Thanks, Darren, great article. I’ve certainly noticed it getting harder to break out of what Spotify wants me to listen to vs what I’m trying to find. On a positive note, as you say in your article there’s plenty of people out there making all sorts of different types of music, some of whom don’t bother putting it on Spotify and instead just go to Bandcamp and SoundCloud. I do quite a lot of remote session work as a bass player and although I’m in the UK I get hired by people from all over the world, and a lot of that music is really cool stuff from great songs to weird but wonderful instrumentals to people writing music for indie films, some of which may never get funding but they’re still going for it and the music is always really good. I’ve noticed more and more of the AI generated music being promoted on my Spotify after Ted’s recent article on this where he shared some examples of country stars. Fingers crossed I’m not yet seeing too much of people using AI to replace real musicians on recordings, at least for the time being. On another positive note, and not sure if this is unique to Substack but I avoid all other social platforms so my only reference point, is that there are quite a few folks on here curating recommended listening lists of artists that are quite unknown with small numbers of plays etc on Spotify and other DSPs and these are great for showing that there’s still lots of people out there making music, writing songs and playing real instruments. Hopefully that can only grow.
Spotify's attempt to "disconnect" you from your own/your preferred music artists is a symptom of something I've found across many other algorithm-driven online spaces: it isn't who/what they show you that's necessarily problematic; it's who/what they make disappear. Sometimes it's you; sometimes it's someone or something they clearly have evidence that you enjoy.
But they don't care.
They want you in -this- other box, over there; the one that benefits them.
Nicely said Darren. Until you pointed it out it hadn’t occurred to me how hard it is to browse “my” artists and albums on Spotify. Definitely something Bandcamp does much better.
Thanks, great article! I'm 50, been releasing independent music for 25 years and I'm surrounded by great musicians half my age: listening, playing and writing with them is amazing and thus I know the future looks bright, creatively speaking. I feel we're at a turning point and the next shift is just around the corner.
Thanks, Darren, great article. I’ve certainly noticed it getting harder to break out of what Spotify wants me to listen to vs what I’m trying to find. On a positive note, as you say in your article there’s plenty of people out there making all sorts of different types of music, some of whom don’t bother putting it on Spotify and instead just go to Bandcamp and SoundCloud. I do quite a lot of remote session work as a bass player and although I’m in the UK I get hired by people from all over the world, and a lot of that music is really cool stuff from great songs to weird but wonderful instrumentals to people writing music for indie films, some of which may never get funding but they’re still going for it and the music is always really good. I’ve noticed more and more of the AI generated music being promoted on my Spotify after Ted’s recent article on this where he shared some examples of country stars. Fingers crossed I’m not yet seeing too much of people using AI to replace real musicians on recordings, at least for the time being. On another positive note, and not sure if this is unique to Substack but I avoid all other social platforms so my only reference point, is that there are quite a few folks on here curating recommended listening lists of artists that are quite unknown with small numbers of plays etc on Spotify and other DSPs and these are great for showing that there’s still lots of people out there making music, writing songs and playing real instruments. Hopefully that can only grow.
Spotify's attempt to "disconnect" you from your own/your preferred music artists is a symptom of something I've found across many other algorithm-driven online spaces: it isn't who/what they show you that's necessarily problematic; it's who/what they make disappear. Sometimes it's you; sometimes it's someone or something they clearly have evidence that you enjoy.
But they don't care.
They want you in -this- other box, over there; the one that benefits them.
It's worse than ever now.
Nicely said Darren. Until you pointed it out it hadn’t occurred to me how hard it is to browse “my” artists and albums on Spotify. Definitely something Bandcamp does much better.
Thanks, great article! I'm 50, been releasing independent music for 25 years and I'm surrounded by great musicians half my age: listening, playing and writing with them is amazing and thus I know the future looks bright, creatively speaking. I feel we're at a turning point and the next shift is just around the corner.
Ooof your agitation perspective really resonates! Nostalgia recently brought me back to SoundCloud, and it felt lovely