Thanks for writing this, and letting me/us know that this track is trending.
This type of activity does make nonsense of the 'low-value track' threshold - tech-savvy manipulators can easily rack up 1000 streams in less than a day (an hour, probably). The artists that's have no idea bout marketing, or are just not listenable, are penalised by the <1000-stream threshold. (This is my opinion and that's all it is)
And I'm glad you are liking ''Making Music:74 Creative Strategies...". That's one my my faves regarding the creative process.
Great post as usual, Darren. It raised a recurring question for me. I wonder how much attention people outside the music industry actually pay to charts these days? If you are marketing a release then obviously a high chart position is a great lever but does joe public really care? As you acknowledge in the post it doesn't seem like a genuine measure of success in the way that the Top 40 singles charts did in the era of physical media. I guess because there are now so many more routes into personalised music discovery.
Glad to hear you are enjoying Dennis DeSantis' book. Had the pleasure of working with him for many years and he's an absolute Don. He's done some great artist interviews and panels as well - all available on Ableton's YouTube channel.
Enjoyed this good post. Controversial take but do you think the wider public of music cares as much as the industry does?
I am slightly going wider than just AI here as I worry we are focused on a new tech thing that is an accelerant to something more structural.
Our arguments and discussion (probably rightly) side almost solely on the supply side (artists etc..) and for the most part we talk in the minima about wider consumer trends.
When we do we talk about more discrete pockets as itās relates to fans (and even more so when it comes to āsuperāfans).
Makes sense we are (at least in theory) a very creator driven business now. I say in theory as the majors leading the charge in setting the tone for licensing of AI businesses is incongruous.
Not ignoring, piracy, bad actors etcā¦ just wondering if some of the risk for us as an industry is not looking wider.
Also on the motivations of this sort of posting and content, I am struck by the incentives in the dominant model being the issue around many bad actors - this post on UK political content really stuck a chord https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRjP-pUiFxl/?igsh=MW04MGE5bWgxZjJtNw==
Itās nice to think bad actors etc are the enemy here (not suggesting you said this btw) but sometimes itās just dumb late capitalist greed.
Do think we should avoid attributing AI produced content or creators as āITā that just depends the problem by distancing this all from human activity.
Doesnāt mean we need to live or think it as valid etcā¦ but IT just suggest entirely machine made which it isnāt. That path wont help us admit the hard truth or confront the issue in front of us. IMO.
See you for a proper natter soon I hope. As always great post.
Thanks for writing this, and letting me/us know that this track is trending.
This type of activity does make nonsense of the 'low-value track' threshold - tech-savvy manipulators can easily rack up 1000 streams in less than a day (an hour, probably). The artists that's have no idea bout marketing, or are just not listenable, are penalised by the <1000-stream threshold. (This is my opinion and that's all it is)
And I'm glad you are liking ''Making Music:74 Creative Strategies...". That's one my my faves regarding the creative process.
I'm not a huge fan of AI panels at conferences, but this would make for such an interesting discussion.
Agree!
Great post as usual, Darren. It raised a recurring question for me. I wonder how much attention people outside the music industry actually pay to charts these days? If you are marketing a release then obviously a high chart position is a great lever but does joe public really care? As you acknowledge in the post it doesn't seem like a genuine measure of success in the way that the Top 40 singles charts did in the era of physical media. I guess because there are now so many more routes into personalised music discovery.
Glad to hear you are enjoying Dennis DeSantis' book. Had the pleasure of working with him for many years and he's an absolute Don. He's done some great artist interviews and panels as well - all available on Ableton's YouTube channel.
Enjoyed this good post. Controversial take but do you think the wider public of music cares as much as the industry does?
I am slightly going wider than just AI here as I worry we are focused on a new tech thing that is an accelerant to something more structural.
Our arguments and discussion (probably rightly) side almost solely on the supply side (artists etc..) and for the most part we talk in the minima about wider consumer trends.
When we do we talk about more discrete pockets as itās relates to fans (and even more so when it comes to āsuperāfans).
Makes sense we are (at least in theory) a very creator driven business now. I say in theory as the majors leading the charge in setting the tone for licensing of AI businesses is incongruous.
Not ignoring, piracy, bad actors etcā¦ just wondering if some of the risk for us as an industry is not looking wider.
This was what popped up right after your post. What could we learn from movies? https://open.substack.com/pub/theankler/p/gen-z-is-huge-their-tv-shows-are?r=1frir5&utm_medium=ios
Also on the motivations of this sort of posting and content, I am struck by the incentives in the dominant model being the issue around many bad actors - this post on UK political content really stuck a chord https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRjP-pUiFxl/?igsh=MW04MGE5bWgxZjJtNw==
Itās nice to think bad actors etc are the enemy here (not suggesting you said this btw) but sometimes itās just dumb late capitalist greed.
Do think we should avoid attributing AI produced content or creators as āITā that just depends the problem by distancing this all from human activity.
Doesnāt mean we need to live or think it as valid etcā¦ but IT just suggest entirely machine made which it isnāt. That path wont help us admit the hard truth or confront the issue in front of us. IMO.
See you for a proper natter soon I hope. As always great post.