A new thing ?

Imagine an artist learns about a new virtual world with the promise of better monetization of art. Better of course simply with the implicit meaning of more money for art sales. Imagine a new platform or rather multiple new platforms which allow artists to upload and present and offer for sale their work. Mostly 'free'. Or maybe also "their" AI generated work, too. And then there is some new technology, not used by the large existing platforms which dominate art consumption today. With the possibility to be independend of large platforms. Imagine there are even, for some select artists, free promotions. And sales occur or at least seem to occur, the difference is maybe hard to tell, with high amounts or relatively high numbers. So imagine it works, the new virtual world of art. Be it for images, music or whatever can be digital media. But then there is always this one small question: who are the buyers? The (new) buyers which don't exist elsewhere apparently. Is it mainly speculation with and about a new form of technology? A new digital medium? Digital scarcity? Something else? There could be also another question: is it real? Or is it a virtual world entirely?

Probably this isn't new. Given well known issues with many numbers like streams, followers etc. no single artist or consumer can really know for sure which numbers are real or are rather, well, let's say marketing. Regardless of the platform, regardless if "old" technology or "new" technology or mediums. And promotion seems always the main thing which makes the difference of success. There is obviously a whole industry for promotion and marketing. But advertizing, especially at large scale, is very expensive. That is obvious. Influencers create and sell ads. Sell advertizing to their followers. And then again who can know who these followers are? And also if they really exist? Difficult questions even if one assumes most numbers to be correct and real. E.g. the simple task of comparing follower numbers with, "views", "likes" and replies or reposts (if the platform has such) can provide anyone with a glimpse of metrics which marketing people probabably use to measure their campaigns. "Click rates". "Listeners per views", "Sales per views", "Sales per click". "New followers per impressions/views". Or whatever is the goal or one wants to measure. So selling art often seems not very different from e.g. selling toothpaste? It's a business like any other. Is it? Maybe it is. But if so the means is of course also the same, payment for attention and afterwards look at the effect if any. I think books or articles exist about this stuff, this is only a very high level and maybe partially wrong description. I don't know. But if ads wouldn't work they wouldn't exist. Would they? But i think there is a limit, too. How many ads does one want to see or hear until one rather switches off? Virtually or real.

It's not a secret that music streaming is popular. And digital downloads also merch seem small compared to streaming revenues. But given that the majority of streaming revenues goes to a relatively small number of artists the absolute numbers might not be very relevant. It all depends. Obviously hits and mega hits exist, i don't know if the mechanics are known to anyone. Or it's a combination of marketing and randomness. Trends? Viral? What is cause? What effect? Often hard to tell maybe? Does this matter for most artists, though? Arguably and i think many define it this way a professional artist is one who can live from the art. And there is a lot of truth in it, at least if professional = "job" and professional = "make a living". Professional doesn't mean 'better' of course. Maybe it should be 'better' than what most non-professional results are, but that's hard to define. With art much much harder then with other, well, products.

I described intentionally abstract at the start, because i don't think the specifics of new technology or platforms do matter a lot. At least in hindsight. The fundamental structure of "the market" for music is likely always the same. For any genre, also any niche, small and not so small. Maybe also any region. Music or art is arguably not a fundamental need. Maybe it's a fundamental want, though. This might mean that the general willingness of listeners to spend money on it will be limited or at the same time interestingly, on occassions, has surprising high limits. Given potential high scale to 1000s or millions, maybe even billions of people it is no surprise that there will be high supply. There exist concerts in stadiums with 10s of thousands of attendees paying 100s for a ticket. But the reality is also, that artists and labels do all compete for "market share". It's simple math: One can only listen to so many songs in a day. Somewhat artificially limiting the number of songs, because e.g. radio stations only play the same "hits" for weeks or years is one thing which might be hard to explain or of course reflects what the majority of listeners want. But it seems an open question if listeners really want it, because there exists 1000s of radio stations. Often specializing in specific genres. In the same way as playlists do on streaming platforms. Maybe it's both and different for every person, too. Is "shout louder" a solution? Lol, i don't know. And solution for what.

Technology trends are of course real. It wouldn't seem smart to offer CDs today, but at the same time Vinyl editions are still sold. Even growing lately. So a tangible experience for music seems wanted by some. If this means physical is a good question, though. Because the Vinyl or CD itself is apart from potential coloring or prints obviously only a generic physical data storage. Of outdated size for the amount of data. Therefore either the feeling of collecting physical items or the feeling of ownership of those has some value for some people. Or the cover art or booklets which maybe are part of the physical medium. Both obviously can be achieved in a digital form, too. And then that niche exists. Digital will most of the time be much cheaper. Lower risks for artists, lower barriers. And also more competition because of it. A digital item can be rather easily global. Shipment alone of physical items is an issue and often a significant cost.

Well these are only some thoughts. With assumptions, not necessarily facts apart from some points in time and some regions.

The Metalabel platform is also a digital art platform. While i won't try to predict the future, such a platform seems to make sense for me. Streaming has it's established platforms, some alternatives are useful. And music plus "x" seems interesting. Music videos are old as an art form and i think still popular. If cover art matters a lot i don't know, though. But stories always matter, i think. And as already said, collecting 'stuff' for sure isn't a new thing. The things and forms might always change, though.