Welcome to a new month and a new season. As of today, it’s December and instead of talking about Thanksgiving the conversation has shifted very quickly to Christmas.
Unfortunately, I wish I could be reporting on change in the music industry, but some very recent examples show that things look the same, unfortunately, and there’s still work to be done as a result.
As I walk you through these examples, if you find yourself on one side or the other, feel free to drop me an email or (via the links/logos at the very bottom of this page) comment on social media with your experience to add to this conversation.
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The sad fact is that for every Ted Andre coming on Episode 600 of my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast talking about a revolutionary new social music app that has launched (Coda Music) there’s a Marla Cannon-Goodman (Episode 615) saying (about Spotify) that songwriters, “go out and do shows now because we need – we love to, but also – it's a necessity because streaming has invaded our space so much and songwriters are not getting paid.”
And this is nothing new. Just released last Wednesday, her interview also contained her saying, “We’re making a fraction of a penny when our songs are getting played. So, if you're streaming it and it gets to a million streams, the songwriter may make four thousand dollars. Maybe.” And yet it was close to eight years ago that Blake Morgan was on my show and he was talking way back then about a closed-door artists-only meeting he was in at Spotify.
This, as I pointed out during the Marla Cannon-Goodman interview, is why songwriters are having to get creative, not only by going out to perform live more, but with things like merchandise. A few weeks ago, when I was at the 41st Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival, NHTE 603 guest Gretchen Peters stood on stage and talked about making coffee mugs and t-shirts based on a popular lyric from a song she wrote.
Don’t get me started on live performances, though, and what I’ve been hearing that way of late. Man.
As excited as I was to hear from one performer who said that they make anywhere from 250-400 dollars in tips for one night at a standing gig they have is as disappointed as I was to see another saying that, “I’ve played multiple shows in the last two years where not a single person tipped anything.”
And then the actual bookings themselves? Ugh.
On one side of the equation is the artist who shared with me about a standing (good paying) booking they have at a venue where an A-lister or two or three have come through, one of whom approached to give a compliment. Yet on the opposite side is a different performer who told me about a venue that canceled their gig, wanting a cheaper option even after they’re already agreed to an initial price.
It’s so discouraging that these kinds of occurrences are still a thing in 2025.
Keep going? Sadly, I can.
Speaking of it being 2025, there is more and more concern being expressed these days about AI. For Episode 608 of my podcast, I sat down with recording artist Austin Sexton out in the Los Angeles area, where he told me he envisions music supervisors turning to ChatGPT or other similar services when needing a song for a scene in a movie, rather than continuing the sync opportunities that so many artists and songwriters have coveted and pursued for years now.
Then, four weeks later, producer Fred Mollin called in from Nashville, and he too is worried. “AI is changing so rapidly and growing so rapidly that literally what was AI last week is not AI this week,” he said. “And what's happened, of course, is a great concern. There's now apparently over a million tracks on Spotify that are completely robot AI-generated music that has nothing to do with any human creativity.”
To back up that last statement of his, consider that The Guardian just reported that, “Three songs generated by artificial intelligence topped music charts this week, reaching the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts.”
Not to pour salt on the wounds, but in the first part of last week, edm.com published a story under the headline, “Suno’s AI Music Uploads Surpass Spotify’s Entire Catalog Every Two Weeks: Report.” I know, I know – insert heavy sigh here.
There’s work to be done, folks. It’s why I’m grateful for the advocacy efforts that the Recording Academy undertakes as well as initiatives by NAMM and many more. Don’t give up the fight. Keep creating. Keep performing.
Now a Member of the Recording Academy, I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more for over twenty years. What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to? Connect with me so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.