I think you're confusing *music* with the music *industry*.
There's no shortage of new music being released, and as you have pointed out yourself, some of it is really worthwhile. The problem is just the opposite: there is too much music being released these days. By my research,150,000 new tracks are submitted to music services per day and growing. Even if you ignore things like pure AI-generated tracks, streaming fraud, and redeliveries (labels resubmitting tracks to fix errors or update metadata), it's probably about 100k per day. Discovery has become extremely difficult, expensive, and chancy. That's why catalog music is so popular -- no one needs to "discover" it. This is true not only for investors and labels but with the public: the only actual growth in streaming volume nowadays (NA/EU) is in catalog music. New music listening is basically flat. This is the reality that the major labels are dealing with.
You can poke around, read blogs daily. But it takes a lot of time. I discovered this amazing guy Arnab Sengupta a few weeks ago, via a blog called Tinnitist. Bangalore India. Great soulful voice, meaningful songs, has a good jazz ensemble backing band. Some of his stuff sounds like Sting solo as far as the force of spirit and jazz stylings happening.
I text chatted with him too on the instagram. I'm also an artist/project/singer/songwriter person and he likes what we are doing. It's nothing at all like his work. He's far more of a total musician than I will ever be. But that was nice to hear.
Indeed. There is so much great music out there still being made today but you have to go looking for it. It won't come to you simply by turning on the radio like in the past.
There is all kinds of excellent music still being put out in all genres. The problem is getting it heard. There's just so much out there and no one to curate it like the old days.
So there's a predictable pattern here: several people mentioned an artist they found whom nobody has ever heard of and whose music they like. That's great - I bet it's good music! But then what happens? You read it here. Maybe you tell your friends. And then, unless you happen to be a mega influencer (or A&R rep for a significant label, or booking agent), nothing happens that would materially affect the artist's career. That's the problem. Both music-making and taste-making have been democratized to the point that neither one has any likely impact; meanwhile supply keeps increasing (at an increasing rate) while demand barely budges.
I agree with that, but I think it's quite unprecise to assert that music-making and taste-making have any actual impact.
We know that the current content production scenario is now fragmented in an enormous amount of niches.
There's no longer a mainstream truly known by the majority of people, and, in contrast, an underground scene: the whole scenario consists in an infinite constellation of niches.
Then, in each niche there's a hierarchy of taste-makers (influencers), who (more or less, depenging on the case) impact on their engaged audience.
Therefore, it's all about getting into a niche of music genre we like: here's the same micro-cosmos that, once, was reserved (in larger dimesions) to the mainstream.
It seems like the loss of importance of significant musical authorities (magazines, reviewers, radio stations) has made every kind of new discovery flat and meaningless - maybe because we've spent 60 years criticizing hierarchies in all of society (often with good reason), but with a result of a more "pointless" cultural consensus? Like, nothing matters anymore in terms of opinions; My taste is my taste and your taste is your taste. End of discussion.
I also think that the diminishing effects of spreading the word of new artists is spot on. This natural influence should have an effect on the artist's music and career. But it doesn't. And the industry is of course looking for ways to make money on music. And the only music that has a cultural consensus and therefore monetary value in the broader western world are old artist catalogs... It makes SO much sense now in terms of the discrepancy between the music industry and it's parasitization of music, and the actual creative act of music and it's own value to artists, people locally or in the broader society.
The industry no longer serves the organic manifestation of creative endeavors from musicians, and lifts them up with the help of platforms and musical authorities, whose sole purpose is to funnel new music to people and create the opportunity of making a shared value of new music.
It's funny... Because I can actually see myself being the culprit in terms of consumer choices. I don't listen to radio. i buy vinyls (mostly old ones, haha.. classics, that i like) and my musical attention is no where AT ALL on the future.
