Ok, the Internet has been around for a minute now, and thousands of songs are uploaded to Spotify everyday–yet, in general I find that many indie musicians are not able to or interested in uploading their music to digital platforms. What I mean is it’s something like this whirring in our minds: a giant cloud of space dust and sparkles known as CDBaby-Songtrust-Distrokid-Tunecore. Which one to use and why? Plus, there’s surprisingly few websites that clearly tell artists how much they make on each platform such as Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Without clear knowledge, many artists are NOT uploading their music to digital platforms. Just imagine how much music that would be, but that’s besides the point. The point is, why isn’t this easier?
For example, I just did my taxes, oh the humble brag! I used TurboTax and was really adulting. I was shocked at how easy it was. When I have been on CDBaby trying to upload music for artists, it’s much more mechanical. And I have yet to try the other sites for any real comparison. By the way, Bandcamp remains very easy to use and the profits go directly to artists with very little off the top, ahem ahem. It’s this digital beast that comically gives 0.0007 cents or whatever to artists per stream that is hard to latch on to. It’s like a whale full of barnacles.
However, I ask the Internet: why is this not easier? The Internet is full of people working endlessly, posting to social media and Reddit and watching cat videos, but where are my programmers out there? How can artists take back the night, as it were, and make things easier for artists, and a higher percentage?
Artists like Les Paul invented technology as well as great music, so it’s possible. I get the sense that today musicians are more likely to complain about the state of things than invent solutions. Let’s change that.