Music Predictions for 2022

[Anderton]

This is a deep article from CD Baby that presents multiple viewpoints, and which I think is well worth reading. If nothing else, it's thought-provoking - and some of the opinions really hit the target. I'd be interested in what you think about specific aspects that are mentioned, I think there's much that's worthy of discussion.

[KuruPrionz]

I will have to find definitions for all the "acronyms" before I can say much.

Maybe I've not been paying attention or maybe that's just how people speak now?

 

In my mind, the meanings of those terms are critical to making any sort of valid observations.

[Groove On]

Yes, a lot of good thoughts in that article, especially the gigantic shift to subscription services.

 

Socially/culturally, there's a whole young generation (under 30) that has grown up with subscription/free/streaming services. They're not interested in buying, owning and managing a music collection. They've had it all right at their finger-tips since they were kids. Those in their 20s might still know what a CD is and might have actually had to use one, but to those in their teens - the "old tech" is USB and MP3s - otherwise, it's subscriptions/free/streamings services all the way. I don't see this genie going back in it's bottle. Subscription/streaming/free is just too convenient for people across all ages, but it's totally embedded itself in the culture of the under 30s; that's where they get their music, tv shows and movies.

 

And while I think the CD revenue will dry up, and online "sales" will dwindle, it will be the same old game. The artist still has to figure out a way to reach their audience - but nowadays, you'll have to be much more technically savvy to do it.

[GovernorSilver]

Totally feeling what Chris Robley wrote about outsiders

[Anderton]

Totally feeling what Chris Robley wrote about outsiders

 

Yes. When you upload to streaming services it seems like standard operating procedure to define at least a genre, but I can't help but wonder if "target audience" should be a part of the spec. For example I've noticed my music appeals more to females than males. It would be helpful if I could connect to that particular demographic more directly.

[GovernorSilver]

Relevant quote from Robley.

 

On the one side, you"ll have an awesome amount of music driven by the constraints and tastes of the most massive medium (which has always been the case): even shorter tracks with maximum hooks for TikTok, lots more features and collabs for Spotify discoverability, more 'sync'-able songs for streaming TV, etc.

 

On the other side, you"ll have, well, the 'outsiders' you always have â and I don"t mean that pejoratively. The world will always need⦠experimental music, hyperpop with bagpipes, noise-rock for birthday parties, any kind of jazz, murder ballads from the 1500s, trap about failed NASA missions, 9-minute singer-songwriter epics about meteorologistsâ¦

 

I appreciate that he did not mean to attach pejorative significance to "outsiders", despite going a little over the top there. "trap about NASA missions", come on, lol.

 

The real-life outsiders that I've known or at least spoken to a little, like Jandek... I just could never get a sense of them caring about a target audience, really. At least the ones who cross over into metal like the guy go plays under the Author and Punisher name, I could see their target audience including the metal audience, though not necessarily limited to such. I suppose the similar case would apply to Michael Gira, mastermind of The Swans. But the folks in The Residents or Pere Ubu... did they really have a target audience in mind? Or Mary Halvorson, who has had a career of pushing the limits of what "jazz guitarist" actually means, and the target audience for that.

[Anderton]

On the one side, yoBut the folks in The Residents or Pere Ubu... did they really have a target audience in mind? Or Mary Halvorson, who has had a career of pushing the limits of what "jazz guitarist" actually means, and the target audience for that.

 

Maybe "none of the above" is a valid target audience

[KuruPrionz]

On the one side, yoBut the folks in The Residents or Pere Ubu... did they really have a target audience in mind? Or Mary Halvorson, who has had a career of pushing the limits of what "jazz guitarist" actually means, and the target audience for that.

 

Maybe "none of the above" is a valid target audience

 

And yet, many people who like one kind of music also like others.

 

Maybe "All of the Above and More"?

 

That is probably what I would have to put. As I am sorting out and jumping into recording my own little library of songs, I have punk, reggae, straight up blues mixed with gospel, pop, new wave, "Americana", down and dirty country and "slack-jaw Space Cadet Weirdo-Butt" music in my catalog with no dominant genre to veer away from.

