With the quality of mainstream music at a pretty obvious all time low, underground artists are by-and-large forced to rub nickels together to eek out a living. At what point will the people in control of the music industry get real and start to produce people with some actual spirit. As one of my mentors Michael Tsarion talks about, when collectivism hits a fever pitch (like it has here in the states) then creativity goes down the tubes.
Luckily Spotify has made it possible to circumvent this system and easily find underground artists if you know what you're looking for, but why are we forced to pursue this kind of underground railroad to find good music? I mean clear channel and radio can't be entirely to blame right? I personally don't think the fact that they own 65% of all radio is actually the root of the problem, its merely a symptom as the true root runs much deeper. I think that the record companies and labels at some point in time during the sex and drug fueled 60's 70's 80's decided that risqué sells.
The music industry at one point or another started to sell a vastly unsustainable lifestyle. A lifestyle for perpetually partying children who are never forced to grow up. They created an industry that pandered to the idiot ramblings of megalomaniacal Mic Jagger types, who are no better than any of these psycho politicians. Humanity loves to bow down to celebrity and pseudo-royalty, for reasons that are clearly beyond my understanding. People seem to love selling what little soul they once had for 10 minutes in a spotlight somewhere. Squandering the opportunities to empower humanity on vain indulgences.
As someone who used to be a pothead, I understand how big of a waste of time these pursuits are in the lives of Americans young and old. I have seen hundreds of spiritual counseling clients who are potheads and many of them struggle with a form of spiritual apathy. Refusing to get mad enough about anything to change, instead of being able to go with the flow as they would like, they largely lose their sense of direction within that flow. These are just my personal opinions, but I just understand how young people are getting hoodwinked by the false enlightenment provided by modern day strains of weed which are ridiculously strong.
Honestly there are many in the nuevo underground scene who don't subscribe to this hedonist model, but they get no attention, love, respect etc. They are on an island and stuck without a viable way to monetize their passion.
Here is the really F'd up part, (pardon my french).... The freaking British now own half of the music dollars worldwide through Spotify's rising popularity.... Why can't Americans generate something more effective than this or purchase this company? frankly, I don't trust the British-owned US media distribution system. Nor do I think that the payment deal they have struck with the musicians is worth a damn... Artists get paid like .00001 cent per listen or something nutty like that. Whether we want to admit it or not, the British have historically manipulated America ever since losing the revolutionary war, by dragging us into foreign entanglements and the like. But all that aside, why wouldn't Americans want to be the biggest purveyors of music in the world? We have Itunes, but that model seems to be losing a bit of steam. The only thing we have trying to compete with major dollars behind it, is the illuminati run Tidal service... Because we should give our money to the disgusting Jay-Z, give me a break! I initially tried to support Grooveshark, but they just couldn't get a good programming team together...
Another major problem facing the music industry is that the only way musicians can make a buck in most cases is playing for intoxicated people. Why not restructure an industry where musicians can also play for sober people (that are not in a church) if they so desire... I'm not trying to be some puritan here, but I just think they model we have for entertainment has become totally escapist and degrading, instead of being harmonious and uplifting like was originally intended for music. Music should help us learn about ourselves and our higher dimension, not throw us into a sex and drug fueled frenzy... Thats my honest opinion and I would love to hear yours...
Until next time...
I will be trying to master the Dao of coffee....
Best,
Austin