Jester of No Court
@jesterofnocourt.bsky.social
Terror Folk from Jersey City
https://linktr.ee/jesterofnocourt
https://linktr.ee/jesterofnocourt
The way that musicians generally make the most money is by selling merch. There is basically nothing in the music industry related to music that supports artists.
7. Most importantly, why is there so much focus on what's *not* working for artists to make a living (Spotify, AI, torrents, etc) instead of focusing on building / promoting systems that actually support artists?
December 24, 2025 at 1:21 PM
The way that musicians generally make the most money is by selling merch. There is basically nothing in the music industry related to music that supports artists.
I mean, if I were to take my music down from every website where the owner did something shitty with the money I made them, I wouldn't have my music anywhere online
6. Spotify's tech CEO invested €600,000,000 in an AI weapons company with money that artists made him.
Knowing this, why do you chose to continue to support evil tech bros who are investing in both the plagarism machine AND the warcrime machine?
Knowing this, why do you chose to continue to support evil tech bros who are investing in both the plagarism machine AND the warcrime machine?
December 24, 2025 at 1:19 PM
I mean, if I were to take my music down from every website where the owner did something shitty with the money I made them, I wouldn't have my music anywhere online
Given the content of my songs, I HOPE they train AI with it. I would LOVE to see them generate AI music with lyrics about killing cops.
5. Speaking of copyright, by putting your music on Spotify you agree to let them train AI with it. Spotify is licensing that tech to other companies so presumably any AI co can access it.
If you're against your work being used for AI, why are you agreeing to it by uploading to Spotify?
If you're against your work being used for AI, why are you agreeing to it by uploading to Spotify?
December 24, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Given the content of my songs, I HOPE they train AI with it. I would LOVE to see them generate AI music with lyrics about killing cops.
Well they're not very good at it because I have several songs that are popular songs with the lyrics changed to be balls to the wall anarchist anthems, and I have yet to see a takedown request. I have however had to cut down a live set from a YouTube vid because of the house music before my set.
Artists are also hurt by big companies spamming DCMA takedown requests for fair-use or similar-sounding works.
Why are you relying on a rent-seeking legal mechanism that's ineffective and holding humanity back?
Why are you relying on a rent-seeking legal mechanism that's ineffective and holding humanity back?
December 24, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Well they're not very good at it because I have several songs that are popular songs with the lyrics changed to be balls to the wall anarchist anthems, and I have yet to see a takedown request. I have however had to cut down a live set from a YouTube vid because of the house music before my set.
This isn't a question, but yes there is no law if you don't have a means to enforce it
4. Copyright is a horrible enforcement mechanism that *hurts* artists.
Think about the Anthropic book settlement: copyright is the legal mechanism artists used to get paid and the result was a measly $3,000 + Anthropic still gets to feed the books into the plagiarism machine.
Think about the Anthropic book settlement: copyright is the legal mechanism artists used to get paid and the result was a measly $3,000 + Anthropic still gets to feed the books into the plagiarism machine.
December 24, 2025 at 1:13 PM
This isn't a question, but yes there is no law if you don't have a means to enforce it
I was considering doing this, but when I said that people are more than welcome to pirate my music, someone replied that there is a way to do this directly from Bandcamp by pilfering the website's source code, so they can just do that and not have to wait for a seed.
2. Speaking of free advertising, studies have shown that people who torrent music / music / games are then *more likely to pay for them*.
If artists make more money when their works are on torrents and your goal is to make a living from your art... why don't you put it on torrents yourself?
If artists make more money when their works are on torrents and your goal is to make a living from your art... why don't you put it on torrents yourself?
December 24, 2025 at 1:12 PM
I was considering doing this, but when I said that people are more than welcome to pirate my music, someone replied that there is a way to do this directly from Bandcamp by pilfering the website's source code, so they can just do that and not have to wait for a seed.
I don't check my Distrokid very regularly, but pretty much every time I do, I have like $40-$120 in my bank, overwhelmingly collected from Spotify (like ~90%). They pay like .3-.5 cents per stream iirc.
1. How much are Indie artists really paid by Spotify?
From what I can see yall earn a fraction of a penny for every 1,000 plays?
Every Indie artist I know make $0 on spotify- it's just advertising for their Bandcamp or somewhere else people can buy the album instead of stream it.
From what I can see yall earn a fraction of a penny for every 1,000 plays?
Every Indie artist I know make $0 on spotify- it's just advertising for their Bandcamp or somewhere else people can buy the album instead of stream it.
December 24, 2025 at 1:10 PM
I don't check my Distrokid very regularly, but pretty much every time I do, I have like $40-$120 in my bank, overwhelmingly collected from Spotify (like ~90%). They pay like .3-.5 cents per stream iirc.
Genres describe the idioms of a music scene, not specific elements of what music sounds like. This is why I have always been opposed to Spotify's AI genre labeller. It tries to boil music down to particular sounds rather than the subcultures they attach themselves to which is where genres come from
December 5, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Genres describe the idioms of a music scene, not specific elements of what music sounds like. This is why I have always been opposed to Spotify's AI genre labeller. It tries to boil music down to particular sounds rather than the subcultures they attach themselves to which is where genres come from
It was in that moment that I understood that when people complain about authenticity with respect to a genre, what they're really saying is that it doesn't conform to their stereotypes of that genre. No one makes music to fit in; they make it to stand out
December 5, 2025 at 1:34 AM
It was in that moment that I understood that when people complain about authenticity with respect to a genre, what they're really saying is that it doesn't conform to their stereotypes of that genre. No one makes music to fit in; they make it to stand out