Everything sounds dead to me. I think the missing bodily epistemology of modern music-creation definitely is an aspect here to me... That subject is for another day, lol
i disagree. you discover new music, you tell your friends. and then, if you (or one of your friends, or one of your friends' friends...) actually buy that music, the musician is affected. if you buy their merch, the musicians are affected.
will they become the next beatles? unlikely, but then, who knows.
will they be able to pay rent, put food on the table and keep doing music as the mean to provide for themselves and their families? maybe not with *just* your purchase. but if the music is good and they have just one paying fan, there's something wrong somewhere.
the problem is how to discover more music you like. and the solution is: search for it. it takes time, but there's no other way around it.
sadly Bill is 1000% correct. I do believe in some ways it is related to the very nature of consent decrees and blanket licenses that even allow such an environment to exist although I will concede that blankets do in theory offer somewhat of a "useful floor" that I wish existed by law in live music, where market dynamics are in some ways worse because they don't. and these 2 issues, blanket & supply vs demand, basically complicates any other issue. No other product or industry works this way.
Exactly. I haven't bought major label recordings (apart from some used discs) in about 15 years - before Concord turned into a megacorp and started "assimilating" indie labels.
There's so much going on, and too much good music, seemingly. (Since listening to 2 or more records at once doesn't work.)
Erron corrected below! [As for the music industry, it seemed like the crash began in the mid-late 90s. I wonder when labels like ECM will break free of BMG's corporate overlords, or even *if* they can.]
I work at ECM and I must clarify that it's in no way tied to BMG. ECM music is (partially, depending on the country) distributed by UMG on the digital and physical side.
In this dynamic the major contributes with its own infrastructure, but, at the same time, it has no word within the artistic as well as promotion decisions made within the label :)
Thanks - I misspoke/miswrote. A number of small, formerly indie labels seem to be distributed by UMG now. I can see some advantages to that, but mostly... not.
To hell with the major labels. Let them die. Corporate Rock Still Sucks. That used to be a sticker / slogan from this independent record label some of you might have heard of ... SST. That was decades ago and it still sucks.
..."At the time, the main genre of independently released music was grassroots folk, which happened to dovetail into two of the key ideas of the American independent rock movement: regionalism, as in the in idea that a localized sound would both serve the tastes and needs of its community and defy the homogenizing effects of mass media; and egalitarianism, in that music didn't need to be made by professionals, as the big-time entertainment business would have the public believe." --Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life (Beat Happening chapter.)
We can entertain ourselves if we just remember how.
Bypassing leeches is good. I am not convinced about bitcoin et al though. Its even more unglued from the wealth of nature and our actual then the current complexified and abstract arrangement.
Thank you forvthe recommendation. I certainly dont want McGovCorp running a digital trash currency as you say. But crypto is totally dependent on complex computer systems that I dont think are terribly resilient in the long run. I am a fan of alternative ecomoic models and currencies though.
This is similar to sports where players often get drafted based on their "measurables" instead of performance. That way a GM can point to the guy's size and speed if he doesn't pan out. These record execs know if they spend a bunch of money on unproven musicians it can cost them their position. I think much of the major labels behavior is similar to the guys in blazing saddles who don't want to lose their phony baloney jobs. They're playing it safe all the way to the poor house.
I think the last line of Ted's piece, "some of us have already started doing that," is exactly the point. Ted does it himself, since he writes multiple posts highlighting the artists he's most excited about...a counterpoint to these admittedly doom-and-gloom posts about the industry.
Fortunately for myself and my little (91-subscriber!) music blog about New York City live music (patreon.com/theemusiclistings), I don't have to worry about any of this industry crap, or fake AI music, or royalty/catalog garbage. I get to post 800 live gigs each week, in every genre of music, performed by actual living, breathing, musicians. I try to highlight 4-5 things a day, and since we just did our 1,000 post last week, I've mentioned a few thousand artists specifically over that time. Most of them have Bandcamp pages, and I've personally seen dozens, if not over a hundred of these artists, over that time, and I've purchased as much music as I can mentally process from these bands--CDs, records, cassettes, whatever. Many times direct from their Bandcamp pages.
