Beware of the professional ripoff industry

[GMaq]

You guys need to stop trying to "win" the discussion. Think of your hypertension.

Good reminder... People are never persuaded by argument we're just not wired for it... Stick with "they all suck" can we meet there..?

[asbak]

Are you 12? I assume you must be to call someone who disagrees with you a communist.

Mind your own business

[asbak]

If government and corporations are one thing, then glowrak's argument that the free market is good and government is a spanner in the works doesn't hang together.

He's not entirely wrong. Throwing taxpayer money at lost causes just exacerbates the problem. What you subsidise, you will get more of.

More government, rules, regulations, taxes and "solutions" will not fix societal ills. Otoh, neither will out of control monopoly and exploitative capitalism.

Either way, we're screwed.

[asbak]

Good reminder... People are never persuaded by argument we're just not wired for it... Stick with "they all suck" can we meet there..?

Winning isn't everything, it's about the participation.

[glowrak guy]

If government and corporations are one thing, then glowrak's argument that the free market is good and government is a spanner in the works doesn't hang together.

Around here, a huge problem is the unholy alliances between private sector interests, and various governments. Big private sector campaign donors will win bids on lucrative gubbamint projects, some of whom profit from shoddy work, some of whom used insider info win bids, and some benefit from regulations being eased or strengthened according to their fiscal needs. Criminal collusion and bribery are difficult to prove, and in areas where there has been defacto one-party rule for decades, you'll see evidence of corruption and harmful policies. Drug addiction, crime, homelessness, failure to protect the public, grifting tax money into private accounts...look at the L.A. County area, the worst leadership of any area in the country, and now the terrible fires are revealing the personal, ethical, political and social failings of those in charge.

The efforts to paraphrase my posts, and put words in my mouth, are truly pathetic. I simply want law and order, based on constitutional rights, with ciminals appropriately jailed, whether from the private sector, or funded by the taxpayers, or paid by both. Simple as that.

[bhilmers]

...the unholy alliances between private sector interests and various governments

I'm not going to get into this and I know I can't change your mind, but I just want to point out this alliance is exactly the kind of thing Marx argued against and why he thought the government should be deeply decentralized and fully democratic. This might be new info to you, most people only know Lenin-style communism which calls for a Vanguard Party (which then becomes one party authoritarian rule?). To me, your description of this "unholy alliance" is just regular capitalism at work, which ends at neo-feudalism.

[glowrak guy]

To the degree that humans long for freedom, Marx & friends fought against that human nature, preferring one bad form of government domination over others. Notice the vast throngs of Americans fleeing SouthBeach for such peoples paradise sanctuaries as Cuba or Venezuela

One advantage of 'states rights' in the U.S. is that you can freely move away from areas where the corruption seems invincible. California leads the way in motivating it's residents to take the u-haul truck north or east. And a big chunk of tax revenue leaves with them. Many people with deep family roots make more modest moves within their state or geography, to a different county or city with better leadership.

[folderol]

Apparently, there are quite a few alternatives to Spotify:

Apple Music
Amazon Music Unlimited
YouTube Music <---I wouldn't want to use this one
Bandcamp <---Nice!
SoundCloud
Deezer
Tidal
Pandora
Qobuz
iHeartRadio
Idagio

Some possible alternatives:

Funkwhale
Audius Music
Koel
Castopod
Euterpe
Mirlo

https://medevel.com/music-and-audio-streaming/

https://www.libhunt.com/topic/audio-streaming

Of course, anyone could get permission and gather unsigned artists' work and broadcast it. But would it really compete with the millions from spotify?

You missed soundclick - one of the oldest and still surviving.

The Internet Archive is also a possibility, but I very seldom post music there - takes up bandwidth they could use on more important stuff.

[LesPaul]

Music Biz Collapsing: Report

A federal subsidy program for Canadian musicians went 80 percent over budget due to pandemic lockdowns and collapsing album sales, says a department of Canadian Heritage report. Musicians have complained they are reduced to collecting pennies in royalties from streaming services: "The current economic context does not allow the majority of artists to make a living." READ MORE

That's the news from Canada.. This is from a reporter called blacklocks.ca. They are behind a paywall but they give free snippets to get an idea of the story.

[glowrak guy]

https://www.one-submit.com/post/how-muc ... per-stream

The above link is to a promotional site offering a service to spotify users, but has what appears to be current status on spotify's attempts to become profitable, in easy to read format.

note: I am NOT an expert, and hope for discussion and presentation of better data, more accurate/timely facts, and personal preferences/experiences etc etc

According to this site, in 2025, a track submitted at spotify will need to be streamed 1000 times for 30 seconds or more, in the previous 12 months, before they will begin to pay out their .003 to .004 pennies per stream. As I read it, that puts a year's delay on all payouts, during which a popular song could generate revenue for spotify, and thus artists using spotify collectively, could be producing bank $interest payments to spotify, during that initial year's time, before receiving any royalties at all. I think this practice might be stepping in to some deep legal/ethical kimchi, but it will take some deep pocket$ to attempt an intervention, and the star-maker machine will likel oppose changing their status-quo. And other streaming platforms like apple, youtube, amazon yada yada have their own accountants in their back rooms.

The article mentions that spotify are 'cracking down' on noise and fx submissions, which will now need to be played for two minutes, and a thousand times each in the previous year, to start the payouts. Most of those dubious submissions are much smaller than two minutes, as the case may be.
Cheers