The Music Inequality Gap

Yesterday, I got sucked into a FB comment tread, posted by my friend Craig Carrick, about the recent, irrelevant VMA’s. (Craig–a major music fan, a house concert host, a father–hit the nail on the head about that topic.)

On the comment thread, someone posited, “Where is this generation’s Neil Young?”

I rolled my eyes, I sighed, and then I felt sad.

I also realized something: We are living in a major music inequality gap.

* * * The Music Inequality Gap * * *

There is a major divide in how people consume music today. It’s as wide as the income, inequality gap in our country. I call it, “The Music Inequality Gap.”

The gap’s two sides are these:

Side A: those who discover and consume music through 10-20, even 50 sources, usually online, including a streaming platform, sometimes Youtube, and elsewhere…

Side B: those who want to still consume music through the old ways (commercial radio and TV). They might even buy a few CDs a year. Yes, this side tends to be older.

Side B is getting left behind.

* * * Side B’s Despair* * *

Yet Side B actually wants to consume their music on radio and TV. Then, when they feel a great despair that they are only getting shit on those platforms, they complain.

Side A says, “No shit, Sherlock!”

I don’t need to tell those on side A that this generation’s Neil Young can be found in so many ways, that the question is irrelevant. (They also know the VMAs are irrelevant. MTV doesn’t show music videos. That’s Youtube.)

* * * The Problem * * *

The problem is no longer that TV and commercial radio are terrible places for art*; the problem is is that Side B refuses to change how they consume music.

Yet Side B still thinks their complaints are relevant.

It’s not. That ship sailed.**

If you want to find new music that inspires you, you can do this with a simple click of a streaming platform, or an artist’s Bandcamp, or a number of ways. You can share that music with your friends with a simple click too.

If you don’t want to change with the times, you’ve already been left behind.

* * * Why This Matters * * *

This matters to  indie bands and musicians in a similar fashion as the shop local debate matters to main street.

If you don’t want to adapt to the new ways of discovering music, then new music, like myself, have an even lower chance of breaking out regionally. Radio’s impact is lessening each quarter, and major labels aren’t investing in many new artists.

In a DIY culture, we need Side B to join Side A. Right now, Side A isn’t enough people to help enough indie artists make a little money, and that money is used to invest in the things the majors would have funded.

The indie artist is lucky to have crowdsourcing options like Kickstarter or Pledgemusic, but that might only be a one-time shot. And it doesn’t help your music get to new ears.

So side B, it’s time: Abandon radio as your main source. Abandon MTV. Keep your vinyl if you must. But Join us on side A. The water’s just fine.

Footnote:

*Don’t get me wrong. TV and radio are terrible places for art, but it has been for a long time, and it’s a dying media. It’s not making profits like the past and it’s a sinking ship.

* * Leftsetz has diagnosed radio’s sinking ship already.