What's really exciting is that none of these artists (in true rock 'n roll fashion) seems to give a shit about any of this industry crap. They just do what they do--make music, perform music, record music, and release music. If they get picked up by larger record companies or get to play big festivals and show up on late night TV (think Wet Leg or someone similar), great. If not, many of them just keep plugging away nonetheless, doing what they do. Maybe they have day jobs, maybe they struggle financially to get the money together to rehearse, record, and tour, but they keep doing it, God bless 'em.
All we have to do is make the merest effort to keep discovering new stuff, whether it's through going out to see music live, if you can, or subscribing to newsletters or blogs, or even just taking time to pay attention to what the evil algorithms are suggesting for you...believe it or not, they'll be some good stuff there as well. It doesn't matter how we find good stuff...it's there for the listening. Happy 4th, everyone...
I agree, somewhat, with the headline of this article. I remain uncertain that I agree with the portents of doom that Ted presents on this subject. I presume he is talking about pop music in his ongoing lament. The field of jazz, on the other hand, is bright in 2025 with new music and new interpretations of some old standards. The Mark Masters Ensemble with Billy Harper, the Greg Abate Quartet, Eric Scott Reid, the Branford Marsalis Quartet, Louis Hayes, Joe Alterman with Houston Person and Benny Benack III are among the jazz artists whose new work I have purchased in 2025. In the pop/rock field there has been wonderful new material from Dion, Nick Lowe, Dwight Yoakum and JD McPherson. There is some great new music out there. Yeah, you kinda have to go looking for it sometimes. But, to my ears, the search is very much worth the effort. And the music never lets me down!
It's true there's a lot of new jazz that's intriguing and listenable. Yet it's necessary either to follow gatekeepers, or do your own research on Bandcamp. It would be great if more people took the time to look for music, as you evidently do. On behalf of all artists, thank you!
Thank you, Su. Music is very important to me so, yes, I make the effort to know what is new and what reissues I may have missed the first time around. And I very intentionally BUY CDs and attend live music performances. I have always believed it is important to support music and musicians and today, when the arts are under attack, it is essential that we support the arts and, equally important, that we support the artists who bring so much joy into our lives.
I wonder if these big publishers are buying up the rights to old music so that they can pump all of it into an AI generator that'll use the input to make a whole bunch of new AI generated crap without having to worry about copyright or royalties to the artists. The music catalog is just a big mine for AI.
Isnt that the way of this world now? You dont have relationships with people, you pretend to, through your phone. You dont have hobbies and interests, you pretend to by watching videos of other people doing those things. You dont raise your kids, you pretend to by posting pictures of them on the laughably monikered "socials".
Even at the gym, a place you would expect people to actually be doing something, theyre pretending to work out. What theyre really doing is sitting on a machine, scrolling on their phone. You might think theyre doing this to promote an image, but they arent. Its themselves theyre pretending for.
I could go on but whats the point? Im just pretending people are listening. Or care. Or are able to understand(not you, reader, ik you understand).
For my own part, im pretending im upset by all this pretending. Truth is, being the cynical asshole i am, i think the vast majority of people suck and theyre getting what their lazy asses deserve. 40something years of being on the outside looking in adds a sweet bitterness to ones soul. Why is it sweet? Idk, it just feels good now. Like im so fucking glad im on the outside now! Bc it IS the place to be, now. All the things i thought i wanted from people, they dont even have themselves, now. And while they struggle to cope with that, well im an old hat at that, now.
The music culture has been looking back in time for quite a while.
Nostalgia and pining for the good ol' days used to be the ways of our parents and grandparents.
Not anymore. Young people today are perfectly happy to enroll in The School of Rock and knock out those classic rock hits of the '70s, '80s, and '90s while mom, dad, and the grandparents sing along. Kids think it's cool!
Jazz education sells the 1940s and 50s without a hint of what evolved after John Coltrane.
New artists playing creative music can be found in the cracks and underground, but there is no place for them to be heard on a large scale.
Sad but true. I played in a band that was on flying fish records back in the 70s and 80s and then Sugarhill. Both labels got gobbled up by a bigger fish and then again and again. Where are they now?
They had their faults, but they were pretty good gatekeepers, and the music they put out was consistently good or better. Part of the problem now is no gatekeepers, no gates, we have this endless buffet- most of the food is past It’s due date, and the really good, fresh choices are hard to get to.
