Without a shadow of doubt, the internet has changed our lives forever.
The golden age of technology?
My arse.
It’s changed how we learn.
How we earn.
How we spend.
How we vote.
Changed how we watch films, watch telly, and listen to music.
I read recently it takes one million YouTube streams to make a thousand quid.
30,000 Spotify streams to make a hundred dollars.
That’s £73.77.
For a small band like ours, that’s not sustainable.
Streaming is killing music.
Technology is killing music.
And we’re all guilty—because it’s easy.
Too easy.
The world at your fingertips.
Smartphones are here to stay.
Tracking our online—and possibly offline—habits.
Every view. Every like. Every search. Every comment.
It’s a data point.
Our data is worth a fortune.
Our email. Our age. Our opinions. Our location.
And we give it away—for free—just to see what we’d look like as a Viking.
Or a fucking Lego figure.
The internet killed the high street.
And now tech’s coming for our jobs.
Kodak. Gone.
Blockbuster. Gone.
Debenhams.
Woolies.
Major banks.
Even the dodgy adult bookshop… gone.
Hold on—I’m getting there…
As a band, with a couple of self-produced albums under our belts, I have to ask:
How sustainable is any of this?
Well I’ll tell you:
It’s a good job we do it for fun.
It’s not all doom and gloom—we love it.
But for a small band, itching to get our songs heard…
CDs? No longer viable.
Vinyl? Beautiful—but too darn expensive.
Every project we’ve ever done has been funded by merch.
And that worked—for a while.
Now?
I’ve got a box of unsold CDs at home, gathering dust,
taunting me about whether the next project is even worth doing.
We recorded two tracks recently—made videos for both.
Because video is a way to say:
Ayup, we’re still here. We’re still making music.
But guess what?
Technology doesn’t care.
Not unless you throw more money at digital platforms
and hope that a view turns into a sale worth £0.00038p.
Two months on—47 views on YouTube for Robots.
Less than a dozen copies sold on Bandcamp.
The other video—We Did This—is ready to go.
It’s a cracking video (slight bias).
Same story, probably.
Less than a dozen sales…
BUT—
I’ve got my fingers crossed for a million views.
Then maybe—just maybe—we’ll raise a glass of illicit
and give three cheers to technology
for finally shining a light on smaller bands.
And finally—
I almost titled this:
“This T-shirt Is Worth 5,000 Spotify Streams.”
Because the long and short of it is:
If you like a band’s music—buy their merch.
Bandcamp link:
https://starbotherers.bandcamp.com
Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/p/Star-Botherers-100063763231634/