 

Which is why I think of trying to sell licensing for movies instead of joining the Trendf*ck Rodeo.

[GovernorSilver]

On the one side, yoBut the folks in The Residents or Pere Ubu... did they really have a target audience in mind? Or Mary Halvorson, who has had a career of pushing the limits of what "jazz guitarist" actually means, and the target audience for that.

 

Maybe "none of the above" is a valid target audience

 

Fair statement.

 

How acts like The Residents reached an audience, without seeming to have a target audience in mind, is a fascinating mystery to me. According to Wikipedia, they did send tapes to radio stations and even to Warner Brothers, and received multiple rejections in return. Finally, the program director at one radio station (KBOO-FM) in Portland liked their stuff enough that he traveled down to San Francisco to meet them, then his station started airing their work. This was possible because KBOO was/is a non-profit public radio station.

 

Pere Ubu... how they reached an audience remains a mystery. Same with Throbbing Gristle, although their performance art may have attracted a cult following first - people who were fascinated by the likes of Genesis P. Orridge and just kept track of his activities just to see what crazy thing he was going to do next.

[Anderton]

How acts like The Residents reached an audience, without seeming to have a target audience in mind, is a fascinating mystery to me. According to Wikipedia, they did send tapes to radio stations and even to Warner Brothers, and received multiple rejections in return. Finally, the program director at one radio station (KBOO-FM) in Portland liked their stuff enough that he traveled down to San Francisco to meet them, then his station started airing their work.

 

There are so many stories of flukes, where one station picked up a song, or it was on a soundtrack, and all of a sudden it took off. It's even happened to me, in a weird way. Most of my YouTube songs that have been around for a while top out at a few thousand views, but one song has over 14,300 views. None of the other songs from the same album come close. WTF?

[RABid]

Will this be the year that Motown frees Murphy Brown?

[Jazzmammal]

I've found myself watching a ton of Youtube the last few years and not just music. I find "car guy" vids very compelling, finding, restoring, repairing. I've never done any of that but for some reason I watch a lot of it. They all have background music tracks and at first I didn't pay much attention to it until some of the creators started mentioning who did the tracks and then I started paying attention to them. What they're saying here is a big deal imho. Most of these tracks I hear are kinda sorta ripoffs of big name songs. I first thought these were clips of actual songs until I realized no, they're just generic background tracks "in the style of" whomever. What struck home to me is all of this stuff I watch is using tracks from our era, which is classic rock, blues, jazz and I'm thinking hey I can do that because there's no vocals at all, just generic instrumental tracks in the style of pretty much everybody from the 60's to the 80's. Ocassionally I'll hear some modern pop/rap but not a lot in these types of vids. Sometimes I'll watch shows about "rescuing" heavy equipment like a 10 ton bulldozer that's been sitting in a field for years. Those vids pretty much all use strong country rock/bluegrass tracks and some are very good, some are just ok. Somebody is producing those tracks and selling them and this article confirms it.

 

I'm sure though the percentage/odds of making decent money doing that is just as hard as it's ever been trying to make good money in music. There's still way more good players doing this than there are buyers but this is just another possible tool to make money from.

 

Bob

[Anderton]

Jazzmammal, I've often recommended that if people want to make money making music, to look at local TV stations to find a company with a good commercial but lousy (or no) music. Offer to do a soundtrack for free. If they use it, then repeat with a different company. Now you have the start of a "reel." Go to another company, show them the two commercials, and say you'll do the same thing for them for $200. Keep at it long enough, and you'll be selling your soundtracks for $1,000. At least that's how it worked for me

Creating soundtracks can be easier than you think. I do a 1-minute weekly Instagram video for Full Compass called "Craig Anderton's Monday Mix." Videos with soundtracks get much better traction than ones without, so I've been going over my past album project songs, stripping out vocals, leads, any kind of solos, etc. and saving out as a file. The songs are usually 2-4 minutes long, so I can "slice and dice" them to get one really good minute. I've re-purposed the soundtracks for other videos, as well.