THE ANGRY RANT THREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jcnporter]

It wasn't that long ago, though, that recording and distributing their own music was way beyond the means of the average person and beyond gigging, they had to rely on getting picked up by a label for any real income.
So the cost of producing music and getting it out there has dropped massively, but the potential return has dropped massively as well. Overall, have things changed much for struggling musicians?

[747Music]

It wasn't that long ago, though, that recording and distributing their own music was way beyond the means of the average person and beyond gigging, they had to rely on getting picked up by a label for any real income.
So the cost of producing music and getting it out there has dropped massively, but the potential return has dropped massively as well. Overall, have things changed much for struggling musicians?

There was always struggle. The struggle is just different now and more in the direction of people not buying music much anymore. I'd say that's more of a serious struggle. I think the biggest difference/struggle though is that the amount of music available is faaaar too oversaturated, which makes finding the stuff that stands out like finding a needle in a haystack. That actually plays into why people are slowing down in their music purchasing. So much stuff available to buy, they can't buy it all, so they stick to the big name favourites.

Fortunate for me, I don't think I'd want to only make music for a living. I'd be happy to get paid for it, but I like the idea of getting up in the morning to head to work. If I didn't have a job outside of my apartment, I would so rarely leave my apartment. Also, after doing nothing for around a decade, I look forward to hard work. Give me lumber to pile, dammit!

If my music really took off, I wouldn't quit my job.

So I'm finding enjoyment in keeping it a passionate hobby. To me, success is if my music sounds good, not how many albums I'd sell.

[Jonse]

''Guitarist and Songwriter'
That's what I thought I was
I never had no dreams of being a waiter
But these here Helmet rip-offs
They don't buy my lunch
So I will get a real job in the office

And I won't bother to make my music
And I won't bother to sing my songs'

Return of the Jedi, by Reuben (2005)

2005. They knew then.
The days of Led Zeppelin in the Mothership are long gone friends.

And of the Jedi, yet, there is another.

Hope is the strongest, stupidly irrational emotion humans could possibly imagine.

A weapon of the curious it remains. You two...do your math(s). The greatest part is the devoted dying trying are deprived of noticing the time they perhaps wasted or possibly just curated the spark that drove someone else to build monuments.

Cupz, you're focused on the past. Don't cement yourself there. Even if nothing pans out for any of us we'll see someone radical that by our limited understanding should be in prison based on their form of expression. Yet we will be, probably, erroneous to assume they are radical at that time. Mexi, you quoted a published song. It has lyrics printed online. A success. It is never an art form if meant commercial and I would assume you know that. Some are happy that what they do makes a difference, penniless, uncredited.

A misstep is to begin making music as a job, something I learned immediately. When my first track was finished. And it sucked.

[Jonse]

You know, those comments stuck with me for a few days and it's this kind of pessimistic attitude that I didn't use to see around Twoism that I can't stand.

There's a banner advertising a release under the label Robin apparently spent some time trying just to get off the ground slightly. We've got a mod who's quit their day job numerous times as I understand it trying to focus on music.

Nicole has her own infobox when you punch in Boreal Network. She has a page on the French wikipedia, where VHS Head doesn't even have one (or didn't) when listed as one of her influences in the opening paragraph and is a notable podcast or two away from having just enough notability to have a page on the English wiki. She's certainly stood out among what was already an oversaturated pool of electronics artists. Thank god her shoddy imitation of BoC was terrible and sounding nothing like them because it defined her own sound that actually prompted me to tell her White Cyclosa sounded like a Boreal Network track when I was first hearing TH being streamed.

Oh no, we can't all be household names and sell hundreds of thousands to millions of records. So fuck it, you know, what's the point of that banner there if that's the case?

Yeah, when was that ever NOT the case? Things may have changed though the difference is predominantly that people who otherwise would have never even been given a chance to produce music in the past get to dick around in a DAW today. Sometimes their shitty BoC/whoever ripoffs actually net some money, and in that comment, I do hope you've enjoyed that income Tycho.

Since when was success ever about self-sustaining entirely on music? Don't we entertain that BoC have day jobs when honestly, they probably don't really need if they chose to be a band that produced a ton of merch/played live (today tickets would sell out INSTANTLY for Boards of Canada)? Is it not enough to see that you've made a dent to make you want to keep trying? You want to go "I'm too old, it's too late, I have kids, I need a real job", I can't see how that's not still on you, nor can I dismiss that those rare pockets of creativity that made it before will still make it in some form today.

