A Short Illness From Which He Hasn't Yet Recovered...
No big newsletter this week as a bout of Bronchitis leaves me bed-bound
It’s not been much of a fun week here I can tell you. What started as a mild cough last week turned over the weekend into a full-blown dose of Bronchitis leaving me tired as hell all week, with a splitting headache, nasty cough and sore throat.
But enough about my woes, as the woes of the electronic music industry continue too, Universal have started their takedown of catalogue from TikTok, not only does this affect tracks released by Universal, but stuff published by them too, so it’s causing much more to come down than originally anticipated… what’s the next move here?
James Blake has been in the news complaining about virality and TikTok this week - it’s the hot topic we can’t avoid. There’s arguments both sides - artists should be paid fairly for their work, for sure, but without virality would as many people hear your work? There has to be an expectation of a low conversion ratio here - if you paid twenty grand for a billboard in Leicester Square you wouldn’t expect everyone who saw it to go to Bandcamp and drop a tenner on your latest album would you? Virality should be seen as a bonus, and you should have a plan to capitalise on it *if* it happens.
The EU hit Apple with a massive fine for abusing it’s position in allowing app developers to promote alternative streaming services. I’ll admit I haven’t read too much into this and the details, but I’m surprised, as Spotify has always been the dominant streaming service anywhere I’ve ever worked. The price of both services is also pretty much identical too, so I’m not sure anyone is really losing out here, at least on a consumer front. If you want to use Spotify on an iOS device (as many millions do) there doesn’t seem to be any significant hurdle to doing so. That said, there’s probably more to it, and it’s something I’ll read more on when I’m better.
I’m not sharing any new music this week, purely because I’ve not been able to listen to anything. It’s been weird, probably the longest I’ve gone in my life with no music. There’s a pile of records and tapes by the door I’ll get to next week, I’ll make up for it with a bumper playlist then, I promise. Instead, I’ll leave you with this:
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