The unflattening of music[This post builds on two other recent MIDiA posts: Background music and What got you here]

At the half way point of the decade it is a good time to reflect on how the business of music is reshaping the culture of music – and where this is heading. 

Streaming – and the ecosystems it feeds / feeds from ≠ has done as much to music culture in ten years as the phonograph and record player each did in half centuries. Of course, streaming would not have been possible without those prior inventions, but it has reached far more people, with more music, more frequently, and with more listening time. 

Most importantly, by pulling consumption, creation, and monetisation closer together than ever before, streaming has transformed the tense but often distant relationship between business and culture into one that now resembles a single entity. People make, and are encouraged to make, music that feeds the machine. This has resulted in what is often referred to as the flattening of music, which is most visible in the rise of ‘functional music’ and of the song over the artist. It is a process that can feel both inevitable and unstoppable. 

At the start of the year I posted a remarkably evergreen quote from Jaques Attali’s 1985 book Noise:

“Fetishized as a commodity, music is illustrative of the evolution of our entire society: deritualize a social form, repress an activity of the body, specialize its practice, sell it as a spectacle, generalize its consumption, then see to it that it is stockpiled until it loses its meaning.”

The fact that this was written long before the internet and music collided illustrates that streaming’s effect is not an isolated phenomenon  but part of a much longer continuum. The 1980s was the decade in which the CD supercharged the commercialisation of music and the Walkman kick-started today’s dominant ‘always on, everywhere’ paradigm. While streaming is massively accentuating trends, it is not creating them. Indeed, the whole idea of music as background filler is at least centuries old. For example,  800 years ago Eleanor of Acquitaine hired minstrels to soundtrack her daily court life. More recently, French composer Eric Satie wrote three pieces of music in 1917 that he called ‘furniture music’ specifically designed to be background music.

However, music has never been shunted so far into the background as it is now, including music that was intended for the foreground. It is driven by a vicious / virtual circle of influence of consumer behaviour and the algorithm. As Jeffrey Antony puts it in his 2024 piece ‘The Great Flattening’:

“These algorithms are designed to keep users engaged with the platform, ensuring that music remains a background experience rather than a foreground focus.”

 Spotify shifted its business model and user experience in pursuit of this paradigm, further fueling it with lower-cost production music (often termed as ‘fake artists’). Antony argues that this has moved music from being “deeply personal” to “commodified [and] disposable”. 

Meanwhile Daniel Ek mused that some music has a short shelf life and other music a long one. But music has always been both highly personal and commodified. Before streaming, radio was the main way most people heard music most of the time. Radio listening was often commodified background filler but the exact same songs could be deeply personal when listened to in a different way. 

The difference is that today, streaming is catering for both the deeply personal and commodified in the same platform while the behaviour / algorithm circle is nudging the needle ever further away from personal. As one writer puts it in The Mighty Pluck: “This is the blurred scenery of my life.” 

There are very clear and obvious commercial rationales at play (lowering rights costs, fragmenting rightsholder power, increasing platform power, etc.). Howevever,  it would be wrong to assume that this is all about the “fuelling the global circulation of capital”. It is also part of a much wider trend of digital platforms being terrified of losing users and their time in the saturated attention economy. In a digital economy defined by convenience, everyone wants to remove friction, which often means making decisions on users’ behalf. 

It results in a strategy of seeking not to offend rather than to delight. Nowhere is this better seen than Elon Musk’s suggestion that the most important metric of all is “Unregretted user minutes”. If one statement summarises the path towards the absolute reduction of culture, it is that.

Generative AI threatens to accelerate the trend even further. However, the seeming inevitability of all of this is only possible because of streaming’s fusing of business and culture. It is possible that algorithmically charged, functional, and generative music will become most (even all) of music in the future. But it is not yet. And it would only be able to get to that point because everyone else (labels, artists, publishers, songwriters) is, to some degree or another, playing by the new rules, terrified of missing out on audience and revenue / income. They play by these rules because the system is defined by being optimised for monetisation.