Not to mention that there’s no money in it anymore.
I read something that might throw a wrench into the new music theory: even the slightest AI contribution could soon carry a watermark. While some might know how to remove them, the technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated. I’ve read that corporations are growing concerned about AI-generated music, especially as it intersects with evolving copyright laws.
If we return to analog music recording, that might be what helps correct the current trajectory.
As an older artist—whose sound leans more retro—I feel caught in the middle. I’m not sure where that leaves someone like me. But one thing is certain: it’s absolutely imperative that we continue to promote creativity if we want to keep the art form alive.
They're buying the rights to old music because they think they can feed it through an AI and sell the derivative slop that comes out, instead of paying to create new music. This is because they have no taste.
Music is becoming more and more participatory and abundant, so hits today don’t mean what they did in the past. This isn’t new, it’s been going on for 20 years, as discussed in The Long Tail. With the landscape of music so transformed by technology, new business models like DAO’s need to be developed in order to adapt to the highly diffused musical reality.
Taking home the oldies rather than supporting new artists shows up in other arenas as well. I work with a sculptor, and we were in discussions with a client for a while to create a custom piece for his garden. He was a fan and had collected other work from us. The project eventually fell flat - he opted instead to have a local prop shop make a plastic-coated styrofoam model of Rodin's Thinker.
No doubt he saved a lot of money in the short term, but while bronze ages beautifully, that plastic will be landfill in short order.
The African Gospel Studios, St Teresa of Calcutta church, in Tanzania, isn’t particularly worried about taking an old tune from the 1800s. They have made it entirely their own, beautiful dresses included. They even have a Gmail email address so I can contact them and donate. I thank YT for this discovery. Also the Harp Twins doing Paint It Black. And then Ted’s own music recommendations keep us awake at night.
Frankly, the rise and fall of the music business doesn't interest me. I was always a casual consumer, at best. But at what point do artists quit trying, that's the question. When will young musicians, whether Mozart or Miles, see no future? Will it matter? Poets have survived, kinda, without a market. Novelists? Way on the cultural downslope--but do writers quit writing? Is this a distribution issue that is being disrupted (also a tired trope) or, more my concern, is it entropy? In a world without standards of excellence (decided by whomever) what's left but gray? The gatekeepers are dead. Huzzah. Now what? Love Substack, but how long before it's the next Reddit pit--other than the contributors getting paid. (Surely Substack revenue per contributor have/will decline as it becomes ever more popular--it's economics/pop rushes). Or is moderating a niche on the latest platform somehow different/better than traditional IP right/promotions management? I have world-changing songs, novels, and poems to finish--but I lack motivation. And I'm too old and unattractive to ask my mom to record my TikTok influencer vids. Snarky, but serious: Does the market/medium/management matter? Real originality and genius will rise, right? Or no?
I wish I could believe that the cream will rise to the top...but I think nowadays the cream don't rise till the bread underneath it rises in direct proportion.
What is your take on the recent phenomena of new and emerging artists issuing almost reverential spool offs of classic 60 and 70s pop songs?
Is this how record companies are blowing these burnt out coals to new life? How soul destroying it must be for the new/emerging artists issuing their materiel to be handed some moldering score from 50 years ago and told to get at it.
If I wanted an old Elton John cut, (and I don’t thank you very much!), I’d rather listen to his performance - not some bright young thing who was releasing her own stuff and now is side-tracked schlocking shite her mom, if not her grandmother, listened to as a teenager.
I think you're confusing *music* with the music *industry*.
There's no shortage of new music being released, and as you have pointed out yourself, some of it is really worthwhile. The problem is just the opposite: there is too much music being released these days. By my research,150,000 new tracks are submitted to music services per day and growing. Even if you ignore things like pure AI-generated tracks, streaming fraud, and redeliveries (labels resubmitting tracks to fix errors or update metadata), it's probably about 100k per day. Discovery has become extremely difficult, expensive, and chancy. That's why catalog music is so popular -- no one needs to "discover" it. This is true not only for investors and labels but with the public: the only actual growth in streaming volume nowadays (NA/EU) is in catalog music. New music listening is basically flat. This is the reality that the major labels are dealing with.
