The Pop Corporation

Music is a funny ol’ business, and in the days of streaming, something interesting has happened. Thanks to algorithmic sentiments, it feels like it’s never been harder for smaller artists to reach an audience.

Radio play is decided by committees and focus groups, which leaves us with a trace amount of DJs playing whatever they like. Those DJs existed in the past, and now there’s almost none of them. So, we look to local heads and devotees doing it for free on Mixcloud and YouTube. However, the algorithm kicks in and unless you’re willing to pay for ads or buy a premium account, those DJs and music lovers are buried to those that cough up.

Fans will follow musicians and bands on Instagram to get the latest updates direct from the source, but again, Meta’s algorithm effectively pours sand on anyone who isn’t generating huge amounts of clicks or giving them the most in ad-revenue. Even taste-makers have to line pockets or be such experts in navigating what the various algorithms want, that amateur enthusiasts don’t really stand a chance.

It’s a modern problem that gives birth to the next problem – those who only stan artists who are already a huge success.

If you want to be an uber-fan online that racks up hits, then you better pin your colours to someone like Taylor Swift, BTS, The Beatles, Nicki Minaj, Paramore, or whoever else the algorithm favours.

So in one respect, it is largely the fault of Silicon Valley, but equally, there’s scores of music fans who just don’t give their attention to any Potential Next Big Thing.

Of course, it’s a seductive thought to be ‘FIRST!’ on the Next Big Thing, but it’s also criminally sad that to pour our love into a band, to rave about them to every person who might care, that they must be deemed potentially successful in the first place. For a fan to find a small band with no financial backing who speaks to them on a molecular level feels nigh-on impossible in the current climate, and if they do find them, the reward for shouting about them is invariably tiny.

Thanks to a deluge of fans who only shout about giant, successful artists and the various algorithms working against small acts, DJs with a smaller, more curated following, music blogs, fans etc, we’re looking at timelines that feed only the giants and show that reflective clout is more favoured than genuine enthusiasm

This is not a young people problem either. This is right across the board.

Older fans are equally culpable, more prone to gatekeeping their tastes or simply being ‘too busy’, while younger fans who want to rant and rave about their new favourite find themselves in a situation that feels like talking to a brick wall. And so, controversy sticks out and gets the clicks. We all know this from a decade of hot takes and politics falling into loutish disrepute.

As royalties dry up, the cost of gigging spirals, venues struggling and closing, merchandise showing decreasing returns, radio not supporting new artists by sacking and marginalising DJs who stick their necks out for new talent, music journalists rewarded for unthinking hot-takes and leaning their work to the already famous, it feels like music is at some kind of breaking point.

The saddest part is that there’s still those brilliant new musicians, wonderful new writers, podcasters, DJs, vloggers and film-makers doing great things, despite all these obstacles. And of course, music fans are allowed to love the huge spectacle and the legacy artists that are doing the rounds – you cherish these moments while you can, as it’s lightning in a bottle isn’t it? You don’t get many Princes in a lifetime do you?

And bands still break through, but there’s the nagging sense that those that manage it are either from wealthy stock and can afford to take an extended gap year to go for it, or they have to sign so many hashtagspon 360 deals, that it ends up diluting what they intended to do in the first place.

So what’s the lesson? Listen to DJs who play music you don’t know. Take a chance on some local gigs. Keep telling people about that great album you heard. Make a playlist and share it. Buy stuff direct from the musician if you can afford it. Sign-up for mailouts. Turn up for the support act.

It might seem like a lot of information, but post-pandemic, something has changed in the music scene and currently, it’s looking pretty bleak.