Calm Down, Soundcloud
Friday, July 29th, 2022 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioI'm gonna be doing another block walk after midnight, and hopefully record things correctly this time, but the plan then, is to do all the editing, uploading, and writing about it here, tomorrow.
So, that midnight walk, will be the July 30th entry in this blog, with some audio embeds to go with it!
But I didn't want to skip a July 29th entry, so tonight, I'm just gonna do a little rant about Soundcloud.
--<>--
I'm actually pretty happy with SoundCloud.
It's a pay to use service, which I'm happy to do, because free platforms are full of advertising garbage, and notoriously prone to shadow bans, take downs, bots, etc.
The price I pay for unlimited uploads is ridiculously cheep, and they have very stable servers. I rarely have a problem uploading or streaming content, and I have a surprising amount of creative control.
One thing I LOVE, is that you can replace an old file with an updated version, and it retains all the old plays, comments, and likes... which is absolutely forbidden on other platforms, such as Youtube.
But I also recently changed the URL from souncloud.com/supersnoozefest, to soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio, and it was not a problem. It took effect instantly, and all the old embeds still work the same!
Discoverability is... okay? I mean, if I upload something new, put it into the spotlight section, and link back to it from here, I'll get three plays the next day. That's not much, obviously, but I think it's okay for a platform that is not, nor do I want it to be, social media.
--<>--
SoundCloud's job is not to make me go viral. It's job is to store my sound content in the cloud so that me, and anybody who knows me, can get to it from anywhere, and to make it easy to share through links and embeds.
My content is not the kind of stuff that goes viral. The cricket playlists are eight, hour-long tracks, strung together, so that a person can hit play and sleep to them all night long. So... not only incredibly long form, but also very subtle.
And I chose SoundCloud, back in 2018, because it's good for that!
------------{=0=}------------
And now, we've gotten to my petty gripe...
Back in the day (all gripes begin with, back in the day) SoundCloud was just an odd little place for people to upload random audio content.
That might be old reel-to-reel and cassette audio, that's been digitized. It might be an amateaur podcast type thing. Or it might be music, but probably quickly drafted music done on the fly for fun. Nothing super insanely serious.
But over the past couple years?.. Oh my god, have they been bending over BACKWARD to try and rebrand themselves as a platform for musicians, and musicians ONLY!
They haven't changed anything on the back end. There's no reason you can't still use it like I do, or for a professional podcast or something... but the interface now... just refuses to acknowledge that anything but music exists.
--<>--
I took one of their surveys today and it was like...
But to me, the best, and most telling question was,
It was at least twenty platforms, and within the context of all the other questions, it was obvious to me that musicians today are expected to have their content available on ALL these platforms at the same time!
You have to, because each platform has it's own share of hostage listeners who only use the one, and won't use the others.
Apple music, for example, is essentially off limits to the half of the universe using android devices. Amazon music only makes sense if you're paying for Amazon Prime, in which case it's free.
Spotify is pretty popular, but it's infested with intrusive ads.
All of them have their little gate keeping mechanisms to keep you in, if you're in, and keep you out, if you're out.
But more importantly, all of them are ALSO part of the much bigger, vanity music racket!
------------{=0=}------------
What's the vanity music racket? Well it's like vanity publishing for would-be novelists, but it's for wanna-be superstar recording artists.
And these days, EVERYBODY is a wanna-be superstar recording artist!
You can't shake a stick without hitting five wanna-be superstar recording artists!
I see the sad story play out all the time on TikTok where somebody goes viral for a little skit they did, and as soon as they have a million followers it's always... urm... you guys?... I'm also a musician so... if you could check out my Spotify?..
And nobody follows the spotify link. And nobody cares about their music. And the famous TikToker gets really sad about that, and feels unfairly type-cast as the person who does the funny skit thing... and they try to pivot, and it doesn't work... and they stop posting.
Everybody gets so heartbroken if you don't care about their music. But literally every single human being on Earth has an album they're working on!
--<>--
The vanity music racket knows this, and it's a billion dollar industry, because they extract metric-tons of money every day from wanna-be musicians.
That list, in the survey, of the 20 platforms you're expected to upload the same track to, is no accident! Many charge the artist a subscription, but if they don't then they extract fees to help them get more exposure.
