Comment by winternett | Hacker News Reader

Comment by winternett | Hacker News Reader

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I like Prince, have since I was a kid, but I'm not a "Fan" of Prince... I like his music. The problem is that Pop musicians grow and cultivate fans maybe, kids and people that will buy and collect anything an artist sells... Problem is that those Pop fans quickly grow out of it as they get older and often find there's no benefit in collecting things from a fallible character persona. They the artist either retires and fades away (until their unfortunate demise is reported on the news), or keeps going on tour until some embarrassing things begin to happen, like stage tumbles and mental breakdowns.

As a musician myself, I don't want fans, I just want a vast audience to hear my music so that a percentage of people out of it connect with it and collect it. No merchandising involved beyond the music, and streaming it is free... Social media dictates that all musicians need fans to grow, and that is toxic towards good authentic music happening. Major labels manufacture artists, and assemble teams of people that take actors and turn them into musicians, then the marketing machine makes up entire stories, and even lies about these musicians that can't hold up when the budget runs out. If you recall Milli Vanilli, that's just one instance of manufactured artistry. Now with Ai, it's just Milli Vanilli without collateral damage and artists to pay, the good thing though is the whole charade only works for Pop music, and it may entertain fans for short periods of time, as seen with pretty much all the BackStreet Boys, No comebacks Alright!

I'm glad I don't make Pop music, and I'm working to make timeless music, the POP life is not for me.

>As a musician myself, I don't want fans, I just want a vast audience to hear my music so that a percentage of people out of it connect with it and collect it. No merchandising involved beyond the music, and streaming it is free... Social media dictates that all musicians need fans to grow, and that is toxic towards good authentic music happening.

If you don't make any money from distributing your music or from merchandising, how exactly do you make a living? It sounds like you're not a professional musician. Professionals could make a living just from selling concert tickets, but they need to be popular enough to have a strong following and sell a LOT of tickets when they play a venue.

>I'm glad I don't make Pop music, and I'm working to make timeless music, the POP life is not for me.

The music I listen to isn't so popular these days, but these bands still generally need to make a living if they want to be full-time musicians, and they typically do it with concert tours and merchandise. (Streaming and CD sales seem to be mostly only good for advertising for them.)

I am a professional musician, you'd be surprised, most musicians aren't making serious money in the streaming age. many popular musicians aren't making much as well. Record labels are losing money and the Industry is in meltdown mode right now. I'm lucky to have other business ventures that pay my bills.

Most musicians are only getting booked at large festivals which don't pay well, they're often the only ticket in town post-pandemic, as they pack volumes of artists together onto one big lineup. The smaller events rarely provide a good return on investment. Lenny Kravitz for example invests in NYC real estate these days, and has brand deals.

The Western rock/metal bands I see don't usually get packed together into "one big lineup", except at those big multi-day festivals. They seem to be able to do their own tours profitably all by themselves, or sometimes with one opening band.

However, granted, these are older, long-established bands, and all the guys are in their 50s or 60s or older, and their audiences seem to be older/middle-aged people who grew up with these bands, and also some younger people who found an appreciation for classic rock and metal music.

Here in Japan, however, there's lots of local (newer) metal bands that play gigs by themselves profitably. The dynamics of the music business seem pretty different from what's going on in America.

This is the crux for me too. I'm not a "fan" of almost anyone. I might like somebody's music, somebody's movies or somebody's views.

Then the next thing they put out could be bad and I won't want it.

I'm called an "Apple fan boy" because I claim the Apple things I buy are the best versions of those things. But if/when Apple releases something mediocre, I won't want it. E.g. Vision Pro.

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