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356 sats \ 1 reply \ @jasonb 10 Dec \ on: V4V music marketing promotion: open debate meta
This is kind of an ironic post to bump into today. I'm about to drive up to a far away town to make some music, and they're going to give me enough money to cover this month's mortgage! haha Admittedly, today's gig is pretty good for a Tuesday, but my income is currently1 still entirely from music, and I have four dependents! I'm not sure how you're defining economic value, but there are people and companies that are willing and able to pay myself and other artists that I work with enough to live pretty comfy, middleclass lives.
I would recommend avoiding V4V for anybody that is actually making music commercially. It's fun for side projects, and a great place for hobbyists, but really the only way to monetize recordings is to sell at shows or through bandcamp exclusively. Most artists in circles that I run in view Spotify and Wavlake and similar platforms more for documenting work. When you want to release something on the internet in a scarce way, use bandcamp.

Footnotes

  1. I actually totally want to work in bitcoin these days. My passion is there since 2020, but ironically can't find anything beyond volunteer stuff, which is fine. In the meantime, music is my daygig! haha ↩
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17 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 10 Dec
never heard of bandcamp, can you tell us more?
As for the post, congrats to you sir. It's incomprehensible to me that anybody can land gigs like this. As a venue/label etc, I can grab a kid off the street (or music school or whatever) and they'll perform for free, and I'm achieving 95% or so of what you could do (I presume -- maybe you're unique and Taylor-style amazing etc?). But sure, maybe there's something to be said for flexibility or small-town, actually putting in the effort and caring. Not sure.
With the avalanche of music production worldwide and the millions of people capable of making, singing, producing, playing instruments, it just seems obvious as a matter of economic fact that all that (potential) supply and interest drives the price to zero. No moat, endless competition.
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