Scott

8/26/2024 2:58:36 AM

Steve I didn't see your post about Rolling Stone til now. I've pursued avenues like this. Thing is, sites like Soundcloud and their glut of mediocre hiphop music give all OMDs a bad name. I don't think there's any corporate entity that would give us the time of day, it's a question of finding individuals who might be able to help us.

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Lastchancelance

8/29/2024 1:12:33 AM

Spot on with that one Scott. Big tech is now the music biz, and "help us" means giving up the good parts and loosing control. Just the way I see it. That is what makes this place special, and more people should know about it which is the Branding/marketing thing again.

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Lastchancelance

8/29/2024 1:13:06 AM

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