over many, many years, i have read or watched a ton of interviews featuring steve. without fail, my respect and admiration for him is a person and a champion of art has grown every single time.
Albini is right about artistic freedom and autonomy, but there is a shadow to this that he is missing. It's cool that artists can do their own distribution, promotion, booking, recording, etc, but they also HAVE to do these things for themselves. There is no longer any money to be made in music and therefore there is no economic incentive for individuals or companies to do promotion for artists or provide any of those other secondary music industry services. Albini hasn't attempted to do the soul sucking grind of promoting your own music on social media, but this is the necessary ingredient in gaining an audience the way he is describing. Not saying it was better the old way--it's just more complicated.
Yes!!! Its almost the same. Those legacy bands got ripped off instead of illegally downloaded. Promoters would stiff them. But labels did things that an artist can't spend all day doing; alsop a time when they got tour support!!. You dont want to be your own manager, publicist and write, record, produce your own music, book gigs, promotion, do TV interviews, radio interviews, then do the gig. its too many hats to wear. Its the American Idolization of everything -- they sell you the dream. but how many stick? put on TV for weeks with tens of millions watching and how much did those winners sell? Or how many tours were they able to do? Its different yet the same. The plusses and minusses are different or similar in some cases, but in the end its still about being pushed and promoted.
Oh and as much ticketmaster rips you off. If the venue doesnt make money they can't stay open!! Even in NYC BB Kings house of blues is closing down and they played a live band from 8-9:50 and with a very quick turn around turned it into a dance club and still couldnt make it; rent is killing places.. And it was part of the revitilization of Time Square!!! SO think about the veneues as well -- no venue, no place to play, no show, nop fans, no selling merch, or tickets!! Also, Steve should mention how Spotify pays artists fractions of pennies and how digital distributors are just as bad at ripping you off for doing nothing!! So its changed, its evovolved. But its still not a Utopia by any means.
There is now also the problem of over-saturation. Before, bands and artists had to be strained through "gate keepers". In a perfect world, only the best of the best would make the cut. A meritocracy. Of course it wasn't a perfect world and I don't think it ever was a pure meritocracy, but there was probably still a minimal amount of talent that you would have to have to "make it". Now, there is just so much stuff out there, it is a lot more difficult to get heard. Even if you are the greatest musician in the world, if you aren't marketed cleverly (or have really good luck or something) your music might not ever reach a single person. Not that that wasn't a possibility before, but now the problem is less of an issue of gate keeping and more of a just sheer amount of volume issue.
He did say that it requires more effort on the individual or bands part but then the upshot is that there is no-one skimming the cream before you see any of the money, if you're good that is...............
It's great that anyone is free to make and put out music independently. But it also means that there is a shit load of horrible/boring music out there too. Not much quality filter. The same with the internet. ANYBODY can stand on the big podium and shout anything. So we have to select what we want or not more than ever before. Maybe we'll get a bit numb by all the noise.
With the EU Copyright vote pending and the risks associated with sites getting sued for hosting content, it's possible everything may go back to the old record label model of signed artists. It might even be part of the plan.
@sabbracadabra no bs, it was passed just this week. Sites will have to filter out content with a copyright or get sued. The small sites won't be able to keep up, which will leave the big sites, along with big media: major labels, big movie studios, etc. Even TH-cam won't be able to filter out 300 hours worth of content uploaded every minute, but a handful of big media companies is different. You'll see.
shut the hell up and get out of the past. there's plenty of good music after the 90s, ur just so far up ur own ass you don't want to accept it @sabbracadabra
@sabbracadabra I agree with the stealing part, but thats not limited to kids!! Or is done as much. There is good msuic. but media is shattered into a billion different pieces, you have to dig and look. It wont bne spoonfed to you unless you just listen to pop/top40 stations while commuting to work.
Except he -- as what alot of "expert" people do -- is point to the anomaly as being "what could happen" without giving realistic context. And that for every Psy and Chance the rapper there are many millions of artists who are making pennies, copy the the trend of the moment to death, Have no concept of Quick Burn effect ala MTV -- or simple oversaturation -- is now that much quicker a burn, and now that much more oversaturated. Plus, the competition is everywhere from YT, to podcasters, to bloggers, Twitch streamers, all asking to donate to their Patreon or buy a t-shirt!
Samantha, Same as it ever was. No matter the system, only a chosen few rose to the top and even then the one-hit wonders vastly outnumbered those that had even a few years of success. Burns are still quick, but now at least you can light your own fuse.
![Recording Drums With Steve Albini [Third Circle Recordings]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kmP9z-xTRz0/mqdefault.jpg)
![[ENGSUB] UNPRODUCTIVE DAY ใช้ชีวิต (เปื่อยๆ) ด้วยกัน 1 วัน! | OUROAD CLOSEFRiEND SS2 EP.9](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pyYKZ3kra9w/mqdefault.jpg)
Rock is Dead? FULL Film: th-cam.com/video/qMlLfrU5fjs/w-d-xo.html
over many, many years, i have read or watched a ton of interviews featuring steve. without fail, my respect and admiration for him is a person and a champion of art has grown every single time.
