Craft versus character: the equation the music industry needs to fixI recently wrote about the unflattening of music, how creativity, craft and fandom can – if done right – counter the growing commodification of music. Not surprisingly, I focused on the music side of the equation but in doing so I missed the other big flattening challenge music faces, not from music but from artists themselves, or rather what artists are having to become. Music, or at least popular music, has always been more than just about the music, it has been the artist too.  But if there was previously some kind of equilibrium, the balance between craft and character has tilted firmly to the latter. It has done so because the social ecosystems in which the music business operates, reward personality more than they do craft. The music business needs to find a way to extract itself from this culture meatgrinder.

A recent Rick Beato video critiqued a major label exec for his focus on the social prowess of artists. Social has done more than anything else to push the balance towards character. With its focus on the personal, social has inherently shifted the marketing burden onto the shoulders of the artist. They are the ones that most often build brand, audience and streams from their social activity. Social now accounts for 17% of all entertainment time, more than streaming music (13%) but its soft power is bigger than its share-of-time hard power. This is because social is often our discovery entry point for everything else. For example, TikTok is the number one place Gen Z discover new music. 

But music is just one sub-strand of social, which means that artists are competing with all other creators for attention. Which is complicated further by the fact that algorithms nichify everything, making cutting through harder still.

Building fan relationships may be the ideal, but ultimately the algorithm rewards ‘buzzy’ behaviours and artists find themselves not only having to continually say something, but having to say something that cuts through. So, it is not even artists’ character that is being pushed, but an exaggerated, caricature. Artists end up, intentionally or otherwise, building a persona, a character. It is because of this double meaning (i.e. personality AND persona) that I use the word ‘character’ – that, and because it alliterates nicely with ‘craft’ 

When labels (obviously not all of them, but many of them) look for artists that have strong social followings, they see that as a reflection of the artist’s popularity and potential. It is, but more so, it is a reflection of the artist’s character and the suitability of that character to the social algorithm.

All of this might be a price worth paying, were it not for the side effects:

Social is not actually that effective: Despite all the effort put into social, its conversion rate isn’t great. Only a minority of people stream music they discover on social. The music business thinks of social as a funnel but really it is more like panning for gold, with water streaming out of the bottom (pun intended) but what’s important being left behind – the gold nuggets of fandom, identity and community.

We can’t see the ‘whys’: Music marketers can measure the effects of virality (the ‘whats’) but not the causes (the ‘whys’). They can’t tell whether it was the song or the creator that created the viral moment. They can observe correlation but not causality.

Passive fandom: Viral moments are the result of passive fandom, but artist success depends on deeper, active fandom.

Character can be an obstacle: Artist character is important but it is only part of why we like the music we do. We all like some music by artists we don’t particularly like as people. But the more we rely on the artist’s character as our route into their music, the more likely we are to not engage with music at all if we don’t like the artist. And with streaming flattening music, there is progressively less chance of us serendipitously discovering a ‘real’ artist’s music on streaming, sans character.

Craft gets relegated: With the focus on doing and saying stuff that fires up the social algorithm, the craft of music loses ground. Either because artists find themselves with less time to make music, or because labels and management sign the artists who emphasise character over craft, content over composition.

In many respect, artists and labels can’t be criticized for playing to the system. If they don’t, they risk failure. They are caught up in a system that rewards character over craft. So, what is the solution? It is much easier said than done, but the music industry needs social places where either music alone lives, or at least it has a starring role. Apple tried and failed years ago with iTunes Ping! but it was the wrong execution and at the wrong time. It was basically TikTok 10 years before TikTok, but not done very well.

To succeed, this new place (or places) will have to avoid making the same mistakes as today’s social apps. It will need to emphasise music over personality. It will need to be a place without trolling. Which will likely mean gated fan communities, where bad behaviour is not tolerated, perhaps leveraging the Twitch model of community-led moderation. Ideally, it will also be a slow internet, a place where virality, likes and follower counts take second place to community, culture and real conversation. 