But since it's extremely difficult to manage twenty different platforms... you can pay a guy to upload your tracks for you! And you can pay another guy to keep your twenty profiles up to date! And you pay another guy to keep up with the subscription & promotion fees of the twenty platforms. Analytics aggregators! SEO managers! Social Media managers!
All to get the track you recorded in your living room, heard!
Just heard!.. on the internet... not the radio! You're still not making a single DIME! You have no record contract! You have nothing!
Then there's the whole universe of software, and equipment you're gonna need to buy! NOBODY makes it without AssTrax Pro Studo! NOBODY makes it without AssGear!
But that stuff doesn't help either!
NOTHING helps you get heard!
So there's another circle of vultures around THAT... people who's job it is to CONVINCE you, that you're JUST ABOUT to get heard! Next Month! Next Fall!
And then you can tell your friends and family, Tad, from AssPromotions has taken me on, and he says I'm JUST ABOUT to get heard! Get ready to tell people you knew me before I was FAMOUS!
Some people even go the next step... team up with three other drunk people who want to be famous, buy a van, and start booking gigs! Coffeehouses, dive bars, junior high dances!
And the vanity music racket has people who will pretend to manage your group, and book your shows, and shop your demo package to the MAJORS!
--<>--
Musical aspirations are an endless wellspring of money!
And the whole racket is founded on three fairy tales that have become so deeply entrenched in the public phsyche, that they're like religious dogma!
That's the whole dogma, in a nutshell.
But in reality, everybody dreams of musical fame, and everybody has enough talent or technical skill to produce arguably good music, especially now, when the digital software and hardware is so omnipresent, and user friendly.
And thanks to that, the world is so overflowingly flooded with good new music coming out of every orifice... it's just not the gift you think it is!
It's like pretty fall leaves on the ground... every one is unique!... each one is very neat and colorful... but they're absolutely everywhere... to the point of being litter?
They're kind of a hassle?.. to mulch and rake up?.. before they clog the storm drains?
--<>--
Those fairy tales were true... seventy years ago, when the tech was primitive, and the global population was only a third of what it is today.
Now, it's just the vanity music racket.
But believe it or not, the current satus quo is actually a little better than it was five and ten years ago. Because through the 2000s and 2010s, when these platforms didn't exist yet, a lot of vanity musicians kept their product behind a paywall, so that even their friends and family never heard it!
At least now, if you want to, you can hear what they're doing.
But... most people don't bother, cuz... they're working on their own album, dammit!
There used to be an older generation who wasn't working on their own albums, but unfortunately, they didn't like, or approve of music. So they were never any help, and now they're all dying.
That leaves the kids... which is why the big goal for so long was to get popular with the kids!
But now... even the kids are working on their own albums! Yes... even the grade schoolers! Yes... even the toddlers in nursery school!
And they're better than you!
Their brains haven't solidified yet, like yours has! They have the creative edge!
------------{=0=}------------
I'm not saying it's wrong or foolish to produce your own music. It's good for you!
Music is linguistic, mathematical, and artistic. And producing your own is a good way to explore your own soul, while learning the more esoteric dimensions of language, math, art, and emotion.
It can be a very noble persuit!
But the folly is in the chase for fame.
That's a vain persuit, that makes you a bit more shallow to those around you, and really... really... wastes your money!
I mean, you could blow your money on drugs, but at least you get high! If you blow it on trying to get heard and go viral?... you don't get nothin but heartbroken!
Like I said above, people get so invested in music fame that even when they do get legitimately famous for something else... they get sad and throw that away to keep chasing the music dream.
It's tragic!
------------{=0=}------------
To bring this all back around, I'm a little disappointed in SoundCloud, that they've gone all-in on the vanity music racket.
But maybe I shouldn't complain.
Maybe all that extra cash flow is what keeps my unlimited uploads so cheep, and keeps the service so good.
My 8-hour cricket playlists are free to listeners... ad free... and will reliably stream for the whole eight hours. And that's exactly what I want!
So... maybe I should just shut up and let the spellbound dreamers keep on keeping the lights on.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
So, that midnight walk, will be the July 30th entry in this blog, with some audio embeds to go with it!
But I didn't want to skip a July 29th entry, so tonight, I'm just gonna do a little rant about Soundcloud.
