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KW NORTON's avatar

Music streaming has enhanced the success of local music. Nashville now has more regional artists (Tyler Childers - Kentucky, Colter Wall - Canada, and Whiskey Myers - West Texas, Billy Strings - Michigan and Nashville) for instance. Just a small list. I could write many posts on this subject.

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Chris Dalla Riva's avatar

I think a lot of people thinks the internet flattens the world but this is a great example of how it’s given more people a chance

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KW NORTON's avatar

Yes. I certainly hope we can help magnify this trend through interdependence. I really don't wish to go back to the proverbial stone age if it isn't necessary. Our technology does not have to be our downfall - if we can use it for good. Just that our track record currently isn't so great. But I love examples like this of hope for the future.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Interestingly (or not), this actually happened to me. An artist found my newsletter, and shared their latest LP. It's fantastic. We figured out that we lived not only in the same metro area, but the same small suburb. A little while later, we figured out that we literally live on the same street. I have since bought & shared his music via Bandcamp (his main outlet for sales/distribution).

There's a good dose of serendipity in this story, but it's also highly likely that none of that would've happened with out the internet and/or streaming.

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Chris Dalla Riva's avatar

I was sorta being hyperbolic with my title but this is truly your neighbor lol

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Shaggy Snodgrass's avatar

I think citing nation-specific European artists might be a tad misleading; given that many of those nations have national broadcasters with a specific mandate to put "native champions" in the country's music business forward (if not specific regulations, like Canada's "CanCon").

Local musicians in places like the US are extremely disadvantaged by conditions in the streaming/online space, as well as terrestrial radio; because the Nostalgia Industrial Complex has eaten most of the available space with "legacy music" that they own, and modern local musicians are forced to fight for the tiny spaces that are left.

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Chris Dalla Riva's avatar

That's a good point. We acknowledge some of these quotas in the paper. That said, if you play around with historical Italian charts, for example, on this site below, you can see that 10-20 years ago that there was a much larger percentage of music by large cultural exporters, like the US and UK. Streaming seems to have inhibited their cultural hegemony to a degree.

https://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=18&date=

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Michael's avatar

Great post, Chris!! Really like your music!

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Chris Dalla Riva's avatar

Thank you! Got a few singles getting mixed right now

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Catrin Vincent's avatar

Really interesting piece. Growing up with the internet gave me an American accent (British) as a singer. As soon as I reconnected with older music, I unlearned that fake accent, although I had no idea I was even doing it. Now I get flack for it online, and I’ve seen many younger British artists say they’d never sing in their own accent. A bit off-topic but I thought it would be of interest!

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