Kanye West and Tyler, The Creator are among those to co-sign James Blake’s stark warning about the state of the music industry.
Over the weekend, the British singer/producer penned a number of social media posts about the financial state of the music industry and the struggles facing artists.
Originally commenting on how he never made any money from TikTok from his viral cover of Frank Ocean‘s “Godspeed”, Blake said: “It’s worth noting this is just an example I used in a post talking about the wider effect of TikTok on music. Just seeing this part makes it seem navel gazing but I’m speaking on a thing that’s affecting artists all over the world.”
“Something I keep seeing is ‘if you’re lucky enough to go viral, just use the exposure to generate income some other way’,” he continued. “Musicians should be able to generate income via their music. Do you want good music or do you want what you paid for?”
He added: “If we want quality music somebody is gonna have to pay for it. Streaming services don’t pay properly, labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn’t pay properly, and touring is getting prohibitively expensive for most artists. The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free.”
After the posts went viral, James Blake — who in addition to being an established solo artist has worked with some of the biggest names in Hip Hop and R&B including Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Drake, JAY-Z and Travis Scott — expanded on his thoughts on Instagram.
“The chopped and screwed (sped up/slowed down) multiple versions thing isn’t great but the effect of TikToks/reels on the core songwriting and arranging of music, the attention deficit of listeners and of us, the musicians, the immediately available metrics for labels and musicians, the fact we have to be great at social media but not really be great at music, the ‘working’ of songs now meaning posting infinite videos with the same clip of the same song, the fact that then fans only know one one moment of one song and for the rest of the set (and even the parts of the same song that weren’t in the clip) just stand there not reacting because why would they? They don’t know it,” he wrote.
“I really love music. I will continue to use my social media but only to connect with you guys. Music is my life’s purpose and I will not have mine destroyed by a bunch of labels and tech companies who don’t even pay us and exploit us relentlessly. Remember when my cover of ‘Godspeed’ went viral? Neither me nor Frank ever made a cent cause it was an ‘original sound’ in every video.
“I don’t know how many millions of unique videos were made with that song but it was multiple. I mean most people didn’t even know it was me because my name didn’t show up and I wasn’t tagged. I don’t care about the money but next time your fave goes viral remember they aren’t making shit off that. They just got ‘given a platform’ and now have the ‘privilege’ of touring one clip of one song.”
“The industry is beyond fucked and musicians are getting fucked harder than anyone,” he concluded. “I’m extremely lucky I got in before streaming took over and before all these shady deals were made behind our backs.”
Blake received much support for his comments as it was shared by Kanye West and Tyler, The Creator on their respective Instagram Stories.
“@jamesblake talk ya shit,” Tyler wrote while adding some commentary.
Metro Boomin, who has worked with the Grammy-winner extensively in recent years, commented on his post: “They suggested for me to release the acapella, sped up, and slowed down versions of ‘Creepin’ and I was like nooooo way lol.”
The likes of Vic Mensa, Bas, The Alchemist, Blood Orange and BADBADNOTGOOD also praised Blake for speaking up.
Metro Boomin previously voiced his gripes with TikTok following the removal of Universal Music Group’s catalog from the platform.
“I love the creativity and appreciation the kids show for the music on TikTok but I don’t like the forced pandering from artists and labels that results in these lifeless and soulless records,” he wrote on X.
So 2 rich people co-signed a rich person, complaining about not being rich enough?
billionaires never lie just musicians who specialize in black genres. everyone of them is a liar and they were born rich. white billionaires deserve every cent they redirected to themselves from evil musicians who should just work themselves to death
are you retarded or something
Now that music is free? Everything they promote is garbage. In fact they bury good music because it’s a cartel and the media won’t let you know who’s good just who paid them off. Now that only two or three companies run everything this is what it is. you fucked yourself and slit your own throat. so enjoy that shit sandwich “rap fans”
the one thing you don’t want to be in 2024 is an online music industry exec with a well known cocaine habit. RIP
Homie speaking facts. Artists are being exploited as well as users by Big Tech. Wake up
everything being poisoned and artists talking about pay me more money in a criminal debt system
Spotify should be paying these guys a fraction of a penny, the music is trash.
Stop complaining, post your shit on Bandcamp (or on your own website) and your real fans will purchase from there.
More people need to be aware of this. Good share.
I’ve learned to separate people who make art for the sake of making art and people that feel entitled to the success and it’s associations because of their participation in an artistic industry. Nobody owes anybody anything. Nobody deserves anything. Ffs. If u wanna play the game, then ball out within the constraints of the rules or stfu.
shut the fuck up. when you say that to somebody face who have a million streams I’ll just watch them dump a bullet in you then dump the body
^^^ This loser is literally writing dumb shit and then liking his own posts. Pathetic dipshit
The writing was on the wall from the day they made rewritable CDs and then mp3s available. If any new tech or type of platform comes after streaming, album output in all genres will drop dramatically.
When Yasiin Bey said it, people looking at him like what the hell is he talking about. I guess now the message is relatable to y’all masses