Rich vs Poor

[frag]

Do you think rich people have substantial advantage in music business?

Option 1: you have a couple of million $$$ budget. You build a studio, get all the best hardware and software synths, monitors etc, you can pay sound engineers, song writers, singers, you make an expensive video and then invest in marketing, play it on MTV, Youtube, everywhere. So basically, even if your tracks are tasteless, unoriginal crap - you will build fan base and sell stuff.

Option 2: you work on an old laptop with headphones, but at least it runs Cubase SX and a couple of synths you really like. You've got a cheap, used MIDI keyboard. You studied music for more than 10 years, on academic level, you can play Bach and other composers, and you write excellent, original music. You upload sound on Youtube with a simple cover image, maybe Bandcamp, but there aren't many clicks or sales because you don't have money for marketing.

So which option is better? Write trash music and make money, or write great music and remain anonymous?
For the purpose of the argument, option to be great musician and have access to big funds is excluded.

[liqih]

well, my flat opinion is that money or the lack of it doesn't make you music better or worst. And while there's evidence that most of commercial money making music is crap, there's no clear evidence that great music is related to lack of money or cheap equipment.
My 2c

[seangm]

del

[rod_zero]

Of course rich people have an advantage, to start they don't have to worry about earning a living wage, they have more time for developing themselves as an artists, access to schools and tools.

Now when it comes to become famous the advantage is huge because they have more chances of networking in their school or social circles to people in the business. Or just spend the money on marketing.

[seafire]

Do you think rich people have substantial advantage in music business?

The easy answer is both yes and no. Yes because you can pay for any drivel to bedriven into the ear of everyone who listens to public broadcasts, and no, because talent always shines thru


Usually tho, money talks, which is why we are saturated with talentless drivel that is sucked up by brain dead teenagers who can't wipe their own arses without help.

The 21st century is the graveyard of humanity

[osiris]

I guess it helps. It always makes me cringe when they talk about Nepo babies. You can't tell me in any universe Whitney Houston got her foot in the door because she was related to Cissy Houston. A talent like that will always shine, no matter who you are.

[JerGoertz]

Money is power. The more power you have, the more opportunities you'll get to be successful.

The original question "Rich vs. Poor" is therefore almost vacuous. The real question would be "Rich vs. Talented", and as always, "it depends", as both confer advantages and which wins out relies on the particulars.

The takeaway is: Use what advantages you have, and spend your time working instead of wasting time on KVR

[foosnark]

Do you think rich people have substantial advantage in music business?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say yes

You studied music for more than 10 years, on academic level

How did this hypothetical poor person afford 10 years of music education?

So which option is better? Write trash music and make money, or write great music and remain anonymous?

If you're already rich you (A) don't need to make money (not that this stops most of them) and (B) can find far easier and better ways to make money than as a performer in the music business... such as being one of the exploiters in the music business.

Ask yourself which you actually care about, music or money. That's what this all comes down to, doesn't it?

Personally... I don't care about the music "business." I have an unrelated day job that pays well enough. Then I go home and make the music that I want to make, with none of the trappings(or traps) of capitalism. No compromising or catering to anyone else, no marketing, no competition, no contracts, no deadlines. Success, for me, is making music that I want to listen to myself.

[vurt]

rebecca black springs to mind.
rich daddy, buying clicks, propels girl in to limelight...

wonder if she was happy with the results? the financial gain aside, was being pilloried by the planet worth it? for her, not her dad.

[cryophonik]

It’s a moot question since the music business is full of highly successful musicians who started with next to nothing and just chased their dream to the top. Moreover, I don’t think the labels are sitting around thinking, “hmmmmm he/she is very talented, has a great look, and could sell millions, but comes from poor household - naw, let’s pass and find some rich kid instead.”

[Bunny_boy]

Media is full of articles nowadays about the difficulty / near impossibly for the working class to get a foothold in the arts door nowadays. The venues, labels, support are just not there. Whereas the rich have the money, connections, and accents to get where they want to be.

[Bunny_boy]

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... tists-warn

https://www.equity.org.uk/news/2024/wor ... n-a-decade

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/what-d ... n-the-arts

[vurt]

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... tists-warn

https://www.equity.org.uk/news/2024/wor ... n-a-decade

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/what-d ... n-the-arts

obviously, this is why im going nowhere fast!

[markello]

If you’ve got the money to follow your dreams, then you’ve got the money. If you haven’t, then you’ve perhaps got a full time job in something else.

Sucks.

[dbennettashland]

When Miles Davis dropped out of Juilliard, which his father was funding, he thought his father would be upset. Instead the father said something like "Whatever you do, do it well," and promised to continue supporting him until he got on his own feet.

Use what you've got to get where you're going.