“Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content. This has sparked my curiosity about the concept of long shelf life versus short shelf life.”
- Daniel Ek, Spotify CEO, June 3rd, 2024
Creating Content … Can we just be real for a minute? Like … what does that even mean?
Content, as defined by Miriam Webster is:
a: something contained —usually used in plural (the jar's contents, the drawer's contents)
b: the topics or matter treated in a written work (table of contents)
c: the principal substance (such as written matter, illustrations, or music) offered by a website … Internet users have evolved an ethos of free content in the Internet.
Let’s take a look at this idea of “content” using that last definition: The principal substance offered by a website.
When we go to a website, or any online platform, we are generally looking for information. Sometimes we’re looking to educate ourselves, to explore something new, to read about a service or product we may be interested in purchasing … but in any of these situations, what we’re looking for is something to add to, or enrich our minds, hearts, and overall lives. It is more and more the norm, to just be able to pop onto a website, gather the information, and then click away … but … have we taken a minute to pause and consider that A PERSON, a live human being who likely has a family, responsibilities, and bills to pay has CREATED that content you’re taking in?
Let’s follow this line of thinking for a bit & bring it into real time ….
A couple weeks ago, Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify (who’s 2023 personal financial gain was estimated by Fortune magazine to be in the neighborhood of $250 Million USD, and who’s net worth is estimated at $4.9 Billion, yes, that’s a “B”) sent out a tweet stating “Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content.”
Hold on now …. Wait a minute … A guy who is making literal millions off a platform that pays out $0.004 (yes, you read that right, it’s less than 1/10th of a penny) to the musicians who create the CONTENT for his platform, seems to think that the content he (ab)uses to make his money is almost free to create?
HOW IS THIS GUY SO OUT OF TOUCH?
ARE YOU ANGRY YET?
I am.
Now … some real talk & real figures:
I created my last solo album in 2016 & released it in 2017. By the time the whole thing was said & done it cost me around $50,000 to make a 13-track album. The list of costs was never ending. Producer, studio musicians, editing, mixing, studio time, mastering, graphic design, photography, social media images made to the right specifications, promotional materials, a publicist, manufacturing of physical products (cds when those were still a thing), travel expenses, and production/manufacturing of other merchandise … and there’s more ….
Now .. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t just have $50K laying around! And even though I’m in a better place now financially than I was in 2017, $50K is still a LOT of money.
IT CERTAINLY IS NOT “CLOSE TO ZERO”.
If we run the numbers, using that $0.004 per stream payout figure I mentioned above, we can see that it would take about 12,500,000 streams of those 13 tracks for me to break even & make my $50K back. If you’re an indie artist, or operating in a genre that doesn’t get the massive audience that pop, rap, and country music do, those kind of streaming numbers are pretty out of reach.
So how do we fix this problem of our work, oftentimes work that takes us years of our lives (that album I made took me almost 5 years to put together), being essentially stolen from us? The corporatization of the music industry has led us to this point & it is time for a revolution, y’all. Because this current business model, quite frankly, is total BULLSHIT.
You see … back in the day, getting a record deal was how you “made it”. If you got signed to a label, especially a major one, there were people whose job it was to help you develop as an artist. They helped you write better songs, they helped you work on your stage show, they helped promote you & move your career forward to success because if you, the artist, failed, they lost money. The record companies would “bet” on your talent, your gifts, your creativity, and your desire to make good music. But somewhere along the way, that all got lost … Now it’s incumbent upon artists to do all the heavy lifting themselves long before a record company will even consider adding them to a label roster. The first question we get asked today by booking agencies, managers, and record labels is “How many followers do you have on social media?” This is even creeping into live theatre work for actors! I have friends in that business who have been told if they don’t have enough followers, it won’t matter how talented they are or how great their audition is. Someone with more followers will get the job instead.
All we’re looking at anymore in order to determine a creative person’s worth is quantity over quality.
Have we collectively lost our minds? Have we collectively lost our autonomy as artists due to this obsession with what kind of CONTENT, as opposed to ART, we’re creating?
As an artist myself, I see the two things very differently.
Art is something that comes from my soul. It is something distinctly human & has the ability to reach & move other humans in a way that little else can. Art is personal. It is, in my opinion, something sourced from our connection to The Divine, and the ways we, as artists, have been blessed to be able to view the world.
Content is something else entirely. It is something to be consumed. Period. Let’s go back to those Miriam Webster definitions: something to be contained: The jar’s contents; the drawer’s contents. By definition, the contents of the jar or the drawer are things, inanimate things I might add, to be used or consumed: a jar of peanut butter, a jar of pickles, a drawer of socks, a drawer of silverware … all those examples are things we use or consume. And when the jar is empty, we throw it away. When the socks have holes in them, they also get thrown away.
CONTENT, BY DEFINITION, IS DISPOSABLE.
Now ask yourself this … would you throw away a painting by Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Rembrandt, or Dali? Would you toss out an original 45 from Motown or Chess Records? Can you put a first edition by Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, or Hemingway in the garbage bin? Probably not. You would realize and know that those works, especially in their original form, have WORTH AND VALUE.
So now we get to the crux of this … music is art. Art holds worth and value. But currently, we are treating art like it is content, therefore decreasing its value in the eyes of the consumer. Art is no longer being appreciated (like the artists who were developed & appreciated by those old-school record labels) , it is simply being consumed.
Due to this consumption-based business model that has been promulgated by people like Daniel Ek, we artists have essentially become hosts for a parasite. All under the guise of “exposure” … all under the umbrella of “if you use our platform, more people will hear you” (quantity over quality again), as opposed to the old-school record labels where the situation that was reciprocal … like … “Wow. Your voice/guitar playing/etc are beautiful. These songs you write are really unique and special. Let’s help you hone your craft and put together something wonderful to share with others so that you can have a long-lasting career & we can ALL make money together.” (And yes, I’m aware that a lot of those old-school label deals were crap too, but at the same time, artists did receive more benefits than they are today).
NO. That’s gone to shit. In today’s world, art, and artists, have become disposable, just like the contents of that jar we talked about earlier. If we don’t want to create, they’ll find someone else who does … for less … or even for free, with AI.
And that’s a whole other ball of wax I can’t even begin to delve into right now (but we will go there in another piece, I’m sure).
So … how do we fix it? Especially on a large scale?
It will have to be a global shift by artists AND the public.
We will have to band together; as creatives & creators, along with our fans & followers, to say “NO MORE.” I won’t let my work be stolen, and I won’t use platforms that don’t pay artists for their work.
I do know that artists can start by pulling their work off of streaming platforms (full disclosure: I am in the process of figuring that out for myself), and other places that abuse us in order to line their own pockets. We can refuse to work in places that consistently deny the realities of today’s world by paying us the same rates we received 10, 20, and even 40 years ago (I don’t know about you, but my expenses have increased just like everyone else’s!). We can stop amplifying the craze for “exposure” by undercutting other artists & doing the same job for less, just because we want to be seen by a venue, gallery, or executive.
We’ve ALL got to realize the ship is sinking, and we are ALL in it. The only way to save it is to give everyone a bucket to bail the water out, or something to patch the holes, so we can ALL stay afloat. If we each do a little, it can add up to a lot.
The time is now. Join us.
The Revolution will not be televised STREAMED.