Sounds ridiculously idealistic right? Perhaps it is, but these are the underlying values of human society. Technology has shifted us away from them and AI threatens to push us even further away. People are forced into behaviours that make sense to the machine more than they do to humans. Anyone who has seen the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown will have seen an artist that wanted it to be all about his music, who didn’t want to have to be a star. Things will never be like that again, and indeed there are many ways in which today’s world is immeasurably better. But over the intervening decades the pendulum has swung entirely in the opposite direction. Now the time is right for it to settle somewhere in the middle.

How Independent Music Publishing Works (Or Doesn’t)This week, Ari is joined by Marc Caruso, CEO and co-founder of Angry Mob Music, to discuss the evolving landscape of music publishing.

Sonora Cinematic introduce Emma Legato Emma Legato is said to be a powerful and user-friendly tool and has been designed to create rich vocal textures and realistic melody lines for cinematic and ambient compositions.

AllMusic Feature - Birthdays On This DayA fun item that many users may not know about is our "Birthdays On This Day" feature on the homepage of AllMusic. Each day we highlight 15 prominent musicians who were born on this date, from rock, to jazz, to hip-hop, to classical and every genre in between. Scroll down to see today's list.

Soundiron Hopkin Instrumentarium: Icicles & Pop IceIcicles & Pop Ice are a pair of distinct string instruments that deliver a bright, crystalline tone, thanks to their short, highly tensioned strings and a rigid stainless-steel sheet soundboard.... Read More

Saylor’s Strategy proposes $2B convertible note offering to buy more BitcoinMichael Saylor’s Strategy is looking to raise another $2 billion via 0% convertible notes to purchase more Bitcoin, potentially adding to the firm’s 478,740 Bitcoin stash.

Save up to 93% on Output and Solid State Logic plugins over at Plugin BoutiqueIf you’ve been eyeing high-quality plugins for your music production setup, now’s the perfect time to grab them at a massive discount.
As part of Plugin Boutique’s 13th anniversary sale, the site is offering over 90 per cent off Output and Solid State Logic plugins and bundles, with prices starting at just $9.99. This is a rare opportunity to upgrade your production setup with professional-grade tools at unbeatable prices.

READ MORE: You can save hundreds on DAW controllers and Korg synths right now in Reverb’s Presidents’ Day sale

Starting with the biggest deal on the list, Solid State Logic’s Native X-Phase is now available for just $9.99 — that’s a whopping 93 per cent off, with a saving of $149.01 till 25 February. This all-pass filter plugin gives users manual control and high-quality response. It allows you to apply a phase shift at a specified frequency within a signal, and is particularly useful for fixing phase problems with microphones when recording.
Also on sale is the SSL Native X-Saturator, an analogue-style saturation plugin now available for just $9.99, marking a 92 per cent discount from its $119 list price. The X-Saturator emulates an analogue circuit that can produce 2nd order valve distortion, 3rd order transistor distortion, or a blend of the two. At low drive settings the distortion is mild and can add gentle warming to help instruments sit nicely in a mix or to add a little extra edge to help instruments cut through a mix. As drive levels are increased so too is the level of distortion until at high drive levels heavy distortion occurs.
SSL describes the plugin’s range as spanning from classic “console warmth” to intense “transistor thrashed”, making it a versatile tool for both subtle tone shaping and extreme sound design.
For those looking for a more comprehensive upgrade to their plugin collection, the Output Complete Bundle has been discounted by 53 per cent. Instead of the usual $849, you can get your hands on the sounds used on Black Panther and hit tracks by Diplo, Coldplay and Rihanna for just $399, from now till 2 March.
The bundle features every single Output FX plugin, Kontakt Instrument, and all 23 expansions – making it the perfect all-in-one suite for producers, composers, and sound designers. Included are the powerful Portal, a granular effects engine designed to morph audio into evolving textures, and Thermal, a versatile multi-stage distortion plugin with a circular XY control. You’ll also find Movement, a dynamic rhythm-based modulation effect that adds rich motion and texture to your sounds.
The bundle also features unique instruments like Analog Brass & Winds, which blends orchestral sounds with epic synths, and Analog Strings, a reimagined take on string sounds perfect for contemporary production.

View the full list of deals at Plugin Boutique.
The post Save up to 93% on Output and Solid State Logic plugins over at Plugin Boutique appeared first on MusicTech.

