As an outsider to it all pretty much the music scene can seem like it’s in good heath, like there’s so much in every genre, loads of gigs all the time etc. Doesn’t feel like it’s dying any time soon. Is it that it’s harder now for people to make money out of it? Or too much of the money is just going to profit shareholders and things? That’s not unique to the music industry though, everyone everywhere is getting screwed over while a few people are getting richer.
As someone only with experience in punk/hardcore and dance music stuff, predominantly DIY spaces/smaller venues most promoters, labels etc barely take anything and profits from things like gigs or records are usually split between the artists/venue/promoters which barely is used for things like an actual wage, more so stuff going back into a kitty that supports further events/releases/travel costs or expenditures. Self sustaining but still relying on the support of people who can afford to chip in that bit more etc
Money in these areas is very hit and miss, for example a friends band of mine was playing Download festival, they said they were offered barely 500 quid all in, inclusive of travel, and there’s 6 of them in the band. They were decently high up on the bill too, logo on the poster etc. the same band said they played a pretty diy fest somewhere in Europe and got a grand and a half for it and it was a nearly unknown thing ran by the people in the area
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Grassroots will never die as long as people are doing it because of the love because that’s all that’s driving it. There is no money in any of it. A tour can at best break even or leave you in debt but you’ll still do it because it’s something you love and want to do.
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There’s a few of the Oxford skaters gigging in a local band at the moment and was talking about money the other day. everything goes back into practice spaces and recording.
It is similar to a lot of industries where there’s a high level of competition and very uneven distribution of rewards.
Sports and music industries are similar in that respect, they both apply ‘tournament theory’ and reward their top stars with massively disproportionate pay because that is the most efficient way of securing the people they want from a massive pool of unpaid potential talent. Most people in the system end up with nothing.
*Didn’t mean to reply to @42069666 there haha, meant to reply to @markg who made the point that the industry is skewed to enrich those at the top.
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Oh man, please we all should
It’s the most disappointing set of stats I think I’ve ever seen. The animations and lack of emotion is pathetic. “You made 13 new connections” is doing all the heavy lifting here
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LinkedIn trying to get on the year wrapped trend is very sad and desperate…which is very on brand for Linkedin I guess.
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Deleted LinkedIn when I moved jobs a couple months ago thank fuck. What an absolute bag of shit.
Don’t listen to Spotify much unless the bandcamp app is being flakey when I’m out for a wander, most listened tune only has 15 plays and that’s Destination by The Warriors cos it’s the first tune on a playlist I like to run to sometimes. Would be more but can’t connect phone to car properly as the connection always drops so I’ve currently got an ipod I bought in 2009 that I’ve not been able to update since early 2012 in there.
Just checked my discogs collection and given I don’t buy that many records anymore (or so I thought) I’ve added 77 this year so that’s not bad.
You could have given me 1000 guesses and I would still have never guessed that this was my first ever song played on Spotify
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