There is literally a ton of music you've never heard before, and these days, it's getting much harder to find... From when our first tune was uploaded in 2018 until now (as we have over 45 songs in our catalogue) we've only had around 5,000 collective streams total on our music on Spotify. It's almost bewildering how this could be possible with all the live performances, street and online promotion, and other activity we have been generating to raise awareness of our music work... It's not encouraging when we talk to other independent musicians like us that report they are gaining little to no traction or growth for their streams on sites like Spotify despite years of work and even paying money to Spotify to promote their music... On Spotify.
It's a huge conflict of interests that artists are encouraged to run ads on a platform in order to generate listens on the very same platform, but somehow in 2023, we've reached a point where that is considered reasonable, and many artists dump a lot of money into the process, while actually getting paid far less than they spend back as payment for their work being streamed.
It's a huge conflict of interests that artists are encouraged to run ads on a platform that is meant to provide them with revenue because there is no incentive then for the platform to allow anyone to stream, and as a response to the lack of exposure, artists would be forced to pay the platform for "advertising" or to languish unheard.
The Internet was originally created as a place to discover new and exciting things, Social Media in most cases also started as free services. The process in which they are being converted into pay-for-play services is confusing to most, and subtly deceptive among those who know exactly what is occurring. It also sets a troublesome precedent to how all businesses may operate in the future, because vital services may be run as free, but secretly ineffective until hidden costs are levied/charged on users, and those costs also may discriminate secretly based on who each user is with no way of being fairly accounted for... More often than not, we've been seeing paywalls and log-in screens placed in front of most places where we would discover most new art and artists... On the back end of that artists are seeing the same, as greed drives schemes to control what people can do and see on the Internet.
As we grew to use social media s the primary channel of the Internet (over independent web sites) they originally started as free and diverse services, allowing everyone (both artists, independents, and corporations) to operate on the same playing field. As these platforms gained a firm grip on the Internet, they slowly began to cut access to independent art and music in favor of supporting corporate interests that make them more money. For this site, we avoid that type of influence, and that's why we don't show ads on every page.
Right now there are musicians deploying their music to major music related platforms, but most are not being seen or heard at all, because it has become popular for platforms to charge artists (even when they aren't generating any profit) just to be visible. Technically this practice is a form of extortion that violates what they represent to people as they sign up, but unfortunately governments have not stepped in to protect the art of music. As independent artists, who as said before don't make profit off their music, are forced to compete with larger music companies (that do make profit), the modern social media environment creates frustratingly tragic places online where independent music cannot be discovered by anyone, while money is still taken from artists by already well profitable social platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, Facebook, and even TikTok.
The process of charging creators for visibility on their work (often referred to as running ads) by platforms is relatively new.Prior to this practice, a lot of music discovery was promoted without charge by radio stations, television, and even Internet sites. There are actually laws (In the US and other places) against paying for exposure on broadcast media, because that creates an unfair environment where only the rich get played, but more often than not now, it's a widely ignored rule of law. Many of us are unenthused about music regularly because of how much control is placed upon what we hear from the supermarket to on our favorite TV show.
It's more important now for those of us who really revere and support good music to branch out and find music and artists that are hidden deep on the Internet, and to share our rare and under-supported finds with friends and family in order to keep the freedom of choice online alive. Spotify reports that they see thousands of songs added to their library every day, hopefully we won't need to scroll through every one, but I'm usually far more interested in the songs that don't get promoted by them than the ones tha tmake it to their front page playlists, because a lot more depth and creativity can be found in music that has lower views now, due to financial control of artist visibility.
Here are a few music related things that you probably haven't heard before, they go a long way towards ensuring that the music sees the light of day. If you like anything here, you can check out RuffAndTuffRecordings.Com for more, much of the music you find there can be streamed online for free on sites like YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify, you just need to search for it by title. Thanks for digging deep.
SoopaDaark - Crenshaw
SoopaDaark - Nowhere
Soopadaark - The Vapors
Soopadaark - King Cobra
A Curated Music Video Collection By Various Artists (Bass Music, Rock, Hip-Hop, R&B, and more):
http://www.ruffandtuffrecordings.com/SELECTIONS
NEW Ruff And Tuff Recordings Music RELEASED on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6vivJ ... um=desktop