The Slow, Painful Death of the SoCal Entertainment Ecosystem

And other trends in arts, culture & society

Below is my latest arts and culture briefing. You will notice a recurring theme in most of the stories featured here—namely the growing crisis in the macroculture.

Many parts of the microculture are thriving, but large legacy institutions are more vulnerable than they have ever been during my lifetime.

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US film and TV production is down 40% from its peak.

Here’s my ugly prediction: Hollywood will never make as many movies and TV series as it did a few years ago.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Production in the United States was down about 40% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to peak-TV levels of filming activity during the same period in 2022. For nearly two years, Hollywood has suffered a stark decline in film and TV shoots that has prolonged mass unemployment and mental health crises among entertainment workers.

All the big spenders (Netflix, Disney, etc.) are cutting back. They don’t really have a choice—their cash flow isn’t strong enough to support those peak levels.

And this is now a self-reinforcing trend. The major players can reduce investment because their competitors are doing the same. The only real growth segment in video is self-produced stuff on YouTube—and that isn’t going to keep Hollywood cast and crew employed.

This will have a spillover effect on music. Big companies have been buying up old songs, with the plan of licensing them for TV and film use. A dramatic decline in those areas will inevitably put a squeeze on these music catalog owners.

All this is more evidence of the cultural stagnation that I’ve warned about repeatedly. But it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

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SoCal recording studios are disappearing.

“Los Angeles' recording studios have heralded some of music's greatest hits, but are fading out due to real estate issues and rising costs,” Variety reports.

“There are at least 10 truly world-class rooms still in L.A.,” producer Glen Ballard told Variety. “But there used to be hundreds.”

Some of these recording studios deserve landmark status—for example, Capitol Studios in Hollywood.

Is this problem fixable?

I can’t see that happening unless major record labels start investing money in making new recordings, instead of buying up old song catalogs. Imagine if they took a fraction of the billions they’re spending on publishing rights, and put that into launching new artists and new albums.

But there’s no sign of that happening.

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Are rock and hip-hop fans living in the past?

I’ve stirred up lots of controversy by showing how old music is killing new music in the marketplace. When I first looked at this in 2022, old songs represented 69.8% of streaming. It’s now 72.8%. I can easily envision this number reaching 80% by the end of the decade.

We now know which genres are most (and least) reliant on old songs—thanks to Luminate, the market research firm that provides these numbers.

Rock fans are most likely to listen to songs more than five years old. Hip-hop and pop fans also stick to familiar hits—only around 25% of their streams are recent songs.

Country and Latin listeners are the most receptive to new releases, but even these fans still prefer old songs.

Source: Luminate

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Banks now look like Starbucks, but why?

A bland conformity spreads over the land, and everything starts to look like Starbucks. The latest casualty is your local bank branch.