Musicians deal with stingy streamers and AI threats, too. So why aren't they on strike?

Of the $40 billion in annual revenue earned by the music industry, only 12% is actually paid out to artists. The remainder goes to institutional middlemen like agents, platforms, and record labels, unfairly cheating creators out of the fruits of their labor. Moreover, fans, whose engagement almost entirely drives these revenue streams, are given no... See more

In the early days of social media, companies made blogging technologies with the promise that writers would be able to communicate directly with their readers. This pattern played out in industry after industry. But these changes left creators at the mercy of companies far more powerful, far more ruthless, and far less accountable than the record l... See more

The top 1% of musicians now make ~77% of revenue in music. Many factions of the independent musical infrastructure have become closer and closer aligned with corporate interests and advertising supported journalistic models in order to keep their head just slightly above water, and are in danger of losing their distinction and identity as a result.

The music industry is one that has never ceased to have a need(s) for revamping and improvement. It is interesting to see that Goldberg, and I am sure many others, had the vision for a better future back then. Today, we are still grappling with ways to allocate more resources to music creators and incentivize fans but is not an easy task.

The most frequent complaint I hear about streaming services is that they don’t pay artists fairly. Michael Pelczynski, the former Vice President of Strategy at SoundCloud, took that complaint personally. Over his five years with the streaming service, he helped conceive and implement a novel payment scheme that received much praise.

In an hour-long... See more

One idea suggested by Royal is that the label’s opinion — and the radio station’s — is about to matter a lot less. All of a sudden, if you can grow a big enough social following, you can make a living off whatever music makes you happiest. This is somewhat true today, of course, but primarily to musicians who can live off touring and streaming reve... See more

The music livestreaming economy undeniably favors independent artists — but it’s really challenging to make a sustainable living from livestreaming, with a power law that still sees the top 1% commanding the majority of revenue.