You can poke around, read blogs daily. But it takes a lot of time. I discovered this amazing guy Arnab Sengupta a few weeks ago, via a blog called Tinnitist. Bangalore India. Great soulful voice, meaningful songs, has a good jazz ensemble backing band. Some of his stuff sounds like Sting solo as far as the force of spirit and jazz stylings happening.
I text chatted with him too on the instagram. I'm also an artist/project/singer/songwriter person and he likes what we are doing. It's nothing at all like his work. He's far more of a total musician than I will ever be. But that was nice to hear.
Indeed. There is so much great music out there still being made today but you have to go looking for it. It won't come to you simply by turning on the radio like in the past.
There is all kinds of excellent music still being put out in all genres. The problem is getting it heard. There's just so much out there and no one to curate it like the old days.
College radio stations and small companies like Pacifica have never stopped playing good, new music. Since we can stream radio stations, well...
So there's a predictable pattern here: several people mentioned an artist they found whom nobody has ever heard of and whose music they like. That's great - I bet it's good music! But then what happens? You read it here. Maybe you tell your friends. And then, unless you happen to be a mega influencer (or A&R rep for a significant label, or booking agent), nothing happens that would materially affect the artist's career. That's the problem. Both music-making and taste-making have been democratized to the point that neither one has any likely impact; meanwhile supply keeps increasing (at an increasing rate) while demand barely budges.
I agree with that, but I think it's quite unprecise to assert that music-making and taste-making have any actual impact.
We know that the current content production scenario is now fragmented in an enormous amount of niches.
There's no longer a mainstream truly known by the majority of people, and, in contrast, an underground scene: the whole scenario consists in an infinite constellation of niches.
Then, in each niche there's a hierarchy of taste-makers (influencers), who (more or less, depenging on the case) impact on their engaged audience.
Therefore, it's all about getting into a niche of music genre we like: here's the same micro-cosmos that, once, was reserved (in larger dimesions) to the mainstream.
Very interesting.
It seems like the loss of importance of significant musical authorities (magazines, reviewers, radio stations) has made every kind of new discovery flat and meaningless - maybe because we've spent 60 years criticizing hierarchies in all of society (often with good reason), but with a result of a more "pointless" cultural consensus? Like, nothing matters anymore in terms of opinions; My taste is my taste and your taste is your taste. End of discussion.
I also think that the diminishing effects of spreading the word of new artists is spot on. This natural influence should have an effect on the artist's music and career. But it doesn't. And the industry is of course looking for ways to make money on music. And the only music that has a cultural consensus and therefore monetary value in the broader western world are old artist catalogs... It makes SO much sense now in terms of the discrepancy between the music industry and it's parasitization of music, and the actual creative act of music and it's own value to artists, people locally or in the broader society.
The industry no longer serves the organic manifestation of creative endeavors from musicians, and lifts them up with the help of platforms and musical authorities, whose sole purpose is to funnel new music to people and create the opportunity of making a shared value of new music.
It's funny... Because I can actually see myself being the culprit in terms of consumer choices. I don't listen to radio. i buy vinyls (mostly old ones, haha.. classics, that i like) and my musical attention is no where AT ALL on the future.
Everything sounds dead to me. I think the missing bodily epistemology of modern music-creation definitely is an aspect here to me... That subject is for another day, lol
i disagree. you discover new music, you tell your friends. and then, if you (or one of your friends, or one of your friends' friends...) actually buy that music, the musician is affected. if you buy their merch, the musicians are affected.
will they become the next beatles? unlikely, but then, who knows.
will they be able to pay rent, put food on the table and keep doing music as the mean to provide for themselves and their families? maybe not with *just* your purchase. but if the music is good and they have just one paying fan, there's something wrong somewhere.
the problem is how to discover more music you like. and the solution is: search for it. it takes time, but there's no other way around it.
sadly Bill is 1000% correct. I do believe in some ways it is related to the very nature of consent decrees and blanket licenses that even allow such an environment to exist although I will concede that blankets do in theory offer somewhat of a "useful floor" that I wish existed by law in live music, where market dynamics are in some ways worse because they don't. and these 2 issues, blanket & supply vs demand, basically complicates any other issue. No other product or industry works this way.
