Spotify to layoff 17%

[CleanSound]

I made mix tapes/cds with the stuff I liked on them.

I remember when a CD burner and blank disc got cheap enough for me to afford one, that was a game changer. But nothing compared to streaming. Don't let anyone tell you there is something wrong with skipping, perhaps the artists need to up their game?

 

[Liya]

I'd happy to, but first help me understand why would it matter? How would that affect the discovery of new artists and music that one has never heard before? Does the process of discovering new artists changes the appreciation level?

You gave your answer in post 237.

 

[Liya]

This is seriously bizarre. Are you just going to listen to the same 10 albums for the rest of your life or something?

The '10 albums' is your assumption.
N. N. Taleb would call this 'narrative fallacy'.

 

[Liya]

perhaps the artists need to up their game?

yeah, those who call themselves 'artists' but can only put one good song on a cd and fill the gaps (sic!) with 11 more. On average 120k songs is added to Spotify daily. It would be beneficial for all if these so called artists could wait a while before releasing new material, erase the scribblings and replace them with some more good songs.
It could be seen as a waste of time to go thru shit albums everyday in search for one good song.

 

[DLS79]

Don't let anyone tell you there is something wrong with skipping, perhaps the artists need to up their game?

Subjectivity will always play a huge part.

I've owned the top 2 selling albums of all time, and I don't like all the songs on either album.

List of best-selling albums - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[maverickronin]

The '10 albums' is your assumption.
N. N. Taleb would call this 'narrative fallacy

It's actually just a question...

 

[Liya]

It's actually just a question...

No.
"This is seriously bizarre' is a statement.
And to answer your question: No, I am not going to listen to 10 albums.
Peace.

 

[DLS79]

"This is seriously bizarre' is a statement.

Call it whatever you want, but you've done nothing to justify this bizarre series of questions.

'music discovery'.. is this good? Something to be desired? What is the purpose of this discovery? What if you will discover another 20 in the next 10 days? Will you even remember the first 10? And when you say you have discovered them, is that means you have listened to one song? one of their albums in full? or skipping? Do you know how they look like?

 

[mhardy6647]

Upvoted for mentioning that quaint medium called "radio".

I beg your pardon?

 

[CleanSound]

Call it whatever you want, but you've done nothing to justify this bizarre series of questions.

His (assuming a guy) rage of replies only got more bizarre. The statements/questions he posts comes across as he is against music discovery, let alone someone else doing music discovery or questions how one would discover new music as per his interrogation of me.

Weird fella, anyway, moving on.

 

[gabo4au]

First result on Apple Music gives 4 bands called The Moderns?

Hopefully one of them is us!! The one with the spelling like this.

 

[gabo4au]

Even back in the day you had to promote/push yourself into the light.

• people regularly calling a local dj asking them to play a specific song
• bands strait up stalking a dj so they can give then a copy of a single to play

Or post here and ask people to search for your band!

However, have you ever called a radio DJ and ask them to play a song they've never heard of??? Much less stalking one! I can assure from experience going all the way back to the 70s.. They'll never play it!!!

Now, if the station has a special show, maybe on Sunday night or something where they play local cuts or something. Yes, you can sometimes get played on those.

It's certainly not easy and never has been.

 

[gabo4au]

On Spotify I get three hits under Artists.

Did you find "King Of Me" or "Night City" or "Price You Pay?"

Let me know what you think.

 

[Rednaxela]

Found it. Not bad at all.

Intrigued by Boer Maak N Plan. Is that boer in the South African sense?

 

[gabo4au]

Found it. Not bad at all.

Intrigued by Boer Maak N Plan. Is that boer in the South African sense?

Indeed it is. Afrikaans for "A Farmer Makes a Plan" and is sort of a saying in S Africa. Our song writer has always read a lot about Africa and has references in other songs. He and his son took a photo safari to Africa a few years ago and he wrote that song while he was there.

Thanks for listening!!

By the way - I'm the drummer and I also do all the mixing/engineering/recording/production and a few other tidbits.

Edit: There's a wide variety of music in our catalog. Here are some highlights.

- The first album is not very well recorded, we were broke back then. It was all recorded two days, we basically set up and played our live show in the studio. It all has sort of a punk/new wave, which was our start. All Gone Now and Serve and Protect are cool songs.

- The Unforgotten, our second album is much different. Slower and a totally different vibe. The song "Denial" off that album got some light radio play in the 90ss when it came out. My opinion is it would have been a pretty big hit had it been promoted by a big label. The song "The Unforgotten" is one that grows on you over time, as does "Old False Bay" which is another reference to Africa.

- Our third album Shadows Of Doubt. Reckless Abandon could be used for a TV show and then there is "Live In Grace" which is totally different, almost a country feel with female lead vocal (the Wife of our writer/singer/guitarist).

- After a long hiatus, our 4th album "Blue Sky" references the fact that we're all getting older, doing well, and live a good life, therefore the future is nothing but Blue Sky. The songs "Price You Pay" and "No Suffering" are standouts. "Gotta Rock In My Roll" was written for a "B" movie called "Between Waves" and "Pattern I see" is a completely different style of song.

