James Blake’s music subscription model is a fantasy that disadvantages fans and musicians

At this point, I am feeling subscription fatigue and have no desire to sign up for any more annual subscriptions. It is like buying twenty-five albums to listen to twenty-five songs. Instead, I want an experience like Spotify, where my subscription pays for all the music I enjoy. I want my Twitter subscription to pay for what I am reading. By the w... See more

Streaming was really revolutionary and wonderful for a lot of people, but it was really devastating for a lot of other people because everything had to have the same economic logic as pop music.

And a lot of experimental music doesn’t follow that per play valuation logic. A lot of experimental music is about the idea, and you just need access to tha... See more

A more pessimistic prediction is that the current True Fan revolution will eventually go the way of the original Web 2.0 revolution, with creators increasingly ground in the gears of monetization. The Substack of today makes it easy for a writer to charge fans for a newsletter. The Substack of tomorrow might move toward a flat-fee subscription mode... See more