Cliff Notes: JayZ and a bunch of other super rich musicians decide to cry about how unfair the music business is. Launch their own streaming service (Tidal), at double the cost of competitors. It's just gotten mega-backlash from everyone as they tried to pitch a for-profit enterprise into some revolutionary movement to save artists/art. Insanely out of touch launch #tidalforall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYYGdcLbFkw Internet delivers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEsJqtiU-2A
Yeah, but no one can claim that the freetard approach works that well as an economic model either. That's no less of an "I've got mine" system than Tidal.
Agreed. The whole album sales era is over and done. The people backing Tidal are old schoolers that made it long ago, or outliers that still manage to push decent album sales. Most artists are self releasing on Youtube and making their serious money elsewhere (merchandising, licensing, concerts, etc..) I think the old days of becoming a rich musician are over. I expect TV and movies will catch up soon enough.
Everyone just watches music videos on Youtube, uses internet radio (Spotify, Pandora, etc), or goes to concerts these days. I haven't bought or illegally downloaded any music in years. As Supersonic said, the time where you could make money selling albums is over. Also lol at self promoting zero talent retards like Kanye West and Nicki Minaj calling themselves "artists."
Very little of what's on YouTube is actually legal, and the Spotify model is already on it's way out. The labels don't really like it, and neither do the artists. Despite all the moralizing and pontificating on both sides of the fence, I don't think anyone has figured out a new model that isn't centered around some form of exploitation.
I don't really care that much what happens as I don't really listen to much new music. I'd say the downturn in the quality of music has been as much to blame for the downfall of the music industry as piracy or streaming. Music really hasn't been good since alternative was popular in the 90's. It's no longer about who has musical talent. It's about looking hot, lip syncing to cheesy corporate pop music, and shameless self promotion.
Everything you say is true but only applies to mega stars. Countless smaller bands have said they don't pull their music from YouTube on purpose. It gives them a wide reach and they hope listeners Google them and get to their webpage. They make money on direct CD sales, merchandising, and concerts. This is why there aren't any new rich bands anymore. The "successful" ones are performers hand picked to look good and lip sync studio written tracks and are backed by huge marketing budgets. The problem with Tidal is that the artist problem with the label is passed onto the consumer instead of just dropping the label. They basically want all of the benefits without the drawbacks. But the good old days of charging $30 for an album just to hear one good song are over and it's not coming back.
I think that's likely to be much more of a mixed bag than you're aware of. The "sure it's free but you get exposure" stuff is truly hated by a lot of people who do things professionally. They'd like to remain in control of what's free or not free, rather than have others decide it for them.
The last new album I purchased was 'Machine Head - The Blackening' and it was rubbish. It was when they started moving to 10 minutes songs that sound disjointed. Not purchased anything since, just use YouTube or listen to the radio in the car or internet radio at work. Most of the time its something like Absolute80s as I don't like much new stuff. Perhaps I am just getting old, boring and cynical? I don't even go to gigs anymore when my mates suggest it and wouldn't even consider spending 4/5 days in a field at a festival any more.
Damn we're old farts. I don't even know what I like anymore. Sometime I'll listen to obscure indy stuff and I like it but I have no idea what it is. Oh and I ship you not a few days ago I heard Snoop Dog Gin and Juice for the first time in my life and I thought it was great.
Classic Snoop Dogg is good stuff. Actually a lot of the classic rap from the late 80s and early 90s is really good.
Oh, I'm sure they hate it. Who wouldn't want to make millions ripping off consumers like the good old days. I'm just saying the newer bands aren't delusional and know that times (and money) have changed. Unless you are a multi-demo grabbing pop artist backed by a music conglomerate (read: millions in advertising), you aren't going to be raking in the money of the 90s-00s.... Jay Z wouldn't have the net worth he has now, if he was launching in this era. Tidal's business plan of exclusive content is hilarious. This is an industry that can barely contain the primary product let alone exclusive one-off items at a 100% premium. Enjoy this Tidal exclusive video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbYaFd7oXk
Jay z is a bit out of touch on pleasing his fans. he released his last album digitally first which isn't uncommon. the problem is that he made it exclusive to samsung's digital store which was only available for Samsung devices. I'm sure this meant more money in his pocket since samsung most likely paid out of their ass to get that deal with him.
Everything being made freely available regardless of what the artist or owner would choose themselves is much more of a rip-off than charging a price that the consumer can turn down. See the difference?
If you believe that consumers were being exploited pre-internet, you would still have to admit they had the option of not participating in the exploitation. Nobody forced consumers to go to Tower Records and buy CDs at retail. The internet exploitation model of artists and entertainment companies doesn't allow the targets of the exploitation to opt out. They're forced to participate.
Funny and perhaps not relevant story. 20+ years ago I was in high School and I the kids are talking about recording music off the radio. One girl pipes up and says everyone is stealing music and that they needed to stop. I remember thinking that was the craziest thing I'd ever heard. A person can't "steal" music. Only music media. It took another 10 years to pass before I heard that argument being discussed seriously again. That was around the era of the original Napster.
The distribution angle is always the key. Big difference between making a mix tape for your friends vs. making it available to anyone in the world with an internet connection. That's where you start exploiting people. People don't like to admit to that, but that's what it is.