When I think about how much power the fans of artists used to have back in the day, it was almost irrelevant as the only thing they actually controlled was sales. But ever since we have entered the internet age, fans wield much more power in shaping the career of their favorite artists.

The first thing that comes to mind is the ability of fans to procure unreleased music from their favorite artists and to leak/sell it. This can have disastrous effects on album/single rollouts. This can also greatly deter artists from wanting to make music with specific people (who may sell their music behind the scenes) or even make music in general.

The next big thing is the ability to have a constant eye on these people, so much so its to the point that it is almost impossible to hide which artists are working with other artists or other people in the scene. This can spoil big unannounced collaborations and create hype that often greatly exceeds what the actual reaction is to the finished product. This makes some artists shelter up and basically seclude themselves from society so that they can work/live with some anonymity.

Social Media has had so many ramifications how people interact with music. So many people dont even listen to projects or already have opinions going into projects and spew those opinions on online, which creates these narratives that arnt even realistic at all. This can also be used to completely warp these artists careers when there is also industry interference with artists who wont play the game and do interviews/press runs/promoting for these large music corporations.

These are just a few of the relatively new things that have been happening now and while all have inherent benefits, I'd say they are more detriments than anything else. Fans are basically getting a seat at the table in the creative process and I'm not sure thats actually a good thing.

leaking was a thing since the 90s no?

S*** has been leaked since Nas’s 3rd album.

The only thing I don't like is how stans can manipulate the charts fairly easily.

Should have clarified all these thing still happened before, but now it is so much easier and more accessible that it happens and a much greater scale.

Album leaks and all that has been happening forever but since it was always stored on physical mediums (like tapes and CDs) it was much harder to get the leaks or make them accessible. So fans usually didnt even know about the leaks unless the mainstream news sources would cover it. Now its impossible to avoid at least knowing of leaks from your favorite artists (even if you dont listen). Its been ramped up x100. And its easier than ever to get it.

The normalization of being a stan is also another huge part of the equation. So many mediocre projects getting album sales in the hundreds of thousands before the fans have even had a chance to listen to the music and form an opinion solely because they want to support the person and not the art. Has ruined the value of album sales being a meaningful statistic

yep, factory employees used to smuggle whole album CD pressings early and supply them to scene groups.

they would leak weeks to months early before street date, but this is before the internet got really mainstream and accessible so you had to know how to get access to different IRC chats and what not, or buy burnt CDs off someone lol

newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business

i have some of these old rips still and im honestly impressed for how good they sound, even from that era

This is true. It also leads to albums having a ton of initial hype but a year later no one really mentions it. Like when ANTI came out, it was initially deemed as a flop. But over time, it's proven to be highly successful and to most fans, it's her best album. I think at one point it was the most streamed album of all time.

But nowadays people aren't giving albums a chance to breathe. If the first week sales are low it's a full flop. Not even a chance to raise it in the next few weeks or over time. Artists don't have full eras anymore.

Carti fans hyping the absolute f*** out of his baby voice only to ditch him when he officially drops a baby voice song is the funniest moment in hip hop history

Yep

Artists aren't making music they want to make anymore

More chasing hits than projects

Those stans are also feeding people’s kids tho so I have 0 problem with them

Who's doing this?

everyone besides a select few

lol i feel like thats more the artist capitilzing on the music environment today rather than fans. No need to churn out a cohesive album with interesting themes, lyrics and discussion when you can just make a 25 track album full of 808s and hi hats while rapping about the same thing on every song

I made another thread about this too but the speed at which music is releasing and the amount of active artists has also been a huge factor in why albums don’t even get a chance to breathe. It’s like for many projects, the lead up is the era and the release of the project is basically the end, where it used to extend for months after with tours and music videos etc.

First week sales are interesting because at least to me, they are only really good at gauging what the interest is in a certain artist, not on the work specifically. All the weeks of sales after are better reflections on how people actually feel about the work and the interest level for it. The two get flip flopped a lil bit and there is such a heavy emphasis on fw sales when if anything, it only holds value for one very specific metric.

That also ties in with the social media aspect of how people are so quick to call things a flop and completely control a narrative (much like you said with ANTI) that it’s hard to ever rewrite that history after the damage has been done.

Nah

Idk not true for everyone, how many artists put that money back into their own career or jewelry, etc. and are deadbeat parents / partners.

Also is the album sale really the best way to put money into these artists pockets? If anything the best way to get them money is through straight donations if you are trying to just support them as a person.

Labels get such a large cut most of the time in album sales/merch/touring that it’s not a very efficient use of your money if you are just trying to support the person and not the music.

I feel like stannery at least on KTT has some sense of irony to it. Like you have these drake kanye threads but no one really cares like that its just both sides trolling each other lol. Like I'm a drake fan too dont get me wrong but when you enter twitter and you see fanbases grouping together attacking each other, "X sold more than Y we're better!", group buying singles and other weird s***.

Its probably mostly kids too and at some point that amount of idolization becomes extremely unhealthy and is gonna lead to some weird ass adults in the future

I was speaking specifically about real stans, not the ironic ones or even just big fans. It’s literally normal to be an obsessive idolizer now, which is bad for so many different reason but absolutely is aiding in the destruction of the musical process and conversation

POSITIONS isnt just an album, its a cultural reset, its the oxygen you breathe, it’s a lifestyle, a reason to breathe, an escape from this cruel world, its art, the first gift you open on christmas, a hug from a loved one, everything you’ve ever wanted.