Reporter covering podcasting, music, audiobooks and the broader audio world at Bloomberg
Music industry execs often talk about the potential harm generative AI will inflict on artists, but the streaming system is already broken. The platforms aren’t designed to handle a world in which anyone can put their tracks on every major service, and fraud is rampant. Beatdapp estimates at least $2 billion in streaming revenue is misallocated every year. I wrote about a couple of the ways people are gaming the system. Among them: tagging artists bigger than themselves on their music so the algorithms pick up the song and distribute it to all that bigger artists' fans. A primary question I hint at in the piece is whether streaming platforms, which were once a professional distribution/listening service, are now user-generated content engines. Spotify said over 100 million songs exist on its service, and as of February 2021, 60,000 tracks per day were being uploaded. “Way, way, way back in the day, we had a team of people that listened to every CD that came in the door,” said Christine Barnum, chief revenue officer at CD Baby. “Operating at this scale, that’s not feasible." What do you think needs to happen to combat steaming fraud? Leave your thoughts below, and please do click through and read my story! https://lnkd.in/eGgEb2Jy
Patrick Saah
1y
I am not supporting scammers, but a few people become scammers because they need money to live, but not because they think that scamming is good.
I have been involved in this industry for 20 years, starting out by cleaning the radio department office at Island Def Jam. From my observations of the industry's evolution, transitioning from CDs to MP3s, then to iTunes, and finally to streaming services, it is evident that innovation plays a crucial role. While the core principles of the industry remain constant, the key players within it undergo changes. In light of this fact, streaming services should implement mechanisms that safeguard artists and labels from fraudulent activities. One suggestion is to automatically flag music releases by artists using prominent names, requiring them to provide permission or proof of collaboration. This could be accomplished through a simple email sent to the major artist or their label, seeking approval for the release of the record. Streaming companies do not need to hire additional staff or handle these submissions extensively; they only need to forward the email to the relevant parties. Once the song is approved, it can be published.
Jakob Gerber
1y
Look at the legalities of copyright infringement I’m sure everyone has noticed the lawsuits being generated lately in respect to composers lifting a couple of bars of music melodically Ed & Marvin come to mind ? John Lennon got sued by Chuck Berry’s publishing Co. for lifting a line from Chucks “ You Can’t Catch Me “ ( rather ironic ) John used the line “Here come old flattop line, and melody Paul knew this was a problem So he arranged the song with his bassline being a hook aka chorus Down tempo groove as well An original Beatles song, but it was obvious Lennon was influenced by Berry on that lyric & 4 or 5 notes Lennon got sued Chuck won But as Chuck was a Beatles fan - Beatles a Berry fan they settled out of court John had to do a solo album, and include I think two of Chucks songs If you know about music the money for great composers comes from owning the publishing Chuck didn’t much but his publishing company did Point being if algorithms start picking up on say two or three bars of melody that are the same there will be a lawsuit You can’t protect yourself against rhythm’s or harmonies but you best watch out for the notes ,and a line or two of a lyrics Of 230 original Beatles songs “ Come Together “ was the only lift
Well my two sons had an album loaded up in YouTube for several years now almost ten years as a matter of fact. YouTube I don’t pays them enough to have their songs on there. Now my youngest had his songs one EP and one Album on Spotify being a solo artist I don’t think his making any money either. Check this out. Articles written about him and one of his song featured and talked about on this article. It’s really tough now a days because you’re not sure who can be trusted to make you investment to go any further. My sons been writing songs for decade. See where their songs gone. They have to work regular jobs to be able to keep their products on the market which one get very low and incremental pay. Suck because execs in this business and who they choose to should make it aww free the only ones make quite a bit of those earning. https://thehollywooddigest.com/exclusive-interview-with-jeremy-calvar/ https://thehollywooddigest.com/jeremy-calvar-releases-lightfoot-sunflower/ https://topbuzzmagazine.com/music/lightfoot-sunflower-by-jeremy-calvar/
Gaming the system to refer someone to your songs is not fraud. What is fraud are the lousy rates that streaming companies pay per stream, which is usually around a third of a penny per. And if an artist has a record label, that goes to the label and the artist gets a percentage of that.
Fraud is obviously wrong, but I think the more interesting conversation here is how will the industry handle the democratization of music production. On one hand, I think the opportunity for artists to make money as creatives is a positive thing. That said, problems like these will inherently crop up and it would be nice to see the DSPs moving more swiftly to protect the copyright holders regardless of if they’re a career musician, a hobbiest, or somewhere in between.
SubJam, SPC
1y
Major streaming platforms are one gigantic flat space. Every talented artist is competing for all of the listeners' attention in the whole world. Part of the solution is remembering what connects music fans to the music they love in the first place, and a big piece that's been missing is locality. The most passion I've ever seen people have for artists isn't the fact that they're hyper-celebs but rather they are amazing, talented and regularly playing gigs at venues down the street from them.
Kevin P.
1y
DSPs are geared towards serving UGC creators to support their business model. Quantity over quality took over post Napster where this was to meant be a solution however instead became a mirror image with less fingerprinting and flagging functionality as YouTube was able to provide driving an ad supported revenue financial model.
Content Manager | Content Acquisition | Digital Strategy and Analysis
1yI have a hard time getting my head around the fact that while fingerprinting exists for 20 years now, youtube does it very well (largely based in the audio track) for 10 years and meanwhile MSP cannot get a simple flagging system up? How come we get fingerprinting notices on podcasts using music on Spotify then? Something is missing from this story.