Playlistification and ‘the crushing ubiquity of cheap music’

“There is too much new music, and most of it sucks” encapsulates how a growing number of fans, musicians, and the industry feel about the bulk of the 120,000 new tracks uploaded to streaming services every day.

It’s gotten so bad that fans are not even trying to keep up. According to Luminate, 42% of tracks of 66 million tracks on music services get less than ten streams, and 24% have no streams at all.

SoundCloud just added a feature that all but guarantees every new release 100 streams, but that’s only a bandaid patching up the music industry’s much bigger self-inflicted wound.

I could go on…

But there’s not much more that I can add to vlogger Venus Theory’s must-watch video on the effects of the crushing ubiquity of cheap music created as “content” on artists and fans.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.