I do. But I think we all have to make an effort. Which sucks but we just got to get on with it. Some stuff about our lives is good because others sacrificed for it in the past and some things are bad because we haven't yet fought for it properly. Good vs Evil etc. Life is uncomfortable buddy, because it is currently imperfect and probably always will be. You have to stay in the fight though, otherwise it will definitely be lost.
When Bloomberg reported that Spotify would be upping the cost of its premium subscription from $9.99 to $10.99, and including 15 hours of audiobooks per month in the U.S., the change sounded like a win for songwriters and publishers. Higher subscription prices typically equate to a bump in U.S. mechanical royalties — but not...
And 99.99999 percent of musicians lament being humiliated and poor.
Stop releasing your music on Spotify. They depend on you for their reputation as having all the music and will give you nothing in return except ever-broadening inequality and ever-narrowing artistic culture. People have mocked boomers for claiming that music is dying but that's exactly what is happening.
What are your thoughts around generating traction with a torrent? I have two friends who are both sitting on their albums and thinking about how best to release them. I hope to release something one day too and refuse to use the likes of spotify on principle.
This is all assuming that availability is the top priority for all artists. I think spotify has shown 99.999% of artists that their model of maximum availability at all costs simply doesn't work, either in terms of contacting an audience, making any money or valuing music. It just results in the vast majority of artists being insulted and demoralised and the remainder producing music of a relentlessly narrowing artistic scope. Are you more likely to get around 3500 plays on spotify or get £1 in donations off the back of giving your music away for free? It sounds absurd and that's because it is. Most artists will get the same out having their music on spotify for a year as walking out onto the street with an acoustic guitar for half an hour on a Saturday. At least out on the street you're not propping up a capitalist giant and a tiny 'elite' of ultra commercial music producers. For me spotify and it's ilk have been the final nail in the coffin for integrity and reward in releasing music and I would encourage the 99.999% to boycott it and forge ahead with alternatives. Nothing better will emerge until then and artistic culture will continue to become more and more bleak.
Radio Free Fedi or @RFF is a community internet radio station which plays music from artists on the fediverse. From their own website at https://radiofreefedi.net/ :
radio free fedi is consent, agency and artist celebrating community radio from the fediverse. We actively and openly present contributing artists' information with the hopes that you will drop-in, discover, and then LEAVE? That's right, RFF has no interest to be an end-point for hyper focused consumption. We also do not have the resource to provide infinite custom streams and we love the community to not do soulless algorithms. We want to foster organic discovery and discourse. We want to generate support for independent artists on the platforms and methods of their choice, no judgement. Support independent and fedi artists!
I've discovered loads of awesome and unique music on it :)
It fuckin is rad! I love it so much! I mostly listen to the Comfy channel but I've found some wicked stuff on the main channel too. There's usually a link so you can find them on the fedi or buy a track too.
Maybe it's because of the fediverse/freedom/generosity ethic and I'm in a biased bubble but everything on there is just so genuinely good, even if it's not normally my taste. I've had a bunch of really sweet evenings listening to it and my gf always asks what the track is when I put it on. I kinda want to volunteer for the channel tbh. Check it out and feel free to DM me with what you think! I'm spending more time on Lemmy than Mastodon these days, so I'm not seeing people mention them via hashtags as much. RFF and Pixelfed are basically the best thing about the internet right now imo :)
At the end of the day, this is just yet another example of how capitalism is an extractive system. Unprotected resources are used not for the benefit of all but to increase and entrench the imbalance of assets. This is why they are so keen on DRM and copyright and why they destroy the environment and social cohesion. The thing is, people want to help each other; not for profit but because we have a natural and healthy imperative to do the most good.
There is a difference between giving someone a present and then them giving it to another person, and giving someone a present and then them selling it. One is kind and helpful and the other is disgusting and produces inequality.
If you're gonna use something for free then make the product of it free too.
An idea for the fediverse and beyond: maybe we should be setting up instances with copyleft licences for all content posted to them. I actually don't mind if you wanna use my comments to make an LLM. It could be useful. But give me (and all the other people who contributed to it) the LLM for free, like we gave it to you. And let us use it for our benefit, not just yours.
I think you still have to have an account (last time I used it anyway), but you're right, there is a tier you don't have to pay any money for. It's just an email address but whatever. You can use it via their website but afaik they haven't released a free model based on the data they've scraped off us, so you can't host it on your own hardware and properly do what you want with it. I have heard though that commercial websites were/are using ChatGPT bots for customer service and you can easily use the customer service chatbots on their website to do other random stuff like writing bash scripts or making yo mama jokes.
The size of the title on that article is insane on a monitor.
Anyway.
Companies are quick to flaunt their privacy policies, but those amount to pages upon pages of legalese that leave even professionals stumped about what exactly car companies collect and where that information might go.
Does anyone remember that report about the university researchers who studied one of these smart thermostats and concluded that you would have to sign more than a thousand legal disclaimers to properly consent to have it in your home?
Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine....
This is exactly what they should do. But they won't, because most of it is held in the City of London's offshore boltholes. Seizing anything from them would scare the shit out of every big-time capitalist and corrupt politician on the planet. Would be good for us though.
I was so keen to hear everyone else's that I forgot to put my own! In no particular order:
Mick Lynch (standing up to the system)
Yanis Varoufakis (for a new system and for insight into the current one)
Edward Snowden (for his principles and courage and lifting the lid)
Satish Kumar (for his wholism and his ability to inspire with hope and goodness)
Tyson Fury (in his almost mythical resurrection against Deontay Wilder and his retelling of the fight. Someone needs to use it as narration for animated film for children.
On a personal level he does seem like bit of an odious character. Even some of his behaviour in talks I've seen on youtube. I think in his case it's what he represents that makes him heroic.
Daughters and Fathers
This is a serious question, mostly addressed to the adult women among us but also to anyone else who has a stake in the matter....
Do you think the good in Humankind can prevail?
After announcing increased prices, Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year ( www.billboard.com )
When Bloomberg reported that Spotify would be upping the cost of its premium subscription from $9.99 to $10.99, and including 15 hours of audiobooks per month in the U.S., the change sounded like a win for songwriters and publishers. Higher subscription prices typically equate to a bump in U.S. mechanical royalties — but not...
What is the most downvoted post you've seen on Lemmy?
Pretty much the title. Here is my best find so far. Really funny thread....
Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership — users banned for deleting answers to prevent them being used to train ChatGPT ( www.tomshardware.com )
What is a privacy-friendly app or service that more people should know about?
What was made beautiful?
What did other people do in the past to make our world beautiful but which we do not notice now?...
How to opt out of the privacy nightmare that comes with new Hondas ( sherwood.news )
Russia threatens Britain with retaliation if involvement in Ukraine war deepens ( www.pbs.org )
Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine....
Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting to bring photo ID ( www.theguardian.com )
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14955332
Second Boeing whistleblower dies suddenly ( www.newsweek.com )
If everyone had access to healthcare the net benefit of treating the mental illness and other disabilities holding them back would easily cover the cost of the healthcare itself.
Who Are Todays Heroes?
Who are the heroes of our time? Who is driving us to a better future? And who is inspiring and guiding us?...
Automatic Playlist Generator: A Thing?
Is there such a thing as an automatic music playlist generator? Or even something that will play a similar track next?...
Getting People Onto a Good Messaging App
Folks, I have finally figured it out....