The Music Business is Healthy Again? Really?

There is so much freedom to play and experiment in these shared non-monetized spaces, but the music industry is deeply broken and it is making music matter less, not at its core, but the consequence of diminishing its monetary value while placing the burden of popularity on broke artists means the whole thing feels like a demoralizing shakedown. An... See more

This problem is almost impossible to fix in a culture that relies heavily on algorithms. The algorithm is, by definition, a repeating pattern that always looks backward. It does something in the future based on what worked in the past.

So the algorithm that recommends music or videos on a web platform will never deliver a totally fresh and new expe... See more

This is why I think we slightly miss the mark when we say that streaming has “devalued music”. If the amount of capital flowing to the sites of consolidated power in the industry is any indication, music is perhaps more valuable than it’s ever been. What has been devalued is the labor that creates it. Left unchecked, a process squeeze is ultimately... See more