Music

> In 1999, there were six major labels. By 2012, through a process of aggressive mergers and acquisitions, there were just three. Having consolidated their power and market share, they operate an effective oligarchy, of which Spotify’s grotesque inequality is a high-profile manifestation.

> In 1999, there were six major labels. By 2012, through a process of aggressive mergers and acquisitions, there were just three. Having consolidated their power and market share, they operate an effective oligarchy, of which Spotify’s grotesque inequality is a high-profile manifestation.

https://jacobin.com/2025/06/spotify-music-industry-major-labels

We need to be the change trough our way of consuming music !!

Genre-free and in-motion music 💫 Turning stories into songs 🎶  🇦🇷📍🇯🇵 Listen, feel, & collect our journey 👉🏻 beacons.ai/duodomusica

Even if you and I could convince millions to change their habits, the big three still own the vast majority of the music catalogs we spend time listening to. So unless we go back to pirating, that kind of big shift isn’t happening anytime soon. And I don’t have much confidence in policy or regulation helping, since the big three seem to have a lot of influence there too

I think the situation is more dire from a consumer standpoint, from an artist standpoint I'm quietly optimistic.

Musician • Songwriter • Producer | Web3's first rockstar | independent | check out my music: deshsaxena.com/release2

I feel like it’s the opposite. Consumers get all the music in the world for less than $20 a month. 

What makes you optimistic from an artist perspective? Spotify and the big labels are making all the money even though your music is on Spotify.

Metalabel, Kickstarter, The Creative Independent, The Dark Forest Collective, Artist Corporations

"There are also more artists and songs than ever before, which creates the appearance that more indie artists are thriving, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re sustaining healthy, long-term careers" Agree with this, the quote I chose was from the introduction of the book, the book basically goes into ways of your other points - the direct fan to artist communication. Will post a photo of the following pages with the examples he talks about (mentions 3Lau btw)

The other thing that stuck out to me was your last paragraph. I think artists will figure out that path of direct consumer relationships whether that is through web3 or otherwise. I don't see the consumer side though - with streaming music seems to be the end. I don't know where it can go from there - and that scares me - will we always have to listen to most music through Spotify or the next entity controlled by the major corporations backed by billions of dollars? As a consumer I could choose to use another streaming platform but I don't. 
Anyways, I hold out hope for the artist. I believe we will figure it out, even if it's a small change it's still a change. Ideally though the entire industry should be gutted and start from scratch 😅

> Never before in the history of the modern music industry have independent musicians been able to sustain healthy long term careers on their own - without the help of a record label

This is a bit misleading. It’s like the minimum wage went up for everyone, but the people at the top are taking an even bigger share of the pie. There are also more artists and songs than ever before, which creates the appearance that more indie artists are thriving, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re sustaining healthy, long-term careers. 

Im a big fan of platforms like Metalabel, and that's why I always encourage artists to take control of their distribution. You want to own the relationship with your fans and cut out as many middlemen as possible. Even if you only have 50 fans who will buy music from you, it’s better to engage with them directly than to rely on being discovered on Spotify or hope for a record deal with the big three.

The reality is that most indie artists (even those making high-quality music) still aren’t able to sustain a decent career through direct-to-fan models. At least not yet. Maybe things would have played out differently if Spotify hadn’t been forced to give up 18% ownership to the major labels, or if those same labels didn’t control so much of the legacy catalogs we all grew up on. It's also no secret that most of the deals artists signed with these labels are no good. It’s the artists who are hurt the most. Consumers lose out as well, along with the tech folks who want to build better platforms but are limited by outdated laws and the grip labels continue to hold. 

Spotify can't be trusted though, they literally went and boosted fake artists just so they could pay less to real artists. They could be prioritizing other things, like making their API more open, but its more restricted than ever.

Rn it's in a shitty place, can't get much worse. but what we're slowly seeing is independent artists creeping in. From Ari Hertrstrand's book (great podcast too on the music industry): "in 2021 DIY self released artists earned more than $1.5 billion just from recorded music alone... Never before in the history of the modern music industry have independent musicians been able to sustain healthy long term careers on their own - without the help of a record label" - he then gives examples like Chance the Rapper, Tom Misch, brent Faiyaz, Vulfpeck etc.
Moreover, if you look at the general record label strategy - it seems to be look at people who have a following and add fuel to the fire - they basically expect the marketing to be done by you and ride on the fact that they just have massive industry pull.
I could concievably see a future where rather than giving up IP, you could give up shares like @yancey 's artist corporation. 
This change will not happen overnight, but I'm optimistic.