I'm actually pretty happy with SoundCloud.
It's a pay to use service, which I'm happy to do, because free platforms are full of advertising garbage, and notoriously prone to shadow bans, take downs, bots, etc.
The price I pay for unlimited uploads is ridiculously cheep, and they have very stable servers. I rarely have a problem uploading or streaming content, and I have a surprising amount of creative control.
One thing I LOVE, is that you can replace an old file with an updated version, and it retains all the old plays, comments, and likes... which is absolutely forbidden on other platforms, such as Youtube.
But I also recently changed the URL from souncloud.com/supersnoozefest, to soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio, and it was not a problem. It took effect instantly, and all the old embeds still work the same!
Discoverability is... okay? I mean, if I upload something new, put it into the spotlight section, and link back to it from here, I'll get three plays the next day. That's not much, obviously, but I think it's okay for a platform that is not, nor do I want it to be, social media.
SoundCloud's job is not to make me go viral. It's job is to store my sound content in the cloud so that me, and anybody who knows me, can get to it from anywhere, and to make it easy to share through links and embeds.
My content is not the kind of stuff that goes viral. The cricket playlists are eight, hour-long tracks, strung together, so that a person can hit play and sleep to them all night long. So... not only incredibly long form, but also very subtle.
And I chose SoundCloud, back in 2018, because it's good for that!
And now, we've gotten to my petty gripe...
Back in the day (all gripes begin with, back in the day) SoundCloud was just an odd little place for people to upload random audio content.
That might be old reel-to-reel and cassette audio, that's been digitized. It might be an amateaur podcast type thing. Or it might be music, but probably quickly drafted music done on the fly for fun. Nothing super insanely serious.
But over the past couple years?.. Oh my god, have they been bending over BACKWARD to try and rebrand themselves as a platform for musicians, and musicians ONLY!
They haven't changed anything on the back end. There's no reason you can't still use it like I do, or for a professional podcast or something... but the interface now... just refuses to acknowledge that anything but music exists.
I took one of their surveys today and it was like...
- Who distributes your music? A third party, or do you do it yourself?
- What kind of music do you create?... [list of 50 genres]
- Would you like it if SoundCloud made it easier to promote your live performances?
- What if we gave you sound mastering apps?
But to me, the best, and most telling question was,
- What other platforms do you use to promote your music? [Spotify, Apple Music, MixCloud, LiveXLive, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, Tidal, 8Tracks, MySpace, Tenecent Music, Gaana Music...]
It was at least twenty platforms, and within the context of all the other questions, it was obvious to me that musicians today are expected to have their content available on ALL these platforms at the same time!
You have to, because each platform has it's own share of hostage listeners who only use the one, and won't use the others.
Apple music, for example, is essentially off limits to the half of the universe using android devices. Amazon music only makes sense if you're paying for Amazon Prime, in which case it's free.
Spotify is pretty popular, but it's infested with intrusive ads.
All of them have their little gate keeping mechanisms to keep you in, if you're in, and keep you out, if you're out.
But more importantly, all of them are ALSO part of the much bigger, vanity music racket!
What's the vanity music racket? Well it's like vanity publishing for would-be novelists, but it's for wanna-be superstar recording artists.
And these days, EVERYBODY is a wanna-be superstar recording artist!
You can't shake a stick without hitting five wanna-be superstar recording artists!
I see the sad story play out all the time on TikTok where somebody goes viral for a little skit they did, and as soon as they have a million followers it's always... urm... you guys?... I'm also a musician so... if you could check out my Spotify?..
And nobody follows the spotify link. And nobody cares about their music. And the famous TikToker gets really sad about that, and feels unfairly type-cast as the person who does the funny skit thing... and they try to pivot, and it doesn't work... and they stop posting.
Everybody gets so heartbroken if you don't care about their music. But literally every single human being on Earth has an album they're working on!
The vanity music racket knows this, and it's a billion dollar industry, because they extract metric-tons of money every day from wanna-be musicians.
That list, in the survey, of the 20 platforms you're expected to upload the same track to, is no accident! Many charge the artist a subscription, but if they don't then they extract fees to help them get more exposure.
