Noteable - Spotify's Songwriter 'hub'

Has anyone used or looked at Spotify’s songwriter / artist ‘community’ service ‘Noteable’ ? Thoughts about it?

https://musically.com/2021/02/10/spotify-launches-noteable-website-gathering-songwriter-resources/

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Just finding out about this now, and it looks pretty neat. After reading the article and hearing from the team behind it, it sounds a little generic to me, but we’ll see how things roll out.

I definitely want to do some more research on it, but thanks for the heads up!

Anything you think would be good to look into specifically?

I was wondering why anyone would be prepared to trust it? I’m not sure exactly where they are going with it:

“…comes with its own newsletter and social accounts, is being pitched as a place for writers and composers to “get the latest news — whether it’s updates on relevant products and services, new programs or video resources, or just chances to connect”

At least Resonate, as a service and as a community, is governed and owned by its members… and there is something powerful in that, I hope:

There is a nice article here by Keith Jopling on an alternative to mass market channels that gives us a mention:

There seems to be a growing role too for community-oriented or cooperative music sites such as Ampled, Resonate, and Currents FM that offer new types of distribution infrastructure via curation spaces not unlike Pinterest for musicians.

The thing that worries me most is putting even more of your intimate artist - fan connections into a beast like Spotify (or the beasts integrated behind it like Facebook and Google). Spotify Exec, Brian Benedik: 'We collect an ‘enormous amount of data on what people are listening to, where, and in what context

By contrast our Community Credentials features will give artists and writers and fans the ability to manage their own ‘connections’ data safely and privately in credentials you keep in your ‘wallet’.

Spotify and the others are accountable to their shareholder owners (who are looking for a lucrative exit) and they all compete for the acquisition of listeners and their data, advertiser spend and productive ‘content providers’ (=artists :frowning: )

Use them wisely, exploit their reach, by all means… but trust them with your friends and folks in your hood? Nah. Not for me.

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Well yeah, I mean if they’re using Spotify already and “trust” it, then the additional features could be a nice add, but like you said you’re also giving them a lot of info that nobody knows what they will do with it, so that’s risky from that point…if they care enough about it.

I definitely like the way that community credentials will be set up, and I saw that article on my Google feed too, so that was really cool to see people mentioning Resonate like that. Glad that people are taking notice, and I think people in general (like me) may be more interested in the features available right now, at least at the start, so if Resonate could eventually have that, AND provide an awesome and SECURE platform and network to host it with, that sounds like a win-win for everyone!

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I saw it was announced, but I didn’t bother to investigate further. A lot of their offshoots and incentives feel like a slot machine in a seaside arcade; you keep putting effort in, thinking that you’ll get at least some small payback eventually, even though you’re aware it’s rigged and you’ve no real way of knowing how it works. I did see the quote “the work of songwriters, producers, and publishers informs so much of what we do at Spotify” though. I’m guessing by informing what they do, they mean this?

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Personally, I suspect and anticipate that Spotify aims to become a record label of sorts. I new hybrid. It’s already half way there. I know that they have built a recording studio in NYC (its not that good…) and that Spotify-well certain Spotify artists can record there, with of course a catch. I think at some point, and this is just my personal hunch, they aim to record, control, own the artists’ material, in exchange for access to fans and good 'ol Oregon Trail “exposure”. Many artists are so blindly thirsty for the Cool Aid, they’ll take it because they can get people to their shows, get “famous”, and hopefully make some money, as opposed to none, since all they are left with now is being hopeful for ticket sales, march, and brand endorsements. This is just my personal suspicion and hunch, but I would actively urge artists to steer clear of further meshing and ingratiating themselves into Spotify’s clutches.

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Really interesting thoughts! Thanks for sharing! It’s like, not only has Spotify taken advantage of artists before, but now they are leveraging the covid crisis to take even more advantage of artists and people who are in some of the most dire times of their lives with not many shows and things to go around…I know I’m taking a biased approach to this after learning so much about the reality of things from the Resonate community (Thank you all :pray: :slightly_smiling_face:), but I mention this too because even when I see Spotify add a feature that seems really beneficial, like event promotion, new release notification for artists I follow, etc., it seems to be done half-way, and it’s normally only for the artists with millions of monthly listeners who don’t need it at all!

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That’s right, and it is for artists that dont need it at all. Forgive me if you already know this, (and maybe some one reading this won’t!) but Spotify royalties aren’t per play. They do a pie, and divvy them up amongst the top artists. The bigger you are the more % of stream royalties you get. Doesn’t make sense? Follow the money. It makes sense if you’re a major shareholder, and who are the major shareholders at Spotify? The major record labels, are a large part. I think at last estimate about 75%. So of course they’re feeding themselves in a loop. Theres a lot of Wall St. shit going on here, and people just refuse to open their eyes. I have been following what Spotify were up to in financial and tech sectors when they were still an IPO since back in 2010 when I was still working for Apple. People want to stammer, “But but but what about exposure…” Its starting to look like the Oregon Trail out here kiddos. Spread the word. Spotify are bad for artists globally because of what they are up to in terms of American Legislation which WILL impact artists globally.
Dont even get me started on the MLC.

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Yea, when I first learned like a year ago how Spotify pays with that fixed pie division garbage, I was amazed that people would actually buy into that. It made more sense after realizing that almost all “modern” music is owned by 3 labels (who now make $2.5 mil per hour!), but it’s tough to see younger/independent artists still relying on the platform. It’s completely understandable though because Spotify still has so much power and accessibility that you almost need to be there (to some extent) until there is a better alternative. That’s why I can’t wait for Resonate to be in a position where anyone can effortlessly join and we can all just share Resonate like crazy and show so many new people a new way to stream music that is so much more equitable and sustainable!

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Well Said