But what happens when monetisation stops working? The whole edifice comes tumbling down. It is incumbent on the system to manage the transition, so that by the time monetisation is completely broken, it is too late for a withdrawal of creative labour to break it, because the traditional creator’s role is no longer crucial or at least decisive. It might just be that the cracks in the monetisation machine are appearing early enough to change the trajectory.

With streaming growth slowing, larger rightsholders are doing everything they can to optimise including making it harder for longer tail creators and rightsholders to earn from their work. This adds to the already-growing difficulty many mid and long-tail creators have making streaming’s fractionalised royalties add up. Streaming services may not yet realise it, but they are breaking music’s 21st century social contract. Creative labour has thus far been given despite deteriorating conditions because value was returned. As value diminishes, more artists are beginning to question why they should give their labour any longer. 

We are already seeing more artists going non-DSP (e.g,. Ricky Tinexz, SEIDS, Mary Spender), triggering the start of the bifurcation of the music business, with an emerging generation of creators bypassing streaming entirely. Meaning that the foundations of tomorrow’s music culture are being laid elsewhere. It may only be a trickle for now, but already, one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2024, Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee, was pointedly not released onto streaming. How long before the trickle of streaming exiles becomes a flood?

What makes the non-DSP world so important for the unflattening of music is not the absence of algorithm (because there are plenty of those there too) but: a) the diversity of models (bandcamp, TikTok, SoundCloud) and b) being different and distinct is a feature not a bug.

Music business and culture are flattening, no doubt. The tide can be turned but it will not happen on its own. It will take both commercial and creative bravery. It will require a new social contract for music and it will be a long, tough fight. Not least because consumers (the actual people doing the listening) are not exactly throwing their hands up in dismay at having music that soundtracks the mundanity of their daily lives.

Yet, streaming may also hold the key to reversing the trend. Today’s music creators have a far bigger and more diverse musical canon to call upon than in any previous generation. Yesterday’s artists’ influences stemmed from inherently limited sources (their parents’ and friends’ record collections, their local record store, etc.). Today’s can listen to virtually every song ever written. The history of music is a steady evolution, with each generation of genres imitating and innovating the previous one. Now, creators can pull from over a hundred years’ worth of popular music, thousands of genres and millions of artists to create their own, unique take on just what music is. 

Streaming may have made itself the (flattened) establishment – but the thing about the establishment is that culture almost always rebels against it.

Concord acquires publishing catalog of Ed Sheeran collaborator Johnny McDaidMcDaid has also written for the likes of P!nk, Lewis Capaldi, Keith Urban, Shawn Mendes, Zara Larsson, Alicia Keys, and Jung Kook, amongst many others
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OpenAI, valued at $157bn and facing multiple copyright infringement lawsuits, says China’s DeepSeek may have used its data to train rival AI model without permissionDeepSeek spent far less money on developing a chatbot than US AI companies, but it may have done so by stealing OpenAI's IP
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MySeat Media Hires Former Bandzoogle CRO Dave Cool as PresidentArtist branded app platform MySeat Media announced that it has hired longtime Bandzoogle executive Dave Cool as its new President.Cool has over two decades of music industry experience, including the past 13 years at musician website platform Bandzoogle. As Chief Relationship Officer, he oversaw all departments at Bandzoogle related to growth and retention, including business development, marketing & communications, and customer support.“Having known Dave for years and watching his work at Bandzoogle, we knew he would be the right person to help take MySeat to the next level,” says Steve Shelton, MySeat’s Co-Founder and CEO. “He brings to MySeat Media a wealth of business development and marketing experience in the music tech space, and a passion for helping the artist community succeed.”“With artists needing to find ways to bypass algorithms and engage their fans directly, hearing some of the success stories on MySeat’s platform was really inspiring,” says Cool. “To be named President of this fast-growing platform is an honor, and I look forward to not only helping them continue on that growth path, but also helping musicians succeed by directly engaging with their superfans and generating more revenues for their career.”MySeat empowers artists and creators to own their data, build their communities, and connect directly with superfans. They can generate multiple revenue streams, including subscriptions, merchandise, exclusive music, live and virtual meet-and-greets, livestreams, memorabilia, and collectibles.Last month Chicago based rapper G Herbo released an exclusive mixtape through his MySeat-powered app, which generated over 7M streams and resulted in a 262%+ increase in paid subscriptions, a 30%+ increase in merch sales, and 70,000 app downloads, where it charted #3 among all music apps after Spotify and YouTube.The post MySeat Media Hires Former Bandzoogle CRO Dave Cool as President first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

