The musician versus music creator tools
Musician era is over #BRITBARBIE
We have arrived in full now to the age of the music creator instead of the musician. Becoming a musician is craft and takes apprenticeship. Becoming a music creator is immediate. The timeline to learn an instrument instead of experimenting with music software has forever changed the music industry forever. The tech has overrun the musician as we move deeper into the 2020’s. We now live in a world of immediate and Generation X is the leader of this new music era.
We are now in the ‘‘music creator tools’’ era! The generations going forward will not see music from an artistic perspective or craftmanship perspective but one of utility. We have gone to the sub-basement of music content not music art. We now create a piece of content not art via our suite of musical software. We now have our D.A.W prolifically everywhere. D.A.W is a digital audio workstation. If you notice it is called audio not music workstation. This is fueling the casual/hobby music making along with mobile devices that expedite sharing this output online.
We now have created this flood of what I am calling D.A.M aka digital audio music! This D.A.M is creating a flood through the digital spectrum. This number of this output is at 100k a week. I call #Floodfunnel. People do not have time to listen to all of this music and since it is not stored on a shelf it just exists out there in the cloud just there and most do not know about this output. Social media platforms are the distribution arm for all of this output. I am now saying this is a #PARALLELMUSICINDUSTRY that is not based on a success quota but one based on an #EXPRESSIONQUOTA.
An example of this as I write this on 10/29/22 at 1:39pm is the Tik Tok Phenom know as Brit Barbie. I discovered this phenom via the daughter of the artist/vocalist I work with TRAEDONYA! She is the ultimate ‘‘Tik Tok junkie’’. I believe she spends at least eight hours a day on Tik Tok. During the summer of 2022 she showed me this Tik Tok phenom named Brit Barbie. She was doing a 15 - 30 second blurb. By mid-October I was shown Cardi B mimicking #BritBarbie and all I could do was shake my head. That is why this column is being written. As I watch Brit barbie become a cultural phenom based on a 15 second clip of God knows what, it put a tombstone as far I am concerned on what is called the music industry. The expectation and definition of what is called success has been shifted to a new plateau.
The streaming economy which Brit Barbie is a part of has altered the landscape and I had to accept we are somewhere else. The next question I had was where are we? The streaming economics has everyone wearing many hats now. You have to do so much to get so little. We are in the age of #RadiatedRisk. We have arrived at you must do music as a free giveaway and do other things around the music to potentially make a living. The Digerati had won the game! The public now believes music is truly a utility bill and you pay it monthly, or it is free! Music is now considered a utility similar to your phone bill or electric bill.
In closing I pose the deep question are you a musician or a music creator? I am saying here music is a catalyst not a piece of art anymore to the generations going forward. We are in the age of the ‘‘software of sounds’’. The hardware fuels the sounds of this parallel music industry that will be fueled by ‘‘escapism of the metaverse’’ in the coming web3.
In closing, in 2021 during the height of covid the cumulative numbers of creators paying for software was 20 million! The forecast for 2030 is expected to be 1200 million with learning and skills sharply becoming the largest single group of buyers. The platforms like You Tube and Tik Tok have the audience the cloud D.A.W is what is next don cha think. Now what will your mind allow you to do!