{"id":86838,"date":"2024-01-19T05:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=86838"},"modified":"2024-01-18T16:45:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T21:45:48","slug":"music-journalism-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2024\/01\/19\/music-journalism-rip\/","title":{"rendered":"Music journalism, RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/why-is-music-journalism-collapsing\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ted Gioia<\/a> explains why music journalism is collapsing and who committed the murder:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ted-Gioia-The-Honest-Broker-banner.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right; padding: 0px 0px 10px 25px\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ted-Gioia-The-Honest-Broker-banner-480x160.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"160\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-84928\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ted-Gioia-The-Honest-Broker-banner-480x160.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ted-Gioia-The-Honest-Broker-banner-150x50.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ted-Gioia-The-Honest-Broker-banner.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Just a few weeks ago, Bandcamp laid off 58 (out of 120) employees \u2014 including about &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/music\/story\/2023-10-16\/bandcamp-layoffs-songtradr-epic-games\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">half of its core editorial staff<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>And Bandcamp was considered a more profitable, stable employer than most media outlets. The parent company before the recent sale (to Songtradr) and subsequent layoffs, Epic Games, will generate almost a billion dollars in income this year \u2014 but they clearly don&#8217;t want to waste that cash on music journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Why is everybody hating on music writers?<\/p>\n<p>Many people assume it&#8217;s just the same story as elsewhere in legacy media. And I&#8217;ve written about that myself \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/in-2024-the-tension-between-macroculture\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">predicting that 2024 will see more implosions of this sort<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, that&#8217;s part of the story.<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s a larger problem with the music economy that nobody wants to talk about. The layoffs aren&#8217;t just happening among lowly record reviewers \u2014 but everywhere in the music business.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Universal Music announced layoffs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalmusicnews.com\/2024\/01\/15\/universal-music-layoffs-confirmed\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">two days ago<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>YouTube announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/17\/technology\/youtube-tech-layoffs-continue.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">layoffs yesterday<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Soundcloud announced last week that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/business\/streaming\/soundcloud-preparing-to-sell-1235578246\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the company is up for sale<\/a> \u2014 after two rounds of layoffs during the last 18 months.<\/li>\n<li>Spotify announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/12\/04\/tech\/spotify-layoffs-third-round\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">layoffs five weeks ago<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>That same week, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/12\/07\/tidal-cutting-10-of-staff-as-parent-company-block-seeks-reduce-headcount\/?guccounter=1&#038;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&#038;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALZjCn_o-4n3i46TLFOrHit1l08TdBELtJ0B1gyUdII4W1nbR2Q8xsduvBbjBpg02-GmLeQdI2pheaY-smXXQxbIE0_vrl9B8_L_Asv-bH412uxeo3HBHVY4j6x2mBqutD9Hof9qYLOlEsmxayF2tT9Xokmj68qcKDti3e7na2rJ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tidal announced layoffs<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>A few weeks earlier, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theweek.in\/news\/biz-tech\/2023\/11\/09\/latest-amazon-music-layoffs-affect-employees-in-3-continents-report.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon Music laid off employees on three continents<\/a>. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Meanwhile, almost every music streaming platform is trying to force through price increases (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/get-ready-to-pay-more-for-music\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as predicted here<\/a>). This is an admission that they don&#8217;t expect much growth from new users \u2014 so they need to squeeze old ones as hard as possible.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, the problem is more than just music writers \u2014 something is rotten at a deeper level.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s the real cause of the crisis? Let&#8217;s examine it, step by step:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The dominant music companies decided that they could live comfortably off old music and passive listeners. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/12-predictions-for-the-future-of\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Launching new artists was too hard<\/a> \u2014 much better to keep playing the old songs over and over.<\/li>\n<li>So major labels (and investment groups) started <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/why-are-investment-funds-obsessed\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">investing huge sums into acquiring old song publishing catalogs<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile streaming platforms encouraged passive listening \u2014 so <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/the-fake-artists-problem-is-much\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">people don&#8217;t even know the names of songs or artists<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The ideal situation was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/spotify-gives-49-different-names\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">switching listeners to AI-generated tracks<\/a>, which could be owned by the streaming platform \u2014 so no royalties are ever paid to musicians.<\/li>\n<li>These strategies have worked. Streaming fans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honest-broker.com\/p\/is-old-music-killing-new-music\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">don&#8217;t pay much attention to new music anymore<\/a>. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I&#8217;ve warned about each of these \u2014 but we are now seeing the long-term results.<\/p>\n<p>This is why <em>Pitchfork<\/em> is in deep trouble. If people don&#8217;t listen to new music, they don&#8217;t need music reviews.<\/p>\n<p>And they don&#8217;t need interviews with rising stars. Or best of year lists. Or any of the other things music writers do for their readers.<\/p>\n<p>But this problem will get much, much worse. Even the people who made these decisions will suffer \u2014 because living in the past is never a smart business strategy.<\/p>\n<p>If these execs were albums, they&#8217;d deserve a <a href=\"https:\/\/rateyourmusic.com\/list\/VelvetDarkness\/every_album_to_be_rated_0_0_by_pitchfork_media\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">zero score<\/a> on the <em>Pitchfork<\/em> scale. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screenshot-2024-01-19-at-16-39-19-Why-Is-Music-Journalism-Collapsing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screenshot-2024-01-19-at-16-39-19-Why-Is-Music-Journalism-Collapsing.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"166\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-86839\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screenshot-2024-01-19-at-16-39-19-Why-Is-Music-Journalism-Collapsing.png 728w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screenshot-2024-01-19-at-16-39-19-Why-Is-Music-Journalism-Collapsing-480x109.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screenshot-2024-01-19-at-16-39-19-Why-Is-Music-Journalism-Collapsing-150x34.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ted Gioia explains why music journalism is collapsing and who committed the murder: Just a few weeks ago, Bandcamp laid off 58 (out of 120) employees \u2014 including about &#8220;half of its core editorial staff&#8220;. And Bandcamp was considered a more profitable, stable employer than most media outlets. The parent company before the recent sale [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,28],"tags":[1506,135,58,200],"class_list":["post-86838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-media","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-copyright","tag-internet","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-mAC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86840,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86838\/revisions\/86840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}