But there’s no secure place for magic or metaphysics in a trillion-dollar marketplace, and such fragile connections run counter to the production-on-demand requirements of any global industry. This is the attitude expressed by the CEO of Spotify when he told musicians that they are to blame for their poor earnings on the platform—because they weren’t releasing songs fast enough. From the perspective of a streaming platform, it would be better (or at least more profitable—which, for them, boils down to the same thing) if AI made the songs. Musicians are just a bloody inconvenience. But how did we arrive at such a dehumanized attitude to music?
(emphasis is mine)
I chose to turn around and walk the other way. Away from what is becoming a race to the bottom… and once that bottom has been reached one can descend even further with the help of AI. No, I am going to make the turn towards art. Scarce, unique, special is what I am aiming for. I have some ideas for special packages, too. They might not be as elaborate as the limited edition La Semana package, that won awards, but they will be personal, home-made and very small, individually signed editions.
>I chose to turn around and walk the other way.
Personally, I think that is the absolutely best choice. I suspect such a choice comes with a cost. There are always tradeoffs. A manager I once had, used to refer to “exchanging problem sets” … no matter your choice (including no decision at all) you end up exchanging one problem set for another.
>This is the attitude expressed by the CEO of Spotify when he told musicians that they are to blame for their poor earnings on the platform—because they weren’t releasing songs fast enough.
This strikes me as an “assembly line” mentality … From my perspective [1] this seems to be antithetical to what music/art ought to hold as its prime directive. This attitude would … seemingly serve to denude music/art of its aesthetic qualities. I mean, what’s the point then? I guess profit maximisation would necessarily be the point… which I suppose isn’t bad if one is feeding oneself/family from the proceeds of music as profession.
[1] full disclosure: music is an avocation for me and not a profession. I have the privilege to be able to “do it” in the evenings and derive financial remuneration from electronics engineering.