Too many people who aren’t music lifers trying to be in music. That’s the problem with music right now. People aren’t trying to be great, they’re trying to hit a lick. So civilians are just doing & recording anything and putting it out…flooding the market with trash.
Paul Graham on the importance of urgency:
"Cultivate a habit of impatience about the things you most want to do. Don't wait before climbing that mountain or writing that book or visiting your mother. You don't need to be constantly reminding yourself why you shouldn't wait. Just don't wait."
James Blake took to his Instagram story to call out the state of the music industry's metrics, one by one.
"Can't trust a review because blogs/mags stopped making money so journalists now get paid off by labels…can’t trust a comment section…YouTube numbers…streaming numbers…Can’t even trust a song that was made by human beings,” he wrote. Read his full note below.
@jamesblake concluded with a message to artists: "You're probably doing better than you think."
Extremely funny, but—and, mind you, I do it anyway—whenever you tell any musician of any stature, "Your music reminds me of _____," this will be the response you get 99% of the time
I'd rather pay money to hear an act who has actual unique musical tastes & knowledge rather than the act who cares more about branding & manufacturing "hype moments" for the 'gram while pushing out cookie cutter cocomelon corpobass bullshit & not even being competent at DJing.