How Spotify silenced rock bands

^ I'm adding most of the relevant releases from RYM to my website. I'm using AP a lot more this year than I did last year, and I will dedicate the upcoming release season to improving usability and usefulness for the purpose of discovering new releases. It's ironic that most prog fans will either never know that it exists, or not care about it at all - instead they'll use big websites run by companies or entrepreneurs who don't care about prog. 

^ It's murphy's law ... I am monitoring the website through a service called pulsetic and used to have an uptime of like 99.99%, but about two hours ago it went offline for almost 90 minutes. 

Edited by MikeEnRegalia - August 14 2024 at 14:04

^ I think that's the key insight: Use many music websites for the things they do best. I am still using RYM through the lens of AP. And I'm using Spotify to stream music, which it does very well. As disappointed as I am by how much they suck at providing a good UI, I know that it does not matter because I can compensate for that by using other websites.

Edited by MikeEnRegalia - August 14 2024 at 14:23

^ I guess the fact that it's never been easier to create and publish music has led some musicians to believe that it SHOULD be possible to put their releases on Spotify and then be able to make a living from the streaming. Or maybe it's the fans that have this unrealistic expectation. Spotify could probably pay the artists a little more money, they're surely abusing their monopoly to some extent. But even if they did that, most artists would still not make enough money because there simply are too many of them ...

The problem with new rock bands is that most of the rock fans only want to listen to old bands and watch either old bands or cover bands of old bands.

^ While of course there are many new and exciting rock bands making new and exciting music, and I don't have data to support the following (strictly anecdotal) but I have heard that many rock bands to make money at gigs need to play covers of old songs. And of course older bands often complain that audiences just want to hear the same old material from the band again and are uninterested in hearing the new stuff in concert. And I have known quite a few rock fans who are stuck in the late 60s and 70s. I used to be one of them to a large extent, at least when it came to rock as I listened to other styles of music some of which was contemporary. PA has had some Progressive Rock fans who pooh-poohed everything post 70s. Not a progressive attitude to say the least. While we Prog forumites have many differences, I don't think we're the typical rock audiences if one could say that there is an average rock listener. Well, you might be, I am not. :P (j/k) Sad thing is that a considerable number who listen to rock really are stuck in the past and just like classic rock, be it a nostalgia thing and with younger generations too.

^ I was given an mp3 player in maybe 2003, and it was bad old Napster that really got me exploring Prog at first, and also PA with its old mp3 downloads and then streaming tracks. And then I went on something of a spending spree with CDs. I'm sure that I don't listen to nearly as much new-to-me music as you do, or music period. That said, I still do discover new-to-me things regularly from all eras actually and of different styles even if I favour some kinds of things. I do hugely value more contemporary music and my favourite music commonly as that which is fairly new to me. Most of what I am most into now, and I am someone who is prone to play albums I like many times, I discovered quite recently. I have noticed that some will say things in a topic like, I loved this album when I was a teen and so it gets my vote. I'm more likely to favour the newer-to-me, that which feels fresher. I do get passionate about new-to-me music regularly, and that often leads to other music. And my tastes can rather depend on my mood at the time. Right this moment I feel like something more on the "noise" side. Unlike some others, I think that contemporary music offers a veritable treasure trove, and there are still treasures to dig up from many eras of music. And while my past tastes informed my current ones, I am not stuck listening to the kinds of stuff I liked best in my youth, and in fact most of that feels kind of stale to me now. That said, I can return to music I knew at that time and it can feel fresh again sometimes.

Edited by Logan - August 15 2024 at 06:55

In regards to fans stuck in the past, I see around me a big uptick in touring tribute bands. There's an obvious market. It used to be only a handful of acts such Zeppelin, Floyd, the Dead that got the tribute treatment. I have seen ads for tribute bands for Rush, Depeche Mode, Fleetwood Mac, 'hair metal', 'yacht rock', Van Halen, and it just goes on.

Logan wrote: ^ I've noticed the same, and I find it quite sad.

I know little about Spotify or other streaming services being an old dinosaur and listen to either vinyl or cds....