Humane’s AI Pin is dead, as HP buys startup for $116MHumane announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by HP for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins. Humane alerted customers who have already purchased the Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month — at 12 PM PST on February 28, […]
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Auto-Download Your Kindle Books Before February 26th DeadlineWith the news that Amazon will no longer be allowing users to download their Kindle books after February 26th, many are scrambling to download their books before it’s too late. The most up-to-date project for automating this process appears to be Amazon Kindle Bulk Downloader.
As the company that famously removed 1984 from thousands of devices without users permission, this is a move that shouldn’t be surprising, but is still disappointing, especially for those of us that were somewhat early adopters of ebooks with Kindles that don’t have a WiFi connection. (Yes, you can tell us about how you bought a Sony reader before the Kindle even came out in the comments.)
The Typescript-coded tool runs inside bun which can be installed in any of the big three OSes and even has a handy Docker image if that’s more your speed. Whether you use this tool or not, if you have any Kindle books we’d implore you to download them now.
Once you’ve downloaded those books, how about cracking the DRM either with LEGO or with software like Calibre. You could load it on a completely Open Source Reader then.

On… Universal’s Asian AdventureMBW Reacts is a series of analytical commentaries from Music Business Worldwide written in response to major recent entertainment events or news stories.
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Reach Music and Fitz and The Tantrums’ Lead Singer and Songwriter FITZ Conclude a Publishing Acquisition and Administration DealReach Music Publishing Inc. (Reach Music) has entered into a publishing agreement with Fitz, songwriter and lead vocalist of the multi-platinum band Fitz and The Tantrums.Through the deal, Reach Music has acquired copyright interest in Fitz’s entire back-catalog of approximately 100 songs released by Fitz and The Tantrums, including the hits “Handclap” (4x RIAA-certified Platinum), “Out of My League” (3x RIAA-certified Platinum), “The Walker” (RIAA-certified Platinum), and “Moneygrabber” (RIAA-certified Gold). Reach Music also controls the global administration rights to the shares it has acquired.In addition, Reach Music has entered into a new go-forward administration deal that covers Fitz’s shares in his current solo album “Summer of Us,” as well as the upcoming Fitz and The Tantrums album slated for release later in 2025.Prior to this publishing deal with Fitz, Reach Music was already the administrator for a large portion of his catalog via Dangerbird Records, beginning with Fitz and The Tantrum’s first album Pickin' Up the Pieces released in 2010.Michael Closter, President/Founder and Owner of Reach Music, said, “It’s very exciting to be able to enter into this publishing deal with Fitz, and to represent copyright interests in songs that we had already been administering for many years and know so well. We are also looking forward to building on this relationship with Fitz for his new releases and future venture possibilities.”Fitz said, “I’m thrilled to team up with Reach Music! Their passion for my music and hustle is real. I couldn’t be more excited about this deal and to make the future happen.”Fitz was represented in the acquisition by The Law Offices of Elizabeth V. Gregory and managed by Adam Harrison of Full Stop Management. About Reach Music PublishingReach Music is an independent publisher founded by Michael Closter 30 years ago in New York City. With locations currently in Los Angeles, Nashville and New York, Reach Music focuses on publishing administration and copyright acquisitions. Reach has acquired ownership interests in several iconic catalogs, including Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Public Enemy and Judas Priest. In addition, Reach also administers the works of John Mayer, Zac Brown, Lisa Loeb, The Knack, Lindsey Stirling and Ray Lamontagne, among others.The post Reach Music and Fitz and The Tantrums’ Lead Singer and Songwriter FITZ Conclude a Publishing Acquisition and Administration Deal first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Native Instruments expand NKS partnerships With the launch of the NKS Hardware Partner Program, a number of industry-leading brands will soon be able to bring enhanced integration with NKS-capable software to their own hardware controllers.

Check these two free lists BEFORE booking a show!There are two free lists you need to check before booking a show. Smart booking agents and marketers use both every day to avoid conflicts and book better gigs.
The post Check these two free lists BEFORE booking a show! appeared first on Hypebot.

Producer tags: What they are, their history, and best tags
Expert producer Isaac Duarte discusses the history of producer tags, some famous tags that shaped music, and their enduring legacy.