The era of fake music content (it's gotta stop...)

Let's keep it simple... Do not deceive people and then get mad when they're upset at you. If you need to come up with poor excuses that means you shouldn't do it. PERIOD.

[NathanJamesLarsen]

Core principle I will go to my grave believing: Deception is wrong. Period.

[ChadAV]

You took half a decade of angst and turned it into a consolidated 20 minute video. I feel relieved.

[QWLMusic]

We're sadly living in a post-truth era.

[andremack]

Nathan coming back with another passionate video about some of the things that’s wrong with the music community on social media. Preach my bro, Preach 🙏🏾

[ZynoaPiano]

As a pianist, I cringe so hard at the videos I see online of "I found a random street piano" or "professional pianist surprises a bunch of strangers" then proceeds to just play River Flows In You or La La Land while the strangers in the back are so utterly impressed and amazed as if it were a piece by Chopin or Rachmaninoff. It's even worse when there is a supposed "absolutely random stranger" who just so happens to suggest a song that the pianist knows how to play perfectly, and then stands there awkwardly with their phone recording them-- or god forbid, a different professionally trained stranger starts singing along. It makes me so physically uncomfortable to watch these kinds of videos. I'm really glad that you are speaking up about this Nathan, because I thought I was alone. Thanks

[Tirful]

Great point, well made! As a musician myself, I'm certain most of us believe success should be a meritocracy – we want to create something unique with our craft that nobody else could have come up with. This wave of artists trying to "cheat" their way to fame through dishonest content is particularly infuriating for all the people out here who are working hard on the quality of their music but perhaps aren't so skilled at the promotion side of things.
I'm probably too much on the other side of this extreme where I've always felt uncomfortable making content to promote my songs because I'm self-conscious about being annoying by posting about my work too often! The content game is a hard one to tackle for naturally introverted people, I still haven't figured out a way to really form connections through it.

[monish]

im 18 lol and i'm with you on this...100% agree with you...there are so many people telling viewers (who want to start growing their music career) to make these videos and stuff, and honestly its cringe and I don't want to do any of that. I'm still finding my genre and my way of producing content.

But all of this aside, music in general has become oversaturated lol...and with AI music improving its only gonna get worse...looking at all this almost makes me feel like now is def not the right time to start a music career and that i should just keep it as a hobby for now XD.

Great video though, I'm so happy that these fake things on social media is being addressed. Hope many see this.

[stestetsonmusic]

I worked with some rappers who wanted to record a freestyle they got really offended when I asked why they were reading the lyrics from their phones 😂 they don’t know what a freestyle is

[MasterSongStudiosReal]

"I would not be able to do what I do if all I gave a crap about was me!" That is such a great piece of wisdom!

[TrevBarnes]

We as humans crave authenticity, but we as humans also crave validation. Why be yourself when you can engineer your image to be someone that people are impressed by? We've created such a horrible feedback loop as you've pointed out.

I think that's also why creators like you have such a strong audience that you connect with, a very real relationship. You're not catering to the masses, you are working on projects that are authentically Nathan James Larsen. You're connecting with and reaching the right audience because of your authenticity.

It's a shower thought I had. When I make a video that doesn't perform well, instead of thinking that no one liked this video, have the mindset that this video reached the people that it needed to reach. Love your art Nathan, thank you for emphasizing this point. I think alot of us have the same frustrations.

[vdw_]

Thank you for doing this!! I REALLY HOPE your message goes viral so that the whole word can see. I am a musician and it absolutely breaks my heart.

[megantossi]

preach …coming from an artist over here! It frustrates me to see other artists doing this!

[juliekovich-recordingartist]

I am with you on this! I have always had a visceral reaction to people pranking others that aren't prepared. I have tamed my reaction a bit over time because I realized it often isn't 'bad' people doing this, just mis-guided. It started for me way back with the first videos where people do something on the street to fool bystanders into reacting. Like letting a stroller roll down a hill then laughing at the bystander because they reacted out of human decency. Fast forward to what you just described, I think I was pretty naive! I didn't realize this was going on at this level in music promotion, now instead of laughter or ridicule as the reward, new fans? A little milder than those videos, but one more thing to be on the look-out for I guess. Thanks for speaking up! It is lying at its base, pure and simple.

[bagfacedog]

👍👍👍 Thanks, NJL. Someone had to say it. Over time, I've developed a real distaste for click bait and other content that strains the boundaries of credibility. I try to avoid it but, should I ever stumble into it, I click out as soon as I realize what it is. No appetite for it and even less patience. Thanks for calling it out. Much respect.

[onemacproject]

You’re wrong about not making friends by making this video. I agree 100% with what you say and just subscribed. I have no respect for artists who lie or use bait and switch to get eyeballs 👀 Personally, we make music we like and hope it resonates with an audience. In that way, it’s authentic and our audience can see that. Keep speaking up and calling out the fakes 👍

[vojtaano]

Same here, thought I was alone. Passionate video, real content, thank you so much man!🙏✊

[Itsanasmusic]

Some finally talks about this bs, Im so glad to see you talking about this and I genuinely want more people to start talking about this.

[DJPastaYaY]

I gotta agree with you here. It's always super annoying to see faked content like that video mentioned. Plus, it makes it harder to know when someone is lying or not. That's just something I don't have the energy to deal with.

[marsrivers]

Social media is the worst thing that happened to society..specially to artists

[CreativeMindsAudio]

Well said! Great video! I avoid tiktok and a lot of short form content because there's so much misinformation and sketchy/scammy stuff.