Hey everyone. These are certainly unprecedented times but the one thing that I can always count on to ease my nerves is music. I am not talking about playing an instrument (no, I am not talented), but rather listening to it. While the world is burning outside your window, I always have found solace in linking my trusty noise cancelling headphones to my phone and discovering what new music has just been released. I mean I can’t be the only one who thinks that the only redeemable thing about sitting in LA traffic is getting lost in a really good album or playlist, right? Of course not.
Pre-COVID times, I have found that live performances are where musicians truly shine. The crowd gets into it and the artists feed off that energy. Given the current state of the world, artists obviously have not been able to do that within the the last year, give or take. I have also learned that shows are where the money is at in music. However, if you’re Travis Scott, you can pretty much collaborate with any brand, including McDonalds and Playstation. So the musicians that are not Travis Scott, how exactly are they making money during this time? The simple answer to that question would be through streaming on various platforms (ie. Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube). But I am not certain that is the case. Sidenote: how can the platforms who exist mainly due to musicians, be so stingy when it comes to payouts for their streams? I think it’s ridiculous.
With all the attention on the musicians during this pandemic, they are not the only ones affected. Venues where the artists play have also taken a hard hit in the last year. With no revenue from shows, too many venues have had to close their doors forever. Additionally the list of affected groups does not end with artists and venues. What happened to the workers of those venues? Vendors who sold goods at the shows? The list in infinite
With all that said, I want to take a look and examine these questions and find out how the music industry is evolving. How did we get here and where do we go from here?
I think this is a meaningful topic to look into because music is a form of art that touches everyone. In my 28 years on Earth (yes, I am older than most of you), I have not met one person who dislikes music. So looking in to how the industry is changing is something that I have a great deal of interest in and I would like to think many of you are curious about as well.
I should probably mention that my favorite genres of music are hip-hop/rap/r&b/pop/dance, so I may reference many artists from those genres. My favorite artist right now is Frank Ocean, and I’ve been waiting on him to drop literally anything since his singles last year.
