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+--- Thread: Is Old Music Killing New Music? (/Thread-is-old-music-killing-new-music)
Is Old Music Killing New Music? - JohnPaulJones - 01-26-2022
Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. Even worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking.
Never before in history have new tracks attained hit status while generating so little cultural impact. In fact, the audience seems to be embracing the hits of decades past instead. Success was always short-lived in the music business, but now even new songs that become bona fide hits can pass unnoticed by much of the population.
Only songs released in the past 18 months get classified as “new” in the MRC database, so people could conceivably be listening to a lot of two-year-old songs, rather than 60-year-old ones. But I doubt these old playlists consist of songs from the year before last. Even if they did, that fact would still represent a repudiation of the pop-culture industry, which is almost entirely focused on what’s happening right now.
Every week I hear from hundreds of publicists, record labels, band managers, and other professionals who want to hype the newest new thing. Their livelihoods depend on it. The entire business model of the music industry is built on promoting new songs. As a music writer, I’m expected to do the same, as are radio stations, retailers, DJs, nightclub owners, editors, playlist curators, and everyone else with skin in the game. Yet all the evidence indicates that few listeners are paying attention.
- The leading area of investment in the music business is old songs. Investment firms are getting into bidding wars to buy publishing catalogs from aging rock and pop stars.
- The song catalogs in most demand are by musicians who are in their 70s or 80s (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen) or already dead (David Bowie, James Brown).
- Even major record labels are participating in the rush to old music: Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and others are buying up publishing catalogs and investing huge sums in old tunes. In a previous time, that money would have been used to launch new artists.
- The best-selling physical format in music is the vinyl LP, which is more than 70 years old. I’ve seen no signs that the record labels are investing in a newer, better alternative—because, here too, old is viewed as superior to new.
Music algorithms are designed to be feedback loops, ensuring that the promoted new songs are virtually identical to your favorite old songs. Anything that genuinely breaks the mold is excluded from consideration almost as a rule. That’s actually how the current system has been designed to work.
Even the music genres famous for shaking up the world—rock or jazz or hip-hop—face this same deadening industry mindset. I love jazz, but many of the radio stations focused on that genre play songs that sound almost the same as what they featured 10 or 20 years ago. In many instances, they actually are the same songs.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/
![[Image: musician-recording-recording_studio-radi...35_low.jpg]](https://lowres.cartooncollections.com/musician-recording-recording_studio-radio-radio_show-music-CC143435_low.jpg)
RE: Is Old Music Killing New Music? - Guest - 01-26-2022
Interesting article. These findings mirror the film industry and Hollywood in general. Almost nothing is made these days with original writing. Almost all popular movies are from the past such as the Marvel Universe and the plethora of reboots year after year.
People in Hollywood generally "fear" the current canceled culture and do not wish to offend anybody. This is a well-known fact among industry insiders and can be seen by anyone spending the time to observe. For many years, the increased cancel culture and acceptance bullshit has caused a complete collapse of creativity except for very few artists who dare say, "FUCK YOU". Ricky Gervais is a very good example as he ripped everyone at the Golden Globes in 2020. Truly an iconic performance with a shitload of truth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR6UeVptzRg
RE: Is Old Music Killing New Music? - JohnPaulJones - 01-26-2022
Here’s Every Battle Prince Waged Against the Internet and the Music Industry
Through the decades, Prince battled for control over his intellectual property, resulting in a tangled relationship with the industry and the internet.
More than a business-minded person savvy enough to want ownership of his music, though, Prince—like David Bowie—was also a pioneer when it came to the emerging online world. There was a CD-ROM. There was a monthly online subscription service, NPG Music Club; a successor was called Lotusflow3r, which perhaps not coincidentally resembles the song title "Lotus Flower" by Radiohead, who followed Prince's direct-to-fans approach with 2007's "pay what you like" In Rainbows. Prince "was sex," according to the The Guardian. He "was technology," according to the Times. And his later falling out with the online realm, similarly, was business.
The Purple One's fights with bootleggers and streaming services went beyond the norm, but he consistently defended them using the cold logic of the bottom line. And he repeatedly engaged in sly winks—such as titling a song after a popular Prince meme or using Dave Chappelle's impersonation of him as single artwork—that showed he was very aware of the internet meta-realm he was ostensibly rejecting. Prince wanted be free to create his music but he didn't necessarily want it to be free to consume.
"He was an independent voice," Pandora CEO Tim Westergren told me Friday, recalling a discussion he once had with Prince. "He was always just looking out for artists, trying to help them get a fair share of what was going on in digital. He was a musician's musician, trying to figure it out with everyone else."
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1117-heres-every-battle-prince-waged-against-the-internet-and-the-music-industry/
![[Image: C-HEYcHWsAAqKvV.jpg]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-HEYcHWsAAqKvV.jpg)
RE: Is Old Music Killing New Music? - Guest - 01-26-2022
Quote:Funny how Ricky Gervais makes the comment about not influencing politics because none of the 'stars' really know what's going on in the world either. Just take the awards and pay checks and be on your merry way...
Some people laughed their asses off but many did not. Tom Hanks was horrified among many others. Did he go over the line? Perhaps. Did he say how it is? Absolutely!
True comedy is exactly what he did no holes barred. Finding that nowadays is next to impossible.
RE: Is Old Music Killing New Music? - Guest - 01-26-2022
Here is what Hollywood and Tom Hanks have come to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZyaREUfnh0
He makes a 2-minute video for the Biden Harris "regime" packed full of lies. His tongue is so far up their assholes you can smell the stench from his breath. Funny enough, the Simpsons also predicted this would happen as they seem to do years before something happens - https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/biden-administration-anniversary-video-with-tom-hanks-mocked-for-mirroring-the-simpsons/
Notice how Hanks says America is the "land of the brave" and leaves out the word "freedom". This is obviously by design. We can't have freedom can we? Total PILE OF SHIT he is!!!
RE: Is Old Music Killing New Music? - Mr. Mojo Rising - 01-26-2022
(01-26-2022, 10:26 PM) Wrote:Quote:Funny how Ricky Gervais makes the comment about not influencing politics because none of the 'stars' really know what's going on in the world either. Just take the awards and pay checks and be on your merry way...
Some people laughed their asses off but many did not. Tom Hanks was horrified among many others. Did he go over the line? Perhaps. Did he say how it is? Absolutely!
True comedy is exactly what he did no holes barred. Finding that nowadays is next to impossible.
![[Image: bxuvyd8.jpg?1]](https://i.imgur.com/bxuvyd8.jpg?1)
RE: Is Old Music Killing New Music? - Guest - 02-17-2022
https://youtu.be/5eAQa4MOGkE
RE: Is Old Music Killing New Music? - Neil Youngstrong - 02-17-2022
Spotify this! LMAO
https://youtu.be/W1LsRShUPtY