MLC Spotify lawsuit dismissed, bundled royalties unchangedThe court has the MLC Spotify lawsuit over mechanical royalties paid to songwriters and music publishers on subscription tiers bundled with audiobooks.
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Bandzoogle’s Dave Cool named President of MySeat artist app platformLongtime Bandzoogle executive Dave Cool has been named President of MySeat Media, the artist branded app platform.
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Miami MusicTech sets March Summit, Startup CompetitionThe first Miami MusicTech Summit is set for Tuesday, March 25 at the Silverspot Cinema in Downtown Miami. The conference will showcase the city’s exploding music tech and innovation scene. $199 early bird Summit ticket prices. Continue reading
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Brigitte Alanis promoted to Partner at music law firm King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, LLPAlanis' clients include Victoria Monét, Roddy Ricch, Malibu Babie, Alex Warren, Lil Skies, and Willie Jones, among others
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BMI veteran Alison Smith to retire after 40-year career at the companyShouvik Das to Lead Distribution, Publisher Relations & Administration Services Department
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Introducing JBL Control 400 Enhanced Coverage Ceiling SpeakersThe next generation of JBL’s acclaimed ceiling speaker portfolio has arrived!As the successor to the iconic Control 20 Series, these speakers have been engineered to retain the legendary reliability and versatility of speakers like the Control 26, with enhanced coverage, superior sonic performance, improved installation features, and a modern aesthetic.

The post Introducing JBL Control 400 Enhanced Coverage Ceiling Speakers first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Spotify royalties top $60B, sets 1B paid subscriber goalLast year Spotify paid $10 billion to musicians, songwriters, labels and music publishers. Now, Spotify royalties top $60B over the last decade. $10 billion the highest single one year payout from. Continue reading
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6 Questions with The Wildwoods: Harmonies & Hard WorkWe caught up with Chloe Gose of The Wildwoods while on the road for this latest installment of the Hypebot, Bandsintown and CelebrityAccess “6 Questions With” artist interview series. 
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The MLC is holding $1.2 Billion in publicly traded securitiesThe MLC is holding $1.2 billion in investments, and no one seems to be watching closely, writes Chris Castle. Find out why more in the industry are questioning where the money is going and who benefits.
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The Importance of Queer Visibility in Pop MusicFrom the earliest days of rock & roll, gender fluidity and gay culture were always quietly bubbling under the surface. AllMusic looks at the identity of pop superstar Chappell Roan and some of the pioneers of queer visibility in music.

