Not everyone has the right to release music! Even though many crappy musicians seem to think that. I just had a nutcase that really made me think those forbidden words “it was better before”.
This particular idiot wants to change the Spotify link system, so it fits his different releases with different names. No, the world won’t adapt to your stupid artist's uncertainty. We have been back and forth with his name change for three months and have changed it in at least six different versions. For what? Nothing really. It’s just that he doesn’t understand how to separate things from his account through Spotify artists. Will it change his career? Not really his eight listeners probably will never see any difference.
The gatekeepers were the people that are keeping these loose cannons off the map. Right now, we have a massive brown wave of shit music that has no justification to exist at all. Yes, there are so many musicians that claimed that the gatekeepers were the reason that their great music never reached an audience. Know what? Without gatekeepers, your music still didn’t reach an audience. So now they claim that if they don’t get success it is because they don’t get on Spotify’s playlist.
It’s because they do really bad music. In pure English “they suck”. And we would need a tool to sort these worthless people out, so the professionals don’t have to waste so much time with their nonsense.
There is nothing wrong about doing music on a hobby level. The problem is when a hobby person starts to think that they deserve to get the same benefits as a professional hard-working musician. No, you won’t get the same status, money or attention since you are not working as hard as the people that do this for a professional living.
Is this a problem, really? Not to compare with the environmental problem we have. In the small scale of the music industry, it starts to be a problem. It’s getting harder and harder to be exposed to new good music. Either you get exposure to the massive brown wave or you go back to the old ways that you feel is safe. And in this new world, all music is available.
I hear more and more normal listeners, not the ones that are super interested in music. No, the average Joe that complains that it’s so hard to find new good music. Even in the younger ages.
The live industry seems to be the new gatekeeper. They can’t fill their venues with the brown wave shit like the digital outlet can. Here you need to curate your entertainment and get the audience to trust your choices.
If only the digital outlet would ever become a gatekeeper again. They need a system like if you don’t get over 10 000 streams the first month, they just take the song off the internet in total. Impossible I know, but still, I can dream about it.
Editor's Note: Peter Åstedt has been working in the music industry for over 30 years. He has started record labels, distribution systems, and publishing companies. Peter also runs several major showcase festivals and is a partner in Discover Sensation who run stages on festivals around the world. He has worked with the Top Ten most streamed songs and had music on both the Olympics and SuperBowl.