IKR?? People act like it's so hard to buy a $10 (max $15) album these days... it's literally nothing... let alone a few $1.29 singles or whatever... sometimes not even that. People just don't seem to want to buy music anymore... and when the industry is relying on streams over actual sales... idk, I find that really really sad.
Like if that's the case, sell the music differently... you have the stream model for the casual listener... okay... cool... and then you have the album at base price for whoever, and then for the real fans, have different "levels" of packaging (I've seen this done before)... Maybe they want to spend $20 on the album, maybe they want to spend $50... so the $20 customer gets the album, and like a poster or something, or a T-shirt, a few bonus tracks or like a deluxe album for $30... some added stuff to make it worth their while... $50 customer gets all of that, and a nice hoodie or something... or a vinyl record... idk...
Maybe someone wants to JUST buy the music and pitch in an extra donated amount... determine their OWN price, beyond a set minimum... I would've purchased the Focus / No Angel double single for a higher price, had they even allowed me to do so... because (not even) $3 is what? Like seriously, what is $3? It's NOTHING... But they just cut you off at $1.29 per song... Music is worth way more than that to me, no matter the artist. Granted I'm obviously in the minority, but that's exactly it, for that reason alone, why limit its value? Streaming KINDA helps with this, but I've never been one to really use streaming services... so then what?
I mean, these days, you actually have people donating way more than the price of an album to (not even play) but to WATCH people play VIDEO GAMES for an hour or two, in their OWN HOMES, on streaming services like Twitch or whatever... there's literally nothing tangible for these people to consume there, and there are people out there that are making BIG bucks just sitting in their homes doing nothing. Like if that's a thing, ok fine, that's cool... but what about the music industry then? What about the real fans that want to support their favorite artists in a similar way?
Sorry but it honestly makes me so mad... the way these musical artists have to do so much, for so little, on like an individual resale basis alone. And they can't be everywhere at once either... touring and whatnot, you can't always just buy a ticket to see them live. Idk, the music industry just feels so behind on the times or something... and on top of that, it's so restrictive on the artists themselves. Kinda with what's been going on with Charli... these labels seem so out of touch with what fans want... with what Charli herself wants. Charli fans have wanted the experimental PC Music bangers... Charli herself wants to put out GNO and has wanted to for a long time and instead, they try and put out "safe" pop tracks a year and a half later, if they were even going to put out anything at all! I mean, it took them long enough... we knew some of these songs were around for a while... where was the hold up, ya know? I'm glad things are finally starting to happen for her again, don't get me wrong, but at the same time, she deserves better than this.
There ARE people out there that will pay MORE for their product... and MAYBE because of that, these labels could cut the BS of only putting out the material that they feel are the best tracks to promote or whatever, essentially taking creative control away from the artist on a certain level, and allow artists to be more creative and do their own thing. Because, that's the thing, they'd have more money to do so, because they'd still be doing the same streams, sales... but THEN some... and ultimately the fans would have more influence on the process. More money, more power...
These industry "big-wigs" really need to renegotiate their terms or whatever, I think... Get a much more effective, new model in place. One that benefits everyone... not just the label/their own pockets! The artists AND the fans. But to me, the artist comes first... they're the reason people spend money and their talent is the reason these labels sign them in the first place... so let them do their thing ya know? ...but also have the right business model in place too. That's one thing these labels CAN do... The whole "business impacting creativity/creative output" dynamic is definitely an issue.
Sorry for the long rant... again, not directed at anyone anywhere along the way lol.
