70% of the Music Market is Old Songs - New Music is Doomed

[mcmc]

Sam, this is a great topic. You need more subscribers, this would be a great space for dialogue. IMHO, new music is 80% sound design and 20% songcraft, made-up numbers but you get the idea. Old music is 20% sound design and 80% songcraft. I think this is due to better technology and supply/demand dynamics. Consider old music is typically Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus. New music is essentially a vamp, modified by filtering and really cool ear candy; adding/removing elements to the vamp over the course of the song. I love new music. This repetition is very catchy as the hook is relentlessly set over and over with a morphing vibe, but lacks staying power after the initial sugar high. I characterize today's music as here today/gone today or "hear" today/gone today. Why is this? Anyone can now create and release music (you don't need perfect pitch or need to know how to play an instrument), which is great! But there is so much content (thousands of new songs are uploaded to Spotify everyday), it becomes a volume game, not a time-consuming songcraft game to get and stay noticed. And assembling sample/beats/sounds is not songcraft -- for expediency, it's a remix of what's been previously released by others (either in the form of one-hit samples or compete chucks of songs ripped via AI or downloaded midi chord progressions). The best new music is from artists who have the skills and experience to create songs that balance sound design and songcraft, but it's hard to find those above the din and siren call of the sugar high, and the demands on creators to satisfy that sugar high. I wouldn't say new music is doomed, it certainly abounds like never before. One thing that's never changed, it's always been rare to capture lightening in a bottle (a hit song). More people than ever can give it a go and paint-by-numbers with a coloring book (again, wonderful!), but only a few will become Picassos. That's how it is with any field of endeavor. Thanks for all you do, Sam. You are an artist, I can hear it in your productions.

[guiv]

it makes sense, i get bored by music nowadays. It's like everything has been made already. every song on big spotify playlist has been heard a thousand times before.... :(