Radio Silence

When is enough Enough? (Part 1)

How we consume media has changed dramatically over the last ten years. Television and music have become backdrops to our lifestyles; or depictions of our preferred lifestyle. Instead of a song or album occupying a significant amount of our day and focus, media has become expressions of our avatars and not a stand alone experience. Streaming has conditioned our attention spans to consume larger amounts of content in shorter span of time.

Television and music have become backdrops to (or depictions) of our preferred lifestyles.

The quality of art and media has been diluted because of the sheer volume of media. Spotify releases 60K songs per day! It is exhausting searching for new music; it is like trying to draw water from the ocean with a coffee mug.

The oversaturation of content has completely destroyed the idea of the Celebrity.  With the Hollywood Celebrity model, media was more centralized broadcasting from a few studios with the power of national distribution. The internet has decentralized where media comes from and has built a creator-economy that has inspired artists to strive to be Influencers in their field. Decentralizing the distribution channels means more content, more content creators and niche audiences. The adverse affect is that it encourages artists to release all of their material whether good or bad.

With the Hollywood model, there was time and space for quality control. Labels and production houses had artist development departments to ensure the Artists and content were quality. Founded by Berry Gordy and his assembly line, artist development became a key component to the music industry in the 60's with the successes of Smokey Robinson and the Supremes, the Temptations and Michael Jackson.

They spent a considerable amount of time building a brand before releasing their content. Today, artists release music in a blinding fury to keep up with demand of streaming; labels find acts who have built their own fan base, instead of spending budget money on unproven talent. Streaming has challenged the existing distribution channels to be more direct to consumer and to produce more quantity to keep up with an increasing demand.

BOTTOMLINE: Technology has changed music and culture forever: we are hungrier for more content within a smaller time frame which has exaggerated media production. Artists like Future and Youngboy Never Broke Again have made significant impacts with their music from the sheer quantity - does this affect the quality. When is it going to be too much content and not enough quality? Does spam releasing make an artist too exposed or is it successful?