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The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

(thewalrus.ca)
300 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 28 Jun 25 22:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.218s | source
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blindriver ◴[28 Jun 25 23:45 UTC] No.44409137[source]▶
Streaming is the biggest scam to have perpetuated the entertainment industry. The way the money is divided among the content creators is absurd and the prices are both too high and too low at the same time.
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tptacek ◴[29 Jun 25 00:07 UTC] No.44409234[source]▶
It's not great. But the economics of selling recordings never worked out for artists; it's possible that most of what streaming does is to kill advances for artists, and royally fuck labels, the perennial antagonists in the stories we tell about the music industry.
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1. bluGill ◴[29 Jun 25 01:34 UTC] No.44409664[source]▶
Recording worked only as merch to sell at live shows.

recording also works to give a 'real job' to those who insist on making music for a living.

Only a few have ever made a job of performing. The midevil bard was often a second son of a nobel supported as a way to ensure they kill the older brother for the throne. Everyone else music was a hobby they did after farming was done.