Today, I left the online music streaming platform SoundCloud and it felt really good.
It had been a few years since I had an account on this platform and I would occasionally publish tracks or albums, available to listen to and free to access. Not much was happening with my SoundCloud account - not many listens or followers - but well, it was free and it gave me a bit of visibility.
However, when I launched my composing activity, I decided to step it up: pay for a subscription - the Artist Pro plan as they call it - at €88 per year. After all, SoundCloud makes it seem like it’s super useful for artists like me who need to develop their visibility and audience...
So, I went for it!
In two years of paying for this plan, making regular releases, updating my space and maintaining it, I painfully increased my subscribers by - maybe - 5 people. I also had a few hundred additional listens, wow!
...but watch out! Spoiler alert, there’s obviously a catch. With this package, the platform is clever: when you release a track, you can boost its audience for a week. And so, for a week, the algorithm promotes your track - according to what it deciphers from its analysis and these tags - and suggests it to people potentially interested in the musical genre of the said track. You therefore have the impression that it’s a hit… and you do actually get loads of listens. But it’s just an impression: most of the people to whom it is suggested don’t necessarily listen to it already, and on top of that, after the week of boost, your track stagnates in the depths of the servers.
In other words, the platform - "Discover. Be discovered." / "It all starts with an upload." / "All the scenes are here." / "Blah blah blah blah blah." - is capable of promoting you but doesn’t do so unless you pay.AND EVEN IF YOU PAY, the platform does not continuously ensure its role of promotion: it does just enough to make you believe that it can work. And thus gives you the desire to pay again and again while keeping you in an organised lie.
On the other hand, what is real are the €88 paid to SoundCloud every year. That is really very real and I have decided to stop paying for what I consider to be a nice scam. And by the way, to permanently delete my account.
In short,... it’s the music industry.
...and this is just a small glimpse! Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer and company… These platforms profit greatly from the work of numerous artists to whom they dangle the prospect that they will be able to live off their music by putting their record on their site. But in the end, these platforms only pay them a microscopic share of what they sell, taking an immense and indecent margin in the process.
In short... it's the music industry.
In nature, we would call this parasites and thus parasitism. In our societies, we call this neoliberalism and it must be noted that, even in the music industry, it increasingly exacerbates inequalities: the big artists who already sell a lot, sell even more, and the small ones remain in their corner hoping to break through enough to live decently from their craft… Which obviously never happens or very rarely. On the other hand, you can be sure that Apple, SoundCloud and company are the big winners of this system at every turn!
In short... it's the music industry.
And it resembles of course the rest of the neoliberal world from which it comes: the sad and ugly dream of a minority feeding off the nightmare of the rest of the world. And when I say the rest of the world, I mean EVERYONE including the living.
In short... it's the music industry.
...and it's for all these reasons that I left SoundCloud: I know it doesn't really achieve much, but it was philosophically inconceivable for me to stay there.
From now on, my music is only available on Bandcamp, a platform that gives the artist 83% of the revenue generated from the sale of their albums, keeping only 17% for its operation. It’s not a cure-all, as Bandcamp has been acquired by an American giant of online music, Songtradr. We'll see how it evolves. And Bandcamp only offers an space for artists, no more: it’s up to each one to take this tool and promote themselves if they want to develop their visibility.
But at least, they have maintained a decent payment policy. So for me, it remains the best solution for promoting what I do and for a potential source of additional income.
Atau !
I wanted to end by reminding that artists like me, and there are many of us, only live off the commissions they receive and once the music is created, from potential sales of their albums. Every small gesture to help us increase our visibility can help us immensely: feel free to repost, subscribe, like, or buy albums.
This supports original creation and, in doing so, allows for the development of more desirable imaginaries than that of the neoliberal nightmare that is sold to us as the only horizon, the only way of life.
Are there no alternatives?... THERE ARE PLENTY!
Thank you for your attention.
You are the ones who want,
Best regards, M.