Netflix 'The Playlist' - Selling a utopia for an entitled generation:

Scratch the record? flawed. spolier

i just finished watching netflix series 'the playlist'

i binged it in one straight night.

it's quite clear they sell different points of view yes, and intend to make it clear there's many sides to the story and it's muddy and not everyone is evil and to blame and some people are more evil than others. but…

there's this wonderful utopian message that the innocent coder who stuck to his prnciples went off happily into the sunset with the pretty girl to live happily ever after, daniel ek lost his way for so long but, spoiler, maybe sees the error of his ways and fixes everything in the end, and the poor hard done by artists eventually might get a bright new future where they get what they deserve.

there's some big fat flaws in this whole story and vision.

the poor hard done by artist early on in the story signed the contract with the record label. the impication of the series is that she is young and innocent when she does this and doesn't properly read the terms and is a victim of the industry and gets taken advantage of. they very repeatedly use the word 'exploited' specifically.

artists in their millions are being ripped off by spotify, although the hint is its the music industry that actually somehow secretly in the background is getting the majority of spotify's money and hence the music industry is the big secret evil but spotify could have changed this and doesn't and so both are to blame for poorly paid musicians but spotify is more to blame because they didn't change things when they could have.

there's implication that spotify controls so much of the market is is a near monopoly and hence artists have to use spotify's platform if they are to survive and they are victims to again this word 'exploitation' by the spotify, very strong word to use, 'cartel'.

the message is clear - that artists have no choice, that spotify is the single evil responsible criminal and that it's so terrible and unjust the poor artists can't make a fair living.

guess what.

there is no fair in this circumstance. the fair implied is that there's a RIGHT to fair for everyone.

NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A SUPERSTAR.

it took me a few minutes to find this particular statistic - i searched "how many artists are there on spotify" - the answer didn't pop up in the first bunch of results. all the firsy results were about how terrible spotify is and how many users there are, or how much money spotify makes - an actual even ballpark figure on number of artists? it came from an indirect result referencing a stir caused on joe rogan's show and said approx. 11 million artists.

think about this.

can you really have a world where spotify alone is paying 11 million artists enough to make a living wage on?

the artists voluntarily choose to make music for a living.

there are other platforms, crucially even platforms like bandcamp - fair platforms that are independent of labels, industry and take a very minimal, 'fair' as is the important word apparently, cut.

there is no longer a need for record labels and CDs/vinyl production costs, merchandising, spending on cover art and all the commercial bullshit. if you truly want to make music all you need is a computer capable of running a free recording software like audacity and a microphone/instrument or a free DAW and plugin vsts if youre more electonically minded. this means to make music the cost is basically owning a computer and a microphone or instrument. and time. if you dont have an instrument or a microphone or access to free software then what the fuck are you doing claiming you want to be a msuician? the percentage of the planet who has access to a computer and can find something no matter how lofi or cheap or whatever to create with is so small it's ridiculous. if need be plug the headphones into the mic socket, yell and crank the gain - it'll work. fucking try me if you dont believe it. bang some pots n pans round the house. use duct tape and a bit of wood and some random string to make a standup bass twang sound. fucking innovate, create, use the myriad, literal fucking infinity of free vsts out there to manipulate and process the sounds to make any sound under the sun. string it together and sequence and arrange and automate using a free daw software. any person whatsoever has the opening to spend time and make anything imaginable for near completely free if they have a basic computer.

if you want to monetise this, learn how to manipulate social media, promote yourself, use instagram/facebook/twitter/reddit/etc. to sell yourself. it costs nothing more than time invested to make yourself known. the more you put in the more you get out. if you want to get the biggest audience you may need to use spotify etc. but that doesnt mean you cant use other platforms too. you can use bandcamp etc. to get the actual money you want from downloads etc. you rightfully deserve if you believe that.

