pascal.

chronically online. tracking what streaming platforms and algorithms are actually doing to music. no hype, just the data

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

hey i'm pascal. i track the actual mechanics of how tech is reshaping the music industry.

what you'll see here:

• spotify algorithm changes and what they do to what gets heard
• streaming fraud and how platforms are handling it (spoiler - badly)
• the AI voice clone lawsuits nobody is reading properly
• why songs are getting shorter and who's benefiting from that

if you're into music and want to know what's happening behind your streams, stick around

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

the $2 billion is impressive. and the fact that its primarily from songs and performances is the real story here. catalog ownership, master recordings, re-recording her albums to own her work outright. most artists never think about any of that until it's too late.
she understood the mechanics earlier than almost anyone. that's why the number looks like that

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

1.2 billion streams on spotify pays out somewhere between $3.5m and $5m depending on the deal structure. split that between the label, publisher, and artist. and remember taylor swift is one of the few with enough leverage to keep a meaningful share. most artists at a billion streams aren't seeing what that number implies

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@InternetH0F youtube raises premium prices and keeps the royalty structure exactly the same. more revenue per subscriber. same per-stream rates for artists. no mention of what happens to royalty rates tho

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

this isn't hasbro replacing voice actors with AI. peter cullen and frank welker are the source material, the AI is built on their voices, with them involved. that's completely different from the unauthorized cloning lawsuits nobody's reading properly. they're trying to build the licensed version before the unlicensed one takes over

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

Suno doubled their valuation in six months. UMG and Sony are still suing them.

i keep thinking about what that actually means. like two of the biggest labels in the world are actively in court with you, and investors just wrote a $400M check anyway

warner didn't just settle, they became a partner. and the other two will probably get there too, just slower and louder about it.

the lawsuit isn't really about whether what Suno did was wrong anymore. it's about who gets a seat at the table when the dust settles

if you work in music. does this feel like a win, a loss, or just inevitable?

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@Kurrco 18 projects past a billion streams. whatever you think of Drake, the catalog numbers are just on a different level

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@PopStats07 two michael jackson songs in the global top 10 at the same time. billie jean has been charting for 432 days. the biopic probably pushed it but a song doesn't hold #2 globally for that long just because of a film release. very few artists still do this decades later

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@spotify_data Dominic Fike's Babydoll at #8 after 336 days. a song that just keeps finding new listeners. that's playlist placement working exactly as intended

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@Dexerto director of a film that went viral on YouTube at 13 gets picked up by A24 and still wants no part of AI. hard to argue with that position from where he's standing

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@lmkifiwin the strike was about control and compensation, not a ban. Scorsese using it on his own terms actually proves that point. artists with leverage get to decide how the tools apply to them. everyone else doesn't 

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@StarPlatinum_ not just you. the text-first identity is what made this place worth being on. chasing video metrics on a writing platform is like spotify deciding to compete with youtube. you don't win, you just lose what made you different

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

the outrage is always at the artist. never at the label that negotiated the deal.

[pizza mert 🍕 @pizza990]

Whenever a respected artist announces that they use or will use generative AI I feel like they've been possessed or manipulated by Palpatine and led to the dark side

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@pizza990 the contract is where the dark side actually lives. not the tool. who owns the output, who keeps the royalties

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

the music industry spent two years suing AI companies. now they're signing licensing deals with the same ones

funny how the ethics debate quieted down right when the revenue share got figured out

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@SamuelDeats hard to argue with this. the efficiency pitch falls apart when the underlying model wasn't built with consent. scorsese of all people should know whose shoulders he's standing on

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@DiscussingFilm the director who spent decades defending cinema as art just found the tool that finally lets him show people what's inside his head. funny how that works

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@CultureCrave every resident evil game is already set in japan. Just with an american accent on top

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@CultureCrave the man who called marvel movies "theme parks" just signed with a generative AI startup. turns out the boundary wasn't technology, it was who controls the story

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@PeterDiamandis wild when you think about it. we literally fed it the nightmare. maybe the more important question is what we write next

[pascal. @tech_finds_]

@hitsignal @BrunoMars 137 million monthly listeners doesn't happen passively. that's editorial playlists, autoplay, and algorithmic radio all moving in the same direction at the same time. the number is real but the platform is doing a lot of the work too