UK Radio 4 prog, songwriting/streaming

[N i g e l]

may be restricted access outside the UK

Songwriting is the creative bedrock of pop music. But the rise of streaming technology and new platforms - from Spotify and YouTube to TikTok - has not only changed the way we listen to music, it is transforming the art of songwriting itself.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qjfd

[zenguitar]

I listened to it live, and found it interesting and informative.

Andy

[Drew Stephenson]

Added to my watch list, thanks

[Drew Stephenson]

Ok, I found that to be a very frustrating listen.
It seemed to be a mix of confusion about the history of pop music; with examples of more songs starting with the chorus and lengths shortening to less than 3 minutes - both features of song-writing loooong before the advent of streaming services. Hell, they even have Nile Rogers on there who made a conscious point of starting Chic songs with the chorus.
The other half of it seemed to be a person making their living manufacturing music complaining about the nature of manufactured music.
I'm really not sure that they actually presented any evidence that there was a significant change to song-writing outside of the singles chart.
Despite being largely a strawman set up to be taken down it was still very incoherent overall.

[shufflebeat]

I found that by accident when the ads on LBC became insufferable.

It was interesting and the description of the brave new world of mix and match of elements of previously successful tracks was a perfect reminder of the process outlined by Pete Waterman when Stock, Shift and Remunerate Kylie'd the country in the 80's.

It was interesting though and reminded me to dig more into the mechanisms currently available.

[shufflebeat]

By the way, also check out Louis Theroux's interview programme with Sia on Radio 4. Really interesting to hear her attitude to songwriting which reflects the current trends in tech and market forces but recognises t'was ever thus.

[Drew Stephenson]

Listening now.