JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum We're screwed

Where is all this lost income for session players? All the ones I know, on the level of major label artists, are doing just fine. In fact they can barely keep up. So what money is being lost? If artists can't sell a plastic delivery device contrived by greedy corporations simply to resell back catalog music for the 10th time, where are they getting the money to hire all these session players? Studios, even the biggest, rarely survive on artist money at all. They make money on corporations then do artists as part of the reward. (Excluding a handful of uber elite studios with 70+ plus years of success) This money simply does NOT exist. So now A.I. offers under funded musicians a chance to ALSO make listenable music which in the past, only tons of money could have done. But that money isn't "lost" because it never existed. Ironically, this same argument was made by labels when kids were file sharing. They were either going to steal the plastic delivery devices (as they have since day one) or not buy it. Cassettes made it possible to make mix tapes in the 60s! It got more and more popular as recording devices became available. It was way cheaper to buy a blank cassette, put all the hits you were programmed to like in one place, recording off free radio or off copies of music owned by friends who pooled their collections. I didn't have a dime to buy music in college, but everyone had a buck to buy a blank tape and fill up with multiple albums or all the hits you wanted. And that is what everyone did. Pre Cassettes everyone bought 45s because who could afford albums except parents and rich friends? I used to get albums ONLY for Christmas and Birthdays so that meant 3-4 per year. I wore them out. Then they started giving away record club albums because they didn't pay writers or artists for those any royalties (sound familiar?) and the actual cost of making vinyl was a couple pennies or less. The covers cost way more than the albums. So if they could get those kids to actually buy the inflated 4-8 albums they "agreed" to buy (they did not enforce it, but we had an honest society back then who felt like they should follow through, my how those times are gone) and they got kids into music. By the 80s, they had built a giant number of music collectors, which they got to rebuy everything on cassette, then CDs. It was ALWAYS about selling a handful of carefully controlled artists on "charts" (which were ALWAYS fake) who were manageable by labels who sucked every penny from them, while keeping out any artist who would not play ball by their unfair practices. So they often got Fame seekers rather than "artists." And big labels and their media partners create the fame, so it works out nicely for them. Fame makes everyone with their hooks in money, and it feeds the narcissism of the artists they signed rather than giving them fair payouts.

The entire system was built with parasites. Everyone taking taking passive income from productive people. Session players got paid big because there was WAY less of them than you think and it is a good old boys and girls club where the best gigs go to the insiders always. You could never afford unless were were also an elite. They had advanced tech WAY before anyone else, just like they do now. The REAL A.I. these labels have are making the music on radio. It is terrible, but the cost is nothing. This is why Taylor Swift is the perfect drone for them. Sure, she made 2 billion, but can you imagine what her handlers are actually making? And they could (if they had need or reason) take her all the way down overnight. This is what stuff like "Diddy Parties" are for. Sure, I doubt Taylor has been to one, but they have something on her, even if it is just enough to place doubt or revulsion in her fans. In fact, I wonder if this exposure for lip synching isn't a shot across her bough to keep her from getting any "ideas." It has planted seeds that they likely could "grow" into something if needed. No one gets out unscathed by the corrupt Elites running things. You do not get access without giving them something to control you with. So push the Vax, push the bad political candidates, get a bunch of brain dead children and their brain dead parents to take out multi year LOANS just to buy tickets (a REAL thing that is happening!) and sure, you can take 2 billion of the 100 billion in commerce and control she generates.

No "session" players are losing money. The little studios were screwed once the internet, home CD's, and more advanced gear made it easy to make better sounding music than they could provide. Now any kid with a phone or laptop can make radio ready music FREE. DAWS, Plug-ins, etc. are literally free that could sonically surpass anything made 10 years or earlier before. This is PRE A.I. A.I. is just all that free stuff, packaged up so that these mystery companies (no one really knows who is behind them) can sell $10 dollar memberships to use instead encouraging them to just use the free stuff. We are in the convenience business and people will always take convenience over free. This is why labels are often stupid because they make things inconvenient every step of the way. But those days are ending. This scam we call "the music industry" is concluding rapidly. Experts and Controllers have never had less influence. Outside of Taylor Swift, can you really connect to the 20-30-40 or more artists you once could on any given chart cycle? No. No one can. I ask young kids ALL THE TIME who their favorite artists are, outside of Taylor, they are almost 100% older artists, most of which no longer release music or even tour. They scam is over. We do not buy ANY version of this music, let alone 3-4-5 copies over changing formats. Everything is rental now. To ensure this, they have ceased most production of players and I don't believe any new Cassettes are being made, nor can you often find blank CD and DVD media or players/recorders. This has been the Elites ultimate wet dream, rent your life, month to month. Value NOTHING. Because if you don't own something, you don't value it. Ask anyone who owns a rental property.

So your argument that A.I. is hurting poor session players simply isn't reality. They were dead before the first A.I. option was available. Only insider elites still make a living doing it and that is only if they do what it takes to get inside. (Obscene talent, and/or willingness to play ball, no matter what). The divide between the haves and have nots is wider than ever and headed into a sad place where most of humanity has been throughout history. We have gotten to live in a brief window of time of abundance and mostly happiness. So few appreciate it.