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Most of what I do for work is make music videos. a lot of people ask me to make one for them. Usually they offer me what I think is an embarrassingly small amount of money. Sometimes I want to reply to emails āmaybe you should ask a middle schooler to direct itā one of the justifications they use is that people donāt watch music videos that much. but,
- if you Spend less money you Make a lesser product
- when they spend less money on videos, videos become often mediocre
- videos as a whole become devalued, because they are often mediocre, and now less people are going to take the time to watch any video, since they are used to mediocrity when they do.
When you pay people well they work better. Dont give your best ideas away
Jan 30, 2024
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been thinking about this a lot within the context of the industry I work in recently. specifically about how the current music industry, especially in the case of streaming, has commoditized music into being essentially worthless in and of itself. a song in a vacuum has no value if it isnāt attached to the ābrandā of the artist, which becomes a platform to sell merch, concerts, generate content, and all the other activities that actually generate money for the artist (and label). there is licensing revenue, but even then thatās assigning value to the right to exploit revenue from the song, not the art itself.
reading this book that takes place in the early 1800s and it mentions how music used to be just something that people did for themselves in their own homes, writing their own songs or purchasing sheet music to perform othersā songs. musicianship used to be a socially binding activity, as you would play for the gratification of those in your community. in most cases tho people performed for their and their immediate circleās own satisfaction, and there was no pressure to turn it into a product. today itās like people who want to be good at music have to attempt to be a professional to justify spending the time that isnāt generating money for them, squeezing it between their day jobs. if you want your music to be heard by others you have to heavily market yourself to vie for attention among the endless others on streaming platforms. thereās few places if any where people can come together and perform music themselves for any reason other than their own edification, and weāve lost any social practices that encouraged everyone to have some form of musicianship to be able to participate in these kinds of events. itās like something that was as common as riding a bike back in the day has been discredited as a socially valuable skill as it became unprofitable, same for dancing I suppose.
anyway, not really going anywhere with this, just hoping for a future world where all this AI coming up becomes something that alleviates the need for work and frees people up for art and community instead of becoming a competing force churning out music as a commodified product and drowning out the humans who produce at a human pace. the pessimist in me feels like the pressures of capitalism will mean that the opposite will happen, and AI will create the art so that the people have more time to dedicate to producing āvalueā
Mar 17, 2024
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Iāve made it a bit of a habit (by accident) of turning all the stuff I love into work. So to find a way around it, Iāve started to remix songs I like and such - stuff I objectively cannot monetize. So I canāt turn it into a job because I donāt own any of the underlying material. Itās a great way to express yourself artistically and reclaim your love of art. š«”
Oct 28, 2024
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perspective to offer:
itās clichĆ©, but iāve found that working in the music industry HAS put a bit of a damper on my relationship with it.
i didnāt realize this until this past year, but itās very easy to pursue every opportunity to either generate income/make connectionsā¦. even opportunities that donāt thoroughly align with your personal ethosāthings that donāt excite you artistically
so i offer a word of caution; should you choose to go this route, protect your love for your practice ā¤ļø
Feb 11, 2024
Top Recs from @uncle_hesh
š¤£
cloutchasing Is stupid you Should only be trying to meet people who make you laugh
Jan 27, 2024
the best and easiest to access archive of free movies I've seen on the internet. this google drive folder has thousands of films and basically covers the entire history of tasteful, cool, and/or groundbreaking cinema. there are deep cuts like Abel Ferrara's debut feature - 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (a porno from 1970) - and classics like Barry Lyndon. There's hundreds of random DVD extras, a bunch of licensed stock footage, curated collections in folders like "Male Manipulators" and definitely a lot of stuff I haven't figured out yet. It's kind of an unorganized shit show in there but you gotta dig through dirt to find gold, so just shut up and grab ur shovel. I wish I found this when I was a teenager because it would have changed my life.
Mar 3, 2025
no one told me to watch this until now so Iām telling you you need to watch this now
Feb 10, 2024