Exactly. I haven't bought major label recordings (apart from some used discs) in about 15 years - before Concord turned into a megacorp and started "assimilating" indie labels.
There's so much going on, and too much good music, seemingly. (Since listening to 2 or more records at once doesn't work.)
Erron corrected below! [As for the music industry, it seemed like the crash began in the mid-late 90s. I wonder when labels like ECM will break free of BMG's corporate overlords, or even *if* they can.]
I work at ECM and I must clarify that it's in no way tied to BMG. ECM music is (partially, depending on the country) distributed by UMG on the digital and physical side.
In this dynamic the major contributes with its own infrastructure, but, at the same time, it has no word within the artistic as well as promotion decisions made within the label :)
Thanks - I misspoke/miswrote. A number of small, formerly indie labels seem to be distributed by UMG now. I can see some advantages to that, but mostly... not.
Yes sure, it depends on each case :)
To hell with the major labels. Let them die. Corporate Rock Still Sucks. That used to be a sticker / slogan from this independent record label some of you might have heard of ... SST. That was decades ago and it still sucks.
..."At the time, the main genre of independently released music was grassroots folk, which happened to dovetail into two of the key ideas of the American independent rock movement: regionalism, as in the in idea that a localized sound would both serve the tastes and needs of its community and defy the homogenizing effects of mass media; and egalitarianism, in that music didn't need to be made by professionals, as the big-time entertainment business would have the public believe." --Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life (Beat Happening chapter.)
We can entertain ourselves if we just remember how.
They'll die as musicians discover bitcoin and v4v and bypass the leeches.
Bypassing leeches is good. I am not convinced about bitcoin et al though. Its even more unglued from the wealth of nature and our actual then the current complexified and abstract arrangement.
Seriously study it and you'll become convinced. Otherwise you'll end up with centralized digital trash.
Thank you forvthe recommendation. I certainly dont want McGovCorp running a digital trash currency as you say. But crypto is totally dependent on complex computer systems that I dont think are terribly resilient in the long run. I am a fan of alternative ecomoic models and currencies though.
Again. I'd suggest they are exceptionally resilient.
This is similar to sports where players often get drafted based on their "measurables" instead of performance. That way a GM can point to the guy's size and speed if he doesn't pan out. These record execs know if they spend a bunch of money on unproven musicians it can cost them their position. I think much of the major labels behavior is similar to the guys in blazing saddles who don't want to lose their phony baloney jobs. They're playing it safe all the way to the poor house.
They are not going to the poor house, the company is, they are just hoping to get a few more meals out those bones before they move on.
I think the last line of Ted's piece, "some of us have already started doing that," is exactly the point. Ted does it himself, since he writes multiple posts highlighting the artists he's most excited about...a counterpoint to these admittedly doom-and-gloom posts about the industry.
Fortunately for myself and my little (91-subscriber!) music blog about New York City live music (patreon.com/theemusiclistings), I don't have to worry about any of this industry crap, or fake AI music, or royalty/catalog garbage. I get to post 800 live gigs each week, in every genre of music, performed by actual living, breathing, musicians. I try to highlight 4-5 things a day, and since we just did our 1,000 post last week, I've mentioned a few thousand artists specifically over that time. Most of them have Bandcamp pages, and I've personally seen dozens, if not over a hundred of these artists, over that time, and I've purchased as much music as I can mentally process from these bands--CDs, records, cassettes, whatever. Many times direct from their Bandcamp pages.
What's really exciting is that none of these artists (in true rock 'n roll fashion) seems to give a shit about any of this industry crap. They just do what they do--make music, perform music, record music, and release music. If they get picked up by larger record companies or get to play big festivals and show up on late night TV (think Wet Leg or someone similar), great. If not, many of them just keep plugging away nonetheless, doing what they do. Maybe they have day jobs, maybe they struggle financially to get the money together to rehearse, record, and tour, but they keep doing it, God bless 'em.
