As a visual artist, this totally resonated with me. I spend a lot of time on social media marketing, and it’s very difficult to make an impact. (Find me @susanology if you are curious) There are a great many visual artists vying for attention. And perhaps less interest in having an original creation than there used to be — a lot of what is desired is the kind of thing Sears used to sell in their furniture department: splotches of colour that match a sofa. I do think there are artists doing well, but they spend enormous amounts of time on promotion, just as Dan described in this article.
You’d be amazed at how many ads are pushed at me selling me systems and courses that will help me make money as an artist! I think these folks are probably doing well, actually, but it’s a signpost for how many people are out there trying to make a buck from their art and struggling with it.
I loved the solutions Dan has come up with. The artists really need to find a way to take control of distribution — no idea how.
It’s sad to learn that there is now a lot of AI music. AI everywhere, except where we might really want it: managing the boring and tedious things.
I am now trying out Tidal, and listening to Dan’s new album, as a result of this article.
Thank you again for finding such interesting people to interview!
Same here - visual artist drawing loads of inspiration from this interview. I am a painter because I love handmade and haptic! As such, have often felt that if only I had been a faster adopter of tech and social media I might have found my scene and my audience. The ideas in here sound harder and more intimate and better than just posting to the ad-thick giants .
Thanks for this interview. I got some good insights from it. I will have to check out Side Door for sure. I had previously tried Tidal but I can't remember why I stopped using it. It's alarming to think of how AI could take over music and culture. Maybe it already has.
What a world: "I think there's close to 100,000 new songs on Spotify every day. How long before there's a million songs or 10 million new songs on Spotify every day? 99% of it just AI generated." I believe there is only one way out of such madness: Attend live performances; buy their CD on the way out. Renounce all enslavement to corporations' algorithms.(*)
Here in Ottawa thousands are currently flocking to Bluesfest. I've just come out of 13 days of the Music and Beyond festival, having attended 23 concerts, along with, every time, hundreds of others. Chamberfest is starting up today. There's no better way to consume music.
The Sidedoor model should be very applicable to classical music performances.
Loved this article for all kinds of reasons (fond of house concerts as a venue genre, great insights into the music business and the creative side of it, generally unfettered thinking). I was struck by the idea of a "No AI" checkbox for Spotify and similar streaming platforms. I would definitely check that right away (I download lots of stock photos for slide presentations on a subscription basis and always try to remember to check the "No AI" box so that human photographers will get recognition--if Dreamstime can do it, so can Spotify and Apple Music!).
Great information. I have a young musical artist in my life who is on Spotify and has been dropping a song every month. It is definitely tough slogging. The goal is to have enough songs and followers by the end of the year to convince a label to produce a record. It truly is a roller coaster ride for any artist in every creative field these days. With the onslaught of AI in the arts, the starving artist may become the dying artist. Mr. Mangan is definitely doing his part to help his community. I will send the this article to her.
Fantastic article!
As a visual artist, this totally resonated with me. I spend a lot of time on social media marketing, and it’s very difficult to make an impact. (Find me @susanology if you are curious) There are a great many visual artists vying for attention. And perhaps less interest in having an original creation than there used to be — a lot of what is desired is the kind of thing Sears used to sell in their furniture department: splotches of colour that match a sofa. I do think there are artists doing well, but they spend enormous amounts of time on promotion, just as Dan described in this article.
You’d be amazed at how many ads are pushed at me selling me systems and courses that will help me make money as an artist! I think these folks are probably doing well, actually, but it’s a signpost for how many people are out there trying to make a buck from their art and struggling with it.
I loved the solutions Dan has come up with. The artists really need to find a way to take control of distribution — no idea how.
It’s sad to learn that there is now a lot of AI music. AI everywhere, except where we might really want it: managing the boring and tedious things.
I am now trying out Tidal, and listening to Dan’s new album, as a result of this article.
Thank you again for finding such interesting people to interview!
Same here - visual artist drawing loads of inspiration from this interview. I am a painter because I love handmade and haptic! As such, have often felt that if only I had been a faster adopter of tech and social media I might have found my scene and my audience. The ideas in here sound harder and more intimate and better than just posting to the ad-thick giants .
Thanks for this interview. I got some good insights from it. I will have to check out Side Door for sure. I had previously tried Tidal but I can't remember why I stopped using it. It's alarming to think of how AI could take over music and culture. Maybe it already has.
What a world: "I think there's close to 100,000 new songs on Spotify every day. How long before there's a million songs or 10 million new songs on Spotify every day? 99% of it just AI generated." I believe there is only one way out of such madness: Attend live performances; buy their CD on the way out. Renounce all enslavement to corporations' algorithms.(*)
Here in Ottawa thousands are currently flocking to Bluesfest. I've just come out of 13 days of the Music and Beyond festival, having attended 23 concerts, along with, every time, hundreds of others. Chamberfest is starting up today. There's no better way to consume music.
The Sidedoor model should be very applicable to classical music performances.
(*) And, by the way, type <-ai> to start your Google search and avoid getting possibly erroneous information from AI.
For an example of the silliness AI comes up with, read "Meta’s AI climate tool raised false hope of CO₂ removal, scientists say" <https://archive.is/2025.07.03-060158/https://www.ft.com/content/69220fea-9c9a-4f55-9118-65d2660c85d4>.
I would go to Chamber fest. I love live Chamber music. Not a big fan of digitally recorded classical music
Loved this article for all kinds of reasons (fond of house concerts as a venue genre, great insights into the music business and the creative side of it, generally unfettered thinking). I was struck by the idea of a "No AI" checkbox for Spotify and similar streaming platforms. I would definitely check that right away (I download lots of stock photos for slide presentations on a subscription basis and always try to remember to check the "No AI" box so that human photographers will get recognition--if Dreamstime can do it, so can Spotify and Apple Music!).
Great information. I have a young musical artist in my life who is on Spotify and has been dropping a song every month. It is definitely tough slogging. The goal is to have enough songs and followers by the end of the year to convince a label to produce a record. It truly is a roller coaster ride for any artist in every creative field these days. With the onslaught of AI in the arts, the starving artist may become the dying artist. Mr. Mangan is definitely doing his part to help his community. I will send the this article to her.
Does Dan belong to the Musician's Union? If not, why not?
Another good one, Paul. Thanks.