IT'S DOWN TO YOU TO DO THE WORK.
TO YOU TO PUT IN THE EFFORT TO FREE YOURSELF FROM THE INDUSTRY YOU WHINGE ABOUT.
TO YOU TO CHOOSE NOT TO USE SPOTIFY IF THEY'RE SO BAD.

but crucially:

seeing as all that is possible, you can do the work, you aren't beholden to the record industry or to the platforms like spotify, what's the real issue?

you believe you should be getting a living from music just because you're making it.

guess what again:

like anything else in the world, it's what you make of it - you get out what you put in, you do have choice you do have freedom, you can be stuck in the system, in the box, or maybe trying to think outside the box but desperately pressed up against the box looking in. or,

try just admitting - you're too fucking lazy and entitled to do anything other than make music and then whinge "i'm a genius, i'm a star, i have hits and listeners - where's my money?"

maybe if you want money use your fucking brain and don't try to fight to be treated fairly by a broken system. play the system smarter, don't be part of the system but use your brain to succceed despite the system being broken, be realistic and realise - of the 10million spotify artists and probably 100million artists trying worldwide, guess fucking what:

not everyone gets lucky, you can't have 100million drakes. it's just not fucking possible.

use your brain, make a realistic living by working smart not hard.

so you slave away doing gigs every night and signing to labels and you get ripped off and the system screws you.

your fault for being a fucking idiot and falling for the myth. thats an old world. you only get a living wage in that world these days if you're the lucky one in a million who makes it that way. it's outdated, unrealistic and for dreamers.

a world portrayed in netflix 'playlist' utopia at the hopeful ending is for a generation of young entitled fucking lazy fucks who wont change and just think different.

you really wanna make money, even a living wage off music? then don't whinge - use the brain god gave you and do it different. you arent born with some god given right for a dinosaur music industry and someone who made a genius business model that, surprise surprise, is a business model hence for making money for them - i.e. about making profits for investors not for artists, to provide you with income.

just because you amde music doesn't magically give you some entitlement to get rich.

it's the myth of the american dream and the myth that capitalism sells you back to rear it's ugly head yet again.

have people really not worked out by now, not every single person just by being born in the western capitalist world automatically gets handed to them on a silver platter some god given right to 'if i just make music then people have to pay me for it because i have a right to being successful'.

no you fucking don't you entitled fucking idiots.

if you want something you have to identify a demand, market it, use the best platforms not necessarily the biggest paltforms, identify the best tehcnology, start with free or limited tools, make the most of what you've got.

you can't expect to say 'i bought the $1500 guitar, spent 5 years getting a record deal by touring every night' and then expect to just be given money. it's a world where people are buying a product off you. if you want to earn money sellign a product, you have to say 'it costs this much to make, i can earn this much selling it if i market it right and people actually want to buy it, is this a sustainable way to make a living?'

guess what one more time. not everyone can make a living by being handed lucrative record deals for being a huge star from record labels and attract enough streams on big platforms like spotify to get rich and make a living.

you wanna make a living, do it a sensible, intelligent way and work with the minimum necessary costs - do your own recording producing, marketing, right choice of paltfrorms etc. and if you still don't make a living wage - tough, you fucking suck, try a different business. you don't a have a born right for everyone to be paid simply because you made it.

you work smart, or you don't get paid. you don't get paid just because you think you deserve it.

personally, i make music because i like it. i enjoy it. i think music is special.

i could devote my world to promoting it and getting known and getting income etc. but that would then require getting a much more significant income to earn the extra money required to promote it, it would require not only the time and stress of earning that extra income but also the time and stress of doing the promotion.

it would make me miserable and stressed and unhappy and i wouldn't even have time to make music were it still fun anymore.

so i choose to say it's not realistic to make a living from msuic, music is something i want to enjoy and so i will make my income other ways and instead do msuic for free.

if you want income form music be prepared to work. if you want to enjoy music then maybe you cant do it at a level that gets you a living wage.

if youre working that hard and not making money maybe you arent working smart.

work hard.

work smart.

don't be so fucking entitled.

be real, not everyone can be a rockstar.

you care about music, think, do you want money or do you want music?

you don't have a right to be rich from music.
you have a right to make music yes, but not a right for people to love your msuic and make you rich.

if your music isnt making you money consider those above bullet points - maybe you're just being dumb, entitled and/or losing sight of the importance of music over money.

a final note: i actually liked the way Martin Lorentzon was portrayed in the series - the iea of a neurotdivergent discovering that it's more imprtant to just be happy and free and enjoy things like music for what it is and that you might not be happist being the rich, powerful evil - that there's more important things than fame, power and moeny was toching and refreshing. i dunno if it's at all the truth but i like the message there.

: ) do it for the love of music not for money and maybe think smart not just work hard and run on entitlement.