All we have to do is make the merest effort to keep discovering new stuff, whether it's through going out to see music live, if you can, or subscribing to newsletters or blogs, or even just taking time to pay attention to what the evil algorithms are suggesting for you...believe it or not, they'll be some good stuff there as well. It doesn't matter how we find good stuff...it's there for the listening. Happy 4th, everyone...
I agree, somewhat, with the headline of this article. I remain uncertain that I agree with the portents of doom that Ted presents on this subject. I presume he is talking about pop music in his ongoing lament. The field of jazz, on the other hand, is bright in 2025 with new music and new interpretations of some old standards. The Mark Masters Ensemble with Billy Harper, the Greg Abate Quartet, Eric Scott Reid, the Branford Marsalis Quartet, Louis Hayes, Joe Alterman with Houston Person and Benny Benack III are among the jazz artists whose new work I have purchased in 2025. In the pop/rock field there has been wonderful new material from Dion, Nick Lowe, Dwight Yoakum and JD McPherson. There is some great new music out there. Yeah, you kinda have to go looking for it sometimes. But, to my ears, the search is very much worth the effort. And the music never lets me down!
It's true there's a lot of new jazz that's intriguing and listenable. Yet it's necessary either to follow gatekeepers, or do your own research on Bandcamp. It would be great if more people took the time to look for music, as you evidently do. On behalf of all artists, thank you!
Thank you, Su. Music is very important to me so, yes, I make the effort to know what is new and what reissues I may have missed the first time around. And I very intentionally BUY CDs and attend live music performances. I have always believed it is important to support music and musicians and today, when the arts are under attack, it is essential that we support the arts and, equally important, that we support the artists who bring so much joy into our lives.
Agreed. Wishing there were actual gigs in my area, but a fairly long drive is required to hear most live music, apart from country and bluegrass.
I wonder if these big publishers are buying up the rights to old music so that they can pump all of it into an AI generator that'll use the input to make a whole bunch of new AI generated crap without having to worry about copyright or royalties to the artists. The music catalog is just a big mine for AI.
A.
A likely possibility.
That was my first thought too
"But its all pretending"
Isnt that the way of this world now? You dont have relationships with people, you pretend to, through your phone. You dont have hobbies and interests, you pretend to by watching videos of other people doing those things. You dont raise your kids, you pretend to by posting pictures of them on the laughably monikered "socials".
Even at the gym, a place you would expect people to actually be doing something, theyre pretending to work out. What theyre really doing is sitting on a machine, scrolling on their phone. You might think theyre doing this to promote an image, but they arent. Its themselves theyre pretending for.
I could go on but whats the point? Im just pretending people are listening. Or care. Or are able to understand(not you, reader, ik you understand).
For my own part, im pretending im upset by all this pretending. Truth is, being the cynical asshole i am, i think the vast majority of people suck and theyre getting what their lazy asses deserve. 40something years of being on the outside looking in adds a sweet bitterness to ones soul. Why is it sweet? Idk, it just feels good now. Like im so fucking glad im on the outside now! Bc it IS the place to be, now. All the things i thought i wanted from people, they dont even have themselves, now. And while they struggle to cope with that, well im an old hat at that, now.
Pretending... its something to consider
The music culture has been looking back in time for quite a while.
Nostalgia and pining for the good ol' days used to be the ways of our parents and grandparents.
Not anymore. Young people today are perfectly happy to enroll in The School of Rock and knock out those classic rock hits of the '70s, '80s, and '90s while mom, dad, and the grandparents sing along. Kids think it's cool!
Jazz education sells the 1940s and 50s without a hint of what evolved after John Coltrane.
New artists playing creative music can be found in the cracks and underground, but there is no place for them to be heard on a large scale.
Strange days indeed!
Sad but true. I played in a band that was on flying fish records back in the 70s and 80s and then Sugarhill. Both labels got gobbled up by a bigger fish and then again and again. Where are they now?