But since it's extremely difficult to manage twenty different platforms... you can pay a guy to upload your tracks for you! And you can pay another guy to keep your twenty profiles up to date! And you pay another guy to keep up with the subscription & promotion fees of the twenty platforms. Analytics aggregators! SEO managers! Social Media managers!
All to get the track you recorded in your living room, heard!
Just heard!.. on the internet... not the radio! You're still not making a single DIME! You have no record contract! You have nothing!
Then there's the whole universe of software, and equipment you're gonna need to buy! NOBODY makes it without AssTrax Pro Studo! NOBODY makes it without AssGear!
But that stuff doesn't help either!
NOTHING helps you get heard!
So there's another circle of vultures around THAT... people who's job it is to CONVINCE you, that you're JUST ABOUT to get heard! Next Month! Next Fall!
And then you can tell your friends and family, Tad, from AssPromotions has taken me on, and he says I'm JUST ABOUT to get heard! Get ready to tell people you knew me before I was FAMOUS!
Some people even go the next step... team up with three other drunk people who want to be famous, buy a van, and start booking gigs! Coffeehouses, dive bars, junior high dances!
And the vanity music racket has people who will pretend to manage your group, and book your shows, and shop your demo package to the MAJORS!
Musical aspirations are an endless wellspring of money!
And the whole racket is founded on three fairy tales that have become so deeply entrenched in the public phsyche, that they're like religious dogma!
- Only a very few people dream of musical fame, and only a few of them have talent.
- The few souls with talent, who dream of musical fame, are ALWAYS discovered, and signed, no matter how poor they are, or how old they are (i.e. could be 12, could be 92).
- Regular people see good new music as a rare blessing & gift that changes their lives for the better.
That's the whole dogma, in a nutshell.
But in reality, everybody dreams of musical fame, and everybody has enough talent or technical skill to produce arguably good music, especially now, when the digital software and hardware is so omnipresent, and user friendly.
And thanks to that, the world is so overflowingly flooded with good new music coming out of every orifice... it's just not the gift you think it is!
It's like pretty fall leaves on the ground... every one is unique!... each one is very neat and colorful... but they're absolutely everywhere... to the point of being litter?
They're kind of a hassle?.. to mulch and rake up?.. before they clog the storm drains?
Those fairy tales were true... seventy years ago, when the tech was primitive, and the global population was only a third of what it is today.
Now, it's just the vanity music racket.
But believe it or not, the current satus quo is actually a little better than it was five and ten years ago. Because through the 2000s and 2010s, when these platforms didn't exist yet, a lot of vanity musicians kept their product behind a paywall, so that even their friends and family never heard it!
At least now, if you want to, you can hear what they're doing.
But... most people don't bother, cuz... they're working on their own album, dammit!
There used to be an older generation who wasn't working on their own albums, but unfortunately, they didn't like, or approve of music. So they were never any help, and now they're all dying.
That leaves the kids... which is why the big goal for so long was to get popular with the kids!
But now... even the kids are working on their own albums! Yes... even the grade schoolers! Yes... even the toddlers in nursery school!
And they're better than you!
Their brains haven't solidified yet, like yours has! They have the creative edge!
I'm not saying it's wrong or foolish to produce your own music. It's good for you!
Music is linguistic, mathematical, and artistic. And producing your own is a good way to explore your own soul, while learning the more esoteric dimensions of language, math, art, and emotion.
It can be a very noble persuit!
But the folly is in the chase for fame.
That's a vain persuit, that makes you a bit more shallow to those around you, and really... really... wastes your money!
I mean, you could blow your money on drugs, but at least you get high! If you blow it on trying to get heard and go viral?... you don't get nothin but heartbroken!
Like I said above, people get so invested in music fame that even when they do get legitimately famous for something else... they get sad and throw that away to keep chasing the music dream.
It's tragic!
To bring this all back around, I'm a little disappointed in SoundCloud, that they've gone all-in on the vanity music racket.
But maybe I shouldn't complain.
Maybe all that extra cash flow is what keeps my unlimited uploads so cheep, and keeps the service so good.
My 8-hour cricket playlists are free to listeners... ad free... and will reliably stream for the whole eight hours. And that's exactly what I want!
So... maybe I should just shut up and let the spellbound dreamers keep on keeping the lights on.
°¦}