- Our upcoming album, Next, will easily be our best. The two songs Night City and King Of Me will both be on there. Should be out first quarter of next year, it's all already recorded and ready to go.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

This starts a related but good discussion, in past conversations with other ASR members, one member said that music today is more "disposable" and the new generation of listeners don't sit down to listen to a full album (as if that is a terrible thing). I argue that is because music distribution has been digitalized.

If anyone here is honest with themselves will admit that not all tracks on an album is good, in fact, I personally argue that if half of the tracks on an album is good, then that's got to be one of the best albums ever. Furthermore, I argue that on average, maybe 30% of the tracks of an album is good and the rest is just space fillers. I believe that is true 70 years ago and all the way to today, of course there are exceptions, I'm just speaking in general and on average.

The difference is that back in the old days, before music distribution was digitalized, you have to go and buy a tape, a record or a CD. You pay, say, $15 for a CD, you bring it home and you are eager and hyped to listen to the entire album, so you pop it in and you listen. First track sucks, you can skip, then the next track sucks, you skip and the next track too sucks. And you realized if you keep skipping to the one track that you like which was played on the radio 24x7, you'll be done with the album in 7 mins of that allocated 60 mins you have planned for the night. And so do you drive to the record store and spend another $15 for another CD for 7 mins?

Instead you decided, F it, let me just listen to the entire album, since I already spent the money on it. Then you listen to the entire album again and again, because it cost you $15 and you don't have time to go to the record store to buy a different album, you end up listening to it for maybe a week or two. After awhile, it's like listening to a pair of sh!tty speakers, you get used to it and it sounds OK or even "good."

Whereas streaming, if that track sucks, you can just skip it, even to discover that there is only one good track in an entire album, because you are streaming and you can just play another album. Is that good or is that bad? For some older folks, they frown upon that, they believe an album must be enjoy in it's entirety in order to be respectful to the artist or to be considered as a true music lover.

For me personally, my time is more precious than having to listen to a track that I don't like. . .so I skip and skip and skip and I am proud of that. Though I will say, sometimes I have a theme night where I do listen to the entire album despite my dislike of 70% of the tracks of an album. . .just afterwards, the tracks that I dislike, I like a bit more.

That's exactly right.

I have a whole sh**load of CD's on my attic. I can say with absolute certainty that many of them have led to buyers remorse, almost all of them are bought because I've heard a couple of tracks from the album and in reality I bought a CD for full price with only a handful of tracks I want to listen to. I have also a past as a small time DJ and thus have a lot of single CD's as well. Those were 1/3 to 0,5 the price of a full album CD and consisted of various edits and remixes of a certain track. 3-6 tracks versions on each CD.

The audio streaming is an absolute revolution of music and especially Spotify because of it's quite clever algorithm that has come to know my habits quite well. Even though it sometimes is a bit confused because I listen to as many genres as I do. It's discovery features are a godsend. No less.

 

[coonmanx]

I'm confused. When Gregg McVicar stopped making UnderCurrents in the summer it was like the end of an era. People liked the programming and UnderCurrents was very widely syndicated. So why do you offer UnderCurrents as your example of the useless DJ?

My point was that you don't need a DJ to tell you what song was played when you have a playlist. I do realize that somehow UnderCurrents has changed but I am still able to access it online in its new form. I wasn't saying that Gregg McVicar was a useless DJ. Only that if you miss a DJ announcing a song then you can still see what it was with the playlist. Which by the way, I use all of the time.

 

[Multicore]

My point was that you don't need a DJ to tell you what song was played when you have a playlist. I do realize that somehow UnderCurrents has changed but I am still able to access it online in its new form. I wasn't saying that Gregg McVicar was a useless DJ. Only that if you miss a DJ announcing a song then you can still see what is was with the playlist. Which by the way, I use all of the time.

I see. As the one behind Spinitron.com I gotta agree with that.

Over and above that, I think that to keep real radio alive it should lean into the personal and ephemeral qualities. "The medium is the massage."

 

[coonmanx]

I see. As the one behind Spinitron.com I gotta agree with that.

Over and above that, I think that to keep real radio alive it should lean into the personal and ephemeral qualities. "The medium is the massage."

I used to listen to the "real radio" all of the time. It was the local college radio station and they used to play music all day long. Blues at noon. Then gradually the music sessions started to get replaced with news. NPR stuff. It got done to only afternoon and evening music and then finally only evening music. Used to love this DJ "Your friend and neighbor Vicki"... Then they decided to move their studio out of the random neighborhood house and into a real studio. At the same time Vicki quit. Now the music has died and I basically never listen to the station, unless I am driving and really want to hear some NPR. Oh well...

Still two different radio stations that I can listen to but the good songs are few and far between now. The tuner in my bedroom has really gone silent and I am now onto listening to CDs all of the time. I don't do any commercial radio at all. Only college stations that occasionally beg for money...

 

[Multicore]

I used to listen to the "real radio" all of the time. It was the local college radio station

What station was that?

Have you played with the Radio Garden https://radio.garden/ or TuneIn to see if you can find any live radio to keep that might entertain you with something a bit different?