So the time has arrived in this series to turn the focus onto the best avenues out there for creators. As well the best avenues out there to support creators as a client, consumer or fan.
So as part of the research for this edition of the blog, I decided to also research other content creating platforms in other types of content creation. For example, the adult entertainment industry used to give little control to the actual men and women selling their image. They, like the relationship between musicians and record labels, would be giving up much of the control over their published content to the production company or whoever they had a contract with and that is definitely not in the best interest of the performers whatsoever.
Personally I’ve never used Only Fans to consume content, but as a content creator I’m glad that it allows the adult entertainment industry an option for the performers to fully control access to and income from their personal content. That is much better than other (previous physical media) options and seems to pay its creators fairly. Much like the top 1% of artists on streaming platforms. I’m simply illustrating avenues for making sure a majority of the funds find their way into more niche or underground types of Artists. Sex workers seemed like a striking but parallel example of ‘Niche Content Creation”, that is why I chose it to illustrate my point here.
ALBUM DROPS IN MODERN TIMES
The best options out there for releasing albums and music in my opinion has to be Bandcamp. Over 75% of a purchase goes to the Artist whose content is sold in that purchase. As well and for example: I purchased the discography of a band called “Sold Soul” and was able to actually choose to pay even more for it than the asking price if I chose to. Likewise you can name a price lower than the asking price and the artist can accept if they choose. This is much similar to dealing with Promoters as a musician in a Niche genre (“tru” metal in my case) when setting up tours, fests and one offs. Most of the time the promoter and band agent meet somewhere in the middle rather than not budging from their pricing.
As Far As Distribution Goes
This aspect is so involved most content creators don’t have the skills let alone time to handle their own distribution and therefore this relationship requires some unavoidable trust in the distro company. When I was a session drummer, helping a band play fests and tours (original member vacated and I was approached to fill in), the label we were on basically handled all distribution and obviously kept most if not all the proceeds to cover manufacturing. The band retained the rights to sell albums at shows in person but anything ordered online or purchased in a record shop went to the distributor first and we trusted any extra profit would be sent back to the band. Having a good distribution partner is worth giving up some mechanical royalties for and it was assumed not much would be coming back from the label as far as royalties. I think this is a totally fair business relationship to be clear.
Personally for more underground Creators I’d use Spotify/Pandora and all the rest besides MAYBE Tidal, as a way to check out new artists. Then when you’ve found some good art worth listening to “more than once” scoot over to Bandcamp and buy the digital record there. It’s the closest thing the internet has to how DIY creators used to operate back in the olden days (besides of course modern day DIY distros like Headsplit Records as an example). SoundCloud I’m not too educated about, so I’m leaving them out of this conclusion and the blog at large, it looks like it’s own different form of audio hosting and I don’t know anything about it to be honest. I’m guessing it’s a fine platform to use because I tend to assume in good faith unless proven otherwise.
LASTLY…
In my opinion there’s nothing like going into a Record Store and finding your Album on the shelf. Somehow looking at a streaming platform and seeing numbers doesn’t hit quite the same, dunno why, but it just doesn’t. Of course the data is very useful but physical media will never fully be replaced I believe.
What is the same these days is instead of having to be wary of bad contracts with labels it’s shifted to being wary of a Terms of Service crafted to make the Platform and Major Labels a hugely disproportionate percentage of the royalties. Making pennies on millions of Albums adds up pretty quick while making pennies on 10 or less releases is definitely worse than any minimum wage on Earth.
So no this is NOT an “anti-streaming” conclusion
This is aimed at bringing awareness to the best options out there at the moment. I’d be remiss if I failed to mention Patreon at all, so here goes if you’d like my opinion. Certainly Patreon is attempting to even out the discrepancies caused by streaming TOS’; however creating extra content behind a pay wall isn’t exactly solving the issue head on the way Bandcamp addressed royalties for Musical Projects. Donations help subsidize but they aren’t the replacement for income altogether, and I see Patreon as a subsidy of sorts when instead: the platforms that host streams could just be a lot more tactful and respectful of who’s providing the content. Perhaps crowdfunding is the future here though and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.
P.S.
P2P Downloads verses Streaming
The platforms don’t have to change, but the consumer should be aware of the truth. Storytime: Limewire is the ENTIRE reason I found At The Gates’ “Slaughter of the Soul” album; I ended up randomly downloading Suicide Nation for free. Then because it blew my mind regarding how to approach the guitar more like a cello and how metal can also be super melodic and catchy, following that musical discovery I’ve probably spent $300 USD at least on At the Gates releases and Merch all due to that one little free yet “illegal” download. Frankly most people will support creators if they have the option.
Don’t accidentally take the shittiest option for consuming/supporting art: go to a show and buy a shirt or something, at least that way all your playlists have some merch to back them up.
P.P.S.
Only metal elitists think this way and frankly who am I to tell you what app to use, I’m just researching for the benefit of how I release music going forward.
Metal (As the Kardashians are well aware) maintains itself because of the huge aspect of merchandise associated with the bands. A hand-me-down from the Glam era and Kiss that has helped it survive. Other niche genres should take note of merchandising as exemplified in underground metal being another way to offset streaming royalties being so miniscule.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave some feedback, or share the article around. I wrote this to be free to read, but if you want to donate (for no other reason than the article actually taught you some perspective on the subject matter) feel free to find my contact info and send a few cents or fractions of crypto.
-Blaeden
Metal Digital Album: Tokenizing the Metalverse 