honestly i'd be completely happy to go back to CDs / DVDs or whatever and have a significantly less convenient way of accessing music / tv if it meant artists got paid. it's insane how much convenience has fucked everything up
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Tbh I try to buy cds or or drm free albums directly when I can. However, I am also poor and you’d be surprise how much space physical media takes up when you live in an apartment.
It's also insane how there's ads everywhere but no significant share of that reaches the artists. They force ads in every single aspect of trying to watch absolutely anything online. They don't let block them. At this rate they'll try to make sure you don't even look away.
It's not that digital distribution is inherently bad for artists, it's that digital distribution is relatively fresh and fertile ground for record label fuckery. Fewer/no regulations, and _just_ old enough for them to go "this is how it's always been".
This is just as true for music as it is for every other industry being "disrupted". A new, unregulated space in which corporations can freely exploit people and extract rent in the same time-tested ways that have been explicitly or implicitly banned in their pre-disruption counterpart.
And it’s not even convenient anymore! The promise of streaming was that everything would be accessible all the time. Now everything is scattered to the wind or completely gone.
I was having this conversation with my wife the other day. It’s been a crazy long time since I’ve bought an album or a movie. I always buy physical media with video games, why shouldn’t I be doing it for music too at the very least?
Still buying my old fashioned books, CDs and DVDs. It's not only more support for the artists, it's also that I own the copy. No one can revoke the license, it's mine. I don't pay a monthly subscription in hope the artwork will be still available. And no wasting my time with art I don't fully love.
What's especially wild is that this is just the floor getting lower. They already didn't make as much as they should, the tech changing was just a convenient new excuse to pay them even less.
You can still support artists like this. I buy vinyl from artists I support all the time and have probably the largest Blu-ray collection of anyone I know.
Also, merch at concerts is good.
To be fair, though, artists usually only saw 10-20% of an album sale as well before streaming.
I was going back to spinning CDs while working instead of streaming music. The limited selection of only hearing what’s on hand was kind of nice compared to the paralyzing abundance of choice on streaming services.
I hate this tendency to blame all the ways in which modern corporations use technology to fuck us over on the technology itself. The issue was that this technology emerged in a time when legislators both unwilling and unable to properly adapt regulations to changing media distribution landscapes.
Old confused men, anti-regulation Reagan holdovers and corrupt pawns of silicon valley were put in charge of making sure no corporation could use the internet to fuck the entire economy up, and shockingly they did a terrible job of it, and no one in power wants to go and close those loopholes.
I buy mostly plain grey t shirts, but we have what I call our local Art Coven. And it’s a massive building with artists and creatives of all kinds just doing their shit and pedaling their wares, even a play house for stage shows or music.
When you light up over some shit you like. Or interact with them about their work. That’s the shit they, not all but most, live for aside from dollars.
The grey shirt to no where thing was I buy my arty t shirts direct from the artists locally usually but also online.
Also, something I hate about music services is that they'll update the release of the album and it screws up playlists. Or they'll have incorrect info for albums. Or not have certain music to begin with. But with my CDs, I have all of music indefinitely and change the info how I want.
I bought duplicates of several albums to replace damaged disks and that probably put more money into artist's pockets than every stream of those same artist since then
My family had a whole stack of DVDs, roll up disc cases and Xbox and PS3 discs back in elementary and middle schools. Now, I'm personally buying Blu-Rays/DVDs to restack my bookshelf. I don't want everything inaccessible if they're all gone in one day.
I quit spotify at the start of the year and have gone back to a local digital collection. Everything new im getting in lossless, most new releases are coming 24bit so even better dynamic range than CDs. Bought a portable DAC for my phone so i can take advantage of those extra bits on the go.
This is why I do not stream music for listening.
This is why I always buy merch at shows, why I always go to their website and buy physical media as close to the artist as I can get.
Although the thing is that going back to physical media cuts out a lot of the power of the independents, with us absolutely requiring publishers to get stuff onto store shelves again.
Its not convenient anyway if u take amazon music as an example. The “prime” version will play me anything but the song i ask for. Gave up on it, cos what the f is the point. Bought a turntable & now enjoying my 1990’s vinyl that i never got around to throwing out.
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That and I like owning the movie/show
Your last sentence covers most of life in America these days
Also, merch at concerts is good.
To be fair, though, artists usually only saw 10-20% of an album sale as well before streaming.
And I keep buying DVDs - they're so cheap on Black Friday if I haven't bought them already.
If you like a talent, go to their live events as those things generally pay them more and directly.
Like find your local art district and check mom and pop music shops, you’ll find art, music, and all
I buy mostly plain grey t shirts, but we have what I call our local Art Coven. And it’s a massive building with artists and creatives of all kinds just doing their shit and pedaling their wares, even a play house for stage shows or music.
It’s super nice to see their faces
The grey shirt to no where thing was I buy my arty t shirts direct from the artists locally usually but also online.
Want to go thank the cast of Supernatural? That’s doable one does concerts and they both do their own spn convention.
Bought a CD from an artist on Reddit, she’s dope.
This is why I always buy merch at shows, why I always go to their website and buy physical media as close to the artist as I can get.
We need a middle ground!