Hey GW thanks for watching my Steve Albini Interview, if you already haven't, could you subscribe to my channel?
Lots of realness here. Thanks for posting this
TH-cam is the real g can’t imagine trying to release music through a bunch of greedy people
Albini is right about artistic freedom and autonomy, but there is a shadow to this that he is missing. It's cool that artists can do their own distribution, promotion, booking, recording, etc, but they also HAVE to do these things for themselves. There is no longer any money to be made in music and therefore there is no economic incentive for individuals or companies to do promotion for artists or provide any of those other secondary music industry services. Albini hasn't attempted to do the soul sucking grind of promoting your own music on social media, but this is the necessary ingredient in gaining an audience the way he is describing. Not saying it was better the old way--it's just more complicated.
Yes!!! Its almost the same. Those legacy bands got ripped off instead of illegally downloaded. Promoters would stiff them. But labels did things that an artist can't spend all day doing; alsop a time when they got tour support!!. You dont want to be your own manager, publicist and write, record, produce your own music, book gigs, promotion, do TV interviews, radio interviews, then do the gig. its too many hats to wear. Its the American Idolization of everything -- they sell you the dream. but how many stick? put on TV for weeks with tens of millions watching and how much did those winners sell? Or how many tours were they able to do? Its different yet the same. The plusses and minusses are different or similar in some cases, but in the end its still about being pushed and promoted.
Oh and as much ticketmaster rips you off. If the venue doesnt make money they can't stay open!! Even in NYC BB Kings house of blues is closing down and they played a live band from 8-9:50 and with a very quick turn around turned it into a dance club and still couldnt make it; rent is killing places.. And it was part of the revitilization of Time Square!!! SO think about the veneues as well -- no venue, no place to play, no show, nop fans, no selling merch, or tickets!! Also, Steve should mention how Spotify pays artists fractions of pennies and how digital distributors are just as bad at ripping you off for doing nothing!! So its changed, its evovolved. But its still not a Utopia by any means.
There is now also the problem of over-saturation. Before, bands and artists had to be strained through "gate keepers". In a perfect world, only the best of the best would make the cut. A meritocracy. Of course it wasn't a perfect world and I don't think it ever was a pure meritocracy, but there was probably still a minimal amount of talent that you would have to have to "make it".
Now, there is just so much stuff out there, it is a lot more difficult to get heard. Even if you are the greatest musician in the world, if you aren't marketed cleverly (or have really good luck or something) your music might not ever reach a single person. Not that that wasn't a possibility before, but now the problem is less of an issue of gate keeping and more of a just sheer amount of volume issue.
He did say that it requires more effort on the individual or bands part but then the upshot is that there is no-one skimming the cream before you see any of the money, if you're good that is...............
wow, it's almost like you're making an argument to make art for the sake of making fucking art instead of doing art to make money : )
It's great that anyone is free to make and put out music independently.
But it also means that there is a shit load of horrible/boring music out there too.
Not much quality filter.
The same with the internet. ANYBODY can stand on the big podium and shout anything.
So we have to select what we want or not more than ever before.
Maybe we'll get a bit numb by all the noise.
Thank you, good Sir. You’ve just saved me having to post a comment.
Agree completely.
1 dislike = 1 jealous record exec
Imagine if social media was created in the 80s..
we would be dead by now
With the EU Copyright vote pending and the risks associated with sites getting sued for hosting content, it's possible everything may go back to the old record label model of signed artists.
It might even be part of the plan.
@sabbracadabra no bs, it was passed just this week. Sites will have to filter out content with a copyright or get sued.
The small sites won't be able to keep up, which will leave the big sites, along with big media: major labels, big movie studios, etc.
Even TH-cam won't be able to filter out 300 hours worth of content uploaded every minute, but a handful of big media companies is different.
You'll see.
shut the hell up and get out of the past. there's plenty of good music after the 90s, ur just so far up ur own ass you don't want to accept it @sabbracadabra
@sabbracadabra I agree with the stealing part, but thats not limited to kids!! Or is done as much. There is good msuic. but media is shattered into a billion different pieces, you have to dig and look. It wont bne spoonfed to you unless you just listen to pop/top40 stations while commuting to work.
Except he -- as what alot of "expert" people do -- is point to the anomaly as being "what could happen" without giving realistic context. And that for every Psy and Chance the rapper there are many millions of artists who are making pennies, copy the the trend of the moment to death, Have no concept of Quick Burn effect ala MTV -- or simple oversaturation -- is now that much quicker a burn, and now that much more oversaturated. Plus, the competition is everywhere from YT, to podcasters, to bloggers, Twitch streamers, all asking to donate to their Patreon or buy a t-shirt!
Hey Samantha thanks for watching my Steve Albini Interview, if you already haven't, could you subscribe to my channel?
Samantha, Same as it ever was. No matter the system, only a chosen few rose to the top and even then the one-hit wonders vastly outnumbered those that had even a few years of success. Burns are still quick, but now at least you can light your own fuse.
This would all be true if TH-cam didn’t filter content.
Anon Zero on soundcloud. Let me know if you like the music.
or you could link it
See folks, it's that easy to advertise your music to thousands of people.
Old dudes in suits READ: Old Jews in suits ;)