The Pop Corporation

Streaming eh? What a mess. Super convenient and all that, and great for sharing tunes and making playlists – but it isn’t perfect is it? For starters, you have to listen to people complaining about it all the time, but when those complaints are valid, it’s enough to make you go grey.

And so, to James Blake who has shared his views on streaming and the state of music online and all that – basically, speaking on paying artists for the things they have made, so they can make more things you like (simple commerce really, but y’know, it’s not really working like that in 2024 is it?)

Speaking about going viral Blake noted that becoming a trending sound on TikTok doesn’t actually increase your income as a musician. In a series of tweets, he talked at length about the whole thing, with the likes of JME replying in kind.

He continued: “Something I keep seeing is ‘if you’re lucky enough to go viral, just use the exposure to generate income some other way’. Musicians should be able to generate income via their music. Do you want good music or do you want what you paid for?”

“If we want quality music somebody is gonna have to pay for it. Streaming services don’t pay properly, labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn’t pay properly, and touring is getting prohibitively expensive for most artists.”

He added: “The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free.”

“And by the way, since it’s cheaper to produce fast, synthetic music to drop on streaming every week to capitalise on the strengths of the model, watch how the model is preparing you for AI generated music that pays musicians nothing at all.”