[Mexicola]

You might be happy with that Jonse.
Good for you.

[Cupz]

If you can afford to make music all day by all means, there is nothing better in the world! But a man's gotta eat...

[Echo the Sun]

[2020k]

All that reply did was make me angry. So I guess I will post that here and then go start on the macaroni and cheese recipe I found this morning. A man's gotta eat, Jonse...

[Valotonin]

Words are just words. Jonse is having some trouble at the moment and I can understand that sometimes the need to speak your mind, regardless of social consequence, is overwhelming.

None of that was directed at me, though, so I am sorry if it is easy for me to say that when I wasn't the subject of it.

I will chip in my tupence and say that regardless of how unlikely it seems, the death blow to one's potential career in music is always in losing your sense of optimism for the future and losing the part of your sub-conscience constantly pushing you and telling you that music is absolutely what you were put on this earth to do. If your purpose is to serenade people, serenade them.

[Negamuse]

Everyone always talks about how DAWs and digital ways of making things sound good comparatively cheaply, and self-releasing and online distro is democratising the music business compared to when it was all gatekeepered by studios or access to expensive synths. But when the conversation turns to how hard it is to make money... nobody seems to ask whether we're now just seeing the flipside of that "old way", the huge number of musicians that never got signed and never made much money. Like, we always knew that breaking into the music business was hard, but because we mostly only got to see the successes it made the dream tangible. Now we get to see the scale of what never made it onto vinyl and CDs too?

I'm not trying to minimise the frustrations of making money doing music (especially when streaming pays so badly!) but it just occurred to me that it's a point I never see anyone make

[northernlite]

this past Saturday fucking SUCKED. just wanted to get that out, carry on!

[Valotonin]

this past Saturday fucking SUCKED. just wanted to get that out, carry on!

I am sorry to hear that. Is everything alright now?

[northernlite]

this past Saturday fucking SUCKED. just wanted to get that out, carry on!

I am sorry to hear that. Is everything alright now?

thanks buddy, all good now!

[s7409651]

Logged into twoism for the first time in..., years? and see Trump on the banner... I know it's a joke but that was a nasty shock!

[Jonse]

You guys need to get laid.
More often.

[Jonse]

So it might be that I'm traveling and have run out of a particular medication and thus am having a whole set of stupid problems or that I guess some disappointment in a few people's pessimism is something I take too far though I want to apologise for my previous comment.

Having not been here in a while/being exhausted at the time I was caught up on posts from a while ago and none of that is directed at anyone who's posted in here lately so do forgive me.

Let's not carry on. What about that particular Saturday sucked?

[Valotonin]

So it might be that I'm traveling and have run out of a particular medication

Christ I hate being away from home and realising that I miscalculated the meds I would need for the trip. Last time I was calling my local surgery to see if they could send it off for me by the time I got back that evening while I was at a service station somewhere near Carlisle (about 300-400 miles away) sweating and shaking from discontinuation syndrome. Hope you don't have to undergo the same.

[Jonse]

I've had ups and downs. Same as everyone else who bothered to reply to anything I said.

Thanks.

[747Music]

You guys need to get laid.
More often.

You may not have been saying that in my direction, but I've certainly never been the type of guy to be against that suggestion even if I was scoring every night. There are of course still early mornings, second portions of the morning, elevensies, noon, afternoon delights, pre-dinner stress relief, post-dinner stress relief, and... I'm forgetting one... Ah yes, mid-dinner stress relief.

As mentioned in a different thread. I'm bored atm.

I've had ups and downs. Same as everyone else who bothered to reply to anything I said.

Thanks.

If I held that against you Jonse, I'd be a hypocrite. I really don't like the thought of being a hypocrite.

[747Music]

I wish people would stop being horribly ambiguous and stop using social idioms outside of the proper social crowd. I wish we would all say what we mean using words in their properly intended use. Just gotta pay attention to your speech. It'll never happen, and it will continue to piss off my OCD as I have no idea what people are trying to say. Then they get pissed at me because it's apparently terribly obvious what they meant, despite their actual words meaning something else entirely. OR flip that around: I say something using words that I genuinely mean and it gets mistaken for some social idiom. It's meaning is understood differently and suddenly I'm a jerk for what I said despite the fact that I was genuinely trying to say something kind or helpful. Trying to explain the actual intentions in my speech can often just lead to accusation that I'm lying and trying to cover up my terrible transgression.

This issue is ridiculously bad through texting. I hate texting.

On days where my OCD is really bad, the idea of becoming a hermit gets extremely tempting.