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The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

(thewalrus.ca)
300 points pseudolus | 9 comments | 28 Jun 25 22:06 UTC | HN request time: 1.023s | source | bottom
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Dumblydorr ◴[28 Jun 25 23:45 UTC] No.44409135[source]▶
Most musicians who can make it now are only middle class, with a handful of superstars and a huge legion of poor artists.

I’ve played many gigs for $20-100, which is once a month or week and tough work relative to typing some code from home. I played for 25 mins in front of 1000 people and spent 8+ hours total all-in to make 200 bucks. Way harder money than coding.

Really, think back through history. Musicians were needed for dance, parties, all occasions. Now hit play on your phone connected to a speaker, GG musicians.

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1. bamboozled ◴[29 Jun 25 04:14 UTC] No.44410313[source]▶
Now hit play on your phone connected to a speaker, GG musicians.

Not really comparable experience though.

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2. nine_k ◴[29 Jun 25 04:55 UTC] No.44410455[source]▶
Comparable, though very much not equal. Unless you came specifically to listen to music (e.g. many concerts), the music plays a technical role: dance music, movie soundtrack, restaurant / bar background music. For that, a good recording is adequate or even superior.
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3. galkk ◴[29 Jun 25 06:28 UTC] No.44410758[source]▶
To some extent it is much better.

More reliable, no divas, no drunk musicians, always on time, the repertoire is literally unlimited.

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4. LtWorf ◴[29 Jun 25 08:26 UTC] No.44411284[source]▶
Compare dating to buying onlyfans…
replies(1): >>44412642 #
5. kupfer ◴[29 Jun 25 12:41 UTC] No.44412642{3}[source]▶
"Strip club visit to onlyfans" is more apt
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6. spacemadness ◴[29 Jun 25 17:12 UTC] No.44414662[source]▶
This reminds me of the guy that told me he didn’t need to travel anywhere because the internet exists and people already write about it and leave pictures. This was in the 90s. Not the same obviously. And I agree that crowds can be super annoying sometimes. And it obviously depends on the context of the type of music created, etc. But in your nicely controlled environment you can miss out on spontaneity or energy that can’t be replaced.
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7. LtWorf ◴[29 Jun 25 20:05 UTC] No.44415963{4}[source]▶
Nah in small enough venues you sit down and have a beer with the musicians :D
8. bamboozled ◴[30 Jun 25 07:20 UTC] No.44420414{3}[source]▶
That's a wonderful analogy...
9. bamboozled ◴[30 Jun 25 07:21 UTC] No.44420419[source]▶
Yeah, I love going to a bar or nice restaurant and listening to the same recording of Take Five or Kind of Blue, over and over and over and over and over again with zero variation throughout my life. It's amazing.