New Frontiers in the Future of Music
Something that I’ve been thinking about lately is the idea of returning ourselves into “kindergarten”. We think we know everything and then we get bored with our work or our creative practice. We start to hit walls.
Yet approaching work or life in general from the perspective of a kid playing around in kindergarten is more liberating. It’s kind of the fresh start we deserve to give ourselves every day.
And this idea is related to the podcast I recorded, because the music and media industries are starting to return to kindergarten as we look at some of the new technologies such as NFTs which are in a play space at the moment (would you like to buy a virtual sausage?).
While the adult or rational brain might scoff at various innovations being showcased, this child-like play space has the potential for all sorts of magic to alter our course over the next few years. It could be for the better or it could be for the worse, but the answer will naturally unfold over time.
For this week’s podcast I took some time to work through a few areas of the music industry that are quickly changing. When you add up the areas of fan funding, NFTs and livestreaming, you can see that in many ways artists are getting wise to the game that has been played so far with streaming services not being the fairest crack at earning a living.
The fundamental question that has to be asked here is something along the lines of, “do musicians deserve to get paid for their work?”, and while it might be an offensive question to work through we should likely agree that on the whole there is nothing that commands artists to get paid for their work.
Because it’s all based on context: Is this artist operating inside a network that makes it appealing for the flow or energy of money to make its way over to this person?
Listen to the podcast for the full deep dive discussion. I also play a track called Dark Matter that I made last summer, which is what the artwork is in reference to.
Other posts added to the blog this week:
Tips for Dealing with Mondays
Where Are You Going That You Haven’t Already Arrived?
Capture Everything!
My Freewriting Method for Getting Around the Inner Critic
My question that I ask you this week is, how do you know if someone is doing something for the process of doing it, or if they are seeking an outcome? And does this matter?
Well I’m about to start the process of eating a few bagels so I hope you’ll do the same. Have a great week…
Elliott “Soup Season” Fienberg