Tip Jar: Rewriting the BeatlesBy Mark WinklerThat visual artists learn their craft by using a great master’s work as a tool is nothing new. When I was in Amsterdam at the Rijksmuseum, I was fascinated to see that the great painter Rembrandt did many copies of works by artists he admired, such as Caravaggio and Titian, to learn their techniques. Paul Gauguin reproduced paintings by Van Gogh, and Andy Warhol studied his young contemporary Basquiat to see what he could learn, which resulted in their collaborative canvases. Using great songs as a template for your own songs is a valuable tool for any songwriter. There’s always a reason a song is a hit, and a great song has “great bones.” So, why don’t you go to the top, and rewrite The Beatles, who are undoubtedly (at least in my mind) the most significant pop group of the 20th century. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison wrote dozens of excellent songs during their quite short tenure as The Beatles. The song of choice to use as a template in this exercise—“Penny Lane.”The lyrics of “Penny Lane” are basically childhood reminiscences, told through a series of vignettes. Each verse contains a vignette, and the last verse brings some of the characters from the earlier verses together in a final scene. Winkler digresses…In the early 1970s, I did rewrite Jimmy Webb’s classic “Wichita Lineman.” Here’s the story: I worked at the Los Angeles Music Center as an usher. In those days, the Music Center had three performance venues and a wide variety of musicians played there. It was a great place to see everybody from Aretha Franklin to Maurice Chevalier. My best friend—then and now—is Arnie Zepel, a fellow usher at the time. Every year, the ushers would have a talent contest and in this particular year, he wanted to win it, because a girl he wanted to impress was on the committee. Arnie, while a great guy, was not exactly a strong singer or dancer, so I had to come up with something to make him shine. My answer was to write a parody to “Wichita Lineman,” which I retitled “Music Center Usher.”Instead of “I am a lineman for the county, and I work the main road,” I wrote, “I am an usher for the county, and I work the main floor.” I filled the lyrics with inside jokes that only an usher would get, and Arnie’s charming delivery and my spot-on lyrics won the talent contest and cinched him a date with the girl.A parody is rewriting an existing song’s lyrics for deliberate comic effect. Weird Al Yankovic is a master at it, and he’s also very successful; he’s had a No. 1 album for each of the last five decades. Randy Rainbow, of YouTube fame, is another master of the genre. I’ve written parodies many times and find that adhering to the structure and rhyme scheme of a tune is a great tool to learn to write.Songwriting ActionsNow, back to “Penny Lane,” here’s what you need to do: Rewrite the lyrics to “Penny Lane,” but keep the melody exactly the same. Retitle the song with another three-syllable location that had meaning for you as a child, like “Baldwin Hills,” “Omaha” or “Sherman Oaks.” Be sure to match the stress of the words “Penny Lane,” which is on the first syllable. For example, the New Jersey town of Bridgewater has three syllables, but the stress is wrong. You can tell by trying to sing the word “Bridgewater” to the melody that goes with the words “Penny Lane” in the song. If you want a New Jersey town for your song, try “Basking Ridge.” Sing it and you’ll hear why. • Rewrite the vignettes in each verse of the song using scenes and characters from your childhood. For most writers, writing about your childhood can be a great way to access your emotions and the details only you know.• Keep the Beatles’ scansion (length and rhythm of line) and rhyme scheme. It’s critical to memorize the melody exactly, which means literally playing the tunes over and over until you learn it. • In the first verse, lines two, three and four rhyme. • In the second verse, the lines two and three rhyme and then on line four, there’s an inner rhyme.• In the chorus, lines one and two rhyme and line three doesn’t.Objectives of the Songwriting ActionsTo learn how to write lyrics that match the melody of the song. When the lyrics match the melody, it is called prosody. Make sure you can match the Beatles’ melody in cadence and stress.Learning to put your lyrics to a melody is a necessary ingredient in songwriting. Even if you have written the lyrics and the music together during the first verse, when you get to the second verse, you have to write different lyrics to the melody you have already set up. I find memorizing the melody of the tune ultimately much easier than thinking you’re matching the lyrics to the melody by counting up the syllables and notating what syllables get stressed. Only by singing the words to the melody will you know if they work as a unit. It’s a muscle you need to develop, that will get better with time. Also, knowing the melody immediately gets you to sing and make what you are doing “musical” and not an abstract exercise on some paper. If you are a lyricist, you do not need to be a good singer, but singing the tune will let you know a multiplicity of things about the interplay between the words and the music. A songwriter friend of mine says that until you “taste” the words in your mouth you don’t know if they work or not. To make sure you have enough “specificity” in your song: study the Beatles’ lyric. The vignettes in each verse are like little movies and the nouns and verbs are specific: a banker and a barber and a fireman, not just a guy, another man and a girl. In Nashville, songwriters call nouns and verbs that are very specific, the “furniture.” The more furniture the better.To find the lyric for the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” copy this linktinyurl.com/2jdxztnkThe post Tip Jar: Rewriting the Beatles first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.