They had their faults, but they were pretty good gatekeepers, and the music they put out was consistently good or better. Part of the problem now is no gatekeepers, no gates, we have this endless buffet- most of the food is past It’s due date, and the really good, fresh choices are hard to get to.
Not to mention that there’s no money in it anymore.
I read something that might throw a wrench into the new music theory: even the slightest AI contribution could soon carry a watermark. While some might know how to remove them, the technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated. I’ve read that corporations are growing concerned about AI-generated music, especially as it intersects with evolving copyright laws.
If we return to analog music recording, that might be what helps correct the current trajectory.
As an older artist—whose sound leans more retro—I feel caught in the middle. I’m not sure where that leaves someone like me. But one thing is certain: it’s absolutely imperative that we continue to promote creativity if we want to keep the art form alive.
They're buying the rights to old music because they think they can feed it through an AI and sell the derivative slop that comes out, instead of paying to create new music. This is because they have no taste.
Spot on Tony!!
AI is amazing and amazingly dangerous.
Oh for sure! Because if they have taste, as you say, they would never deliver derivative slop.
It's never about taste or caring. It's about MONEY.
Indeed. My thought was that their lack of taste means they can't see that the slop won't sell, and their strategy is suicidal.
Music is becoming more and more participatory and abundant, so hits today don’t mean what they did in the past. This isn’t new, it’s been going on for 20 years, as discussed in The Long Tail. With the landscape of music so transformed by technology, new business models like DAO’s need to be developed in order to adapt to the highly diffused musical reality.
Taking home the oldies rather than supporting new artists shows up in other arenas as well. I work with a sculptor, and we were in discussions with a client for a while to create a custom piece for his garden. He was a fan and had collected other work from us. The project eventually fell flat - he opted instead to have a local prop shop make a plastic-coated styrofoam model of Rodin's Thinker.
No doubt he saved a lot of money in the short term, but while bronze ages beautifully, that plastic will be landfill in short order.
The African Gospel Studios, St Teresa of Calcutta church, in Tanzania, isn’t particularly worried about taking an old tune from the 1800s. They have made it entirely their own, beautiful dresses included. They even have a Gmail email address so I can contact them and donate. I thank YT for this discovery. Also the Harp Twins doing Paint It Black. And then Ted’s own music recommendations keep us awake at night.
https://youtu.be/RR88AJicumM
Frankly, the rise and fall of the music business doesn't interest me. I was always a casual consumer, at best. But at what point do artists quit trying, that's the question. When will young musicians, whether Mozart or Miles, see no future? Will it matter? Poets have survived, kinda, without a market. Novelists? Way on the cultural downslope--but do writers quit writing? Is this a distribution issue that is being disrupted (also a tired trope) or, more my concern, is it entropy? In a world without standards of excellence (decided by whomever) what's left but gray? The gatekeepers are dead. Huzzah. Now what? Love Substack, but how long before it's the next Reddit pit--other than the contributors getting paid. (Surely Substack revenue per contributor have/will decline as it becomes ever more popular--it's economics/pop rushes). Or is moderating a niche on the latest platform somehow different/better than traditional IP right/promotions management? I have world-changing songs, novels, and poems to finish--but I lack motivation. And I'm too old and unattractive to ask my mom to record my TikTok influencer vids. Snarky, but serious: Does the market/medium/management matter? Real originality and genius will rise, right? Or no?
I wish I could believe that the cream will rise to the top...but I think nowadays the cream don't rise till the bread underneath it rises in direct proportion.
What is your take on the recent phenomena of new and emerging artists issuing almost reverential spool offs of classic 60 and 70s pop songs?
Is this how record companies are blowing these burnt out coals to new life? How soul destroying it must be for the new/emerging artists issuing their materiel to be handed some moldering score from 50 years ago and told to get at it.
If I wanted an old Elton John cut, (and I don’t thank you very much!), I’d rather listen to his performance - not some bright young thing who was releasing her own stuff and now is side-tracked schlocking shite her mom, if not her grandmother, listened to as a teenager.