UPDATED DIGITAL FOOTPRINT:
I'm going to be real, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be really honest. I made the conscious choice to NOT support the DSP model for years both as an Artist and A Consumer. During this a bit shy of a decade of stubborn protest. Sure, I lost a lot of momentum not meeting "consumers" where they mostly seemed to be at, but during that time. I created a lot of profound art and my spirit felt intact. It's tough because you can't blame artists for pivoting where the demand is, but this model has been transparently predatory and exploitative of artists and it's not been hidden in the slightest. It's hard not to feel like consumers who engage for convenience didn't completely drop the ball on this from the start. With every upload to DSP, I feel my spirit weaken, every time I've watched Artists do elaborate Roll outs, including paying money, for the hope of reaching a playlist to reach a broader audience, I'm reminded of the real world Data provided from very successful independent music friends with 50m + monthly listeners that less than 2% of those Millions of so called fans, ever navigate to the Artists page and listen to any other music... Passive listeners is an understatement. Sure when you reach that level, even at fractions of a penny, at least you're able to make a decent passive income, but the illusion of meaningful impact based on those listeners is very very very minuscule. The system discourages artists from releasing full albums, long songs, anything experimental, the payouts are often cheated and the risk of your entire discog getting wiped for something you have no control over is something I've seen time and time again.... "If you can't beat them, join them" Everyone hates Spotify but feels forced to focus so much energy into it. It breaks my heart that society can't seem to collectively unify and rebel because of convenience. because I've watched more artists than I count lose their light and passion being forced into all the very time consuming effort that they expended being pressured to meet consumers where they are at. GODSPEED my friend.
3333 $enjoy
UPDATED DIGITAL FOOTPRINT: I'm going to be real, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be really honest. I made the conscious choice to NOT support the DSP model for years both as an Artist and A Consumer. During this a bit shy of a decade of stubborn protest. Sure, I lost a lot of momentum not meeting "consumers" where they mostly seemed to be at, but during that time. I created a lot of profound art and my spirit felt intact. It's tough because you can't blame artists for pivoting where the demand is, but this model has been transparently predatory and exploitative of artists and it's not been hidden in the slightest. It's hard not to feel like consumers who engage for convenience didn't completely drop the ball on this from the start. With every upload to DSP, I feel my spirit weaken, every time I've watched Artists do elaborate Roll outs, including paying money, for the hope of reaching a playlist to reach a broader audience, I'm reminded of the real world Data provided from very successful independent music friends with 50m + monthly listeners that less than 2% of those Millions of so called fans, ever navigate to the Artists page and listen to any other music... Passive listeners is an understatement. Sure when you reach that level, even at fractions of a penny, at least you're able to make a decent passive income, but the illusion of meaningful impact based on those listeners is very very very minuscule. The system discourages artists from releasing full albums, long songs, anything experimental, the payouts are often cheated and the risk of your entire discog getting wiped for something you have no control over is something I've seen time and time again.... "If you can't beat them, join them" Everyone hates Spotify but feels forced to focus so much energy into it. It breaks my heart that society can't seem to collectively unify and rebel because of convenience. because I've watched more artists than I count lose their light and passion being forced into all the very time consuming effort that they expended being pressured to meet consumers where they are at. GODSPEED my friend. 3333 $enjoy