It's mostly to do with how mainstream bluegrass artists are dealing with the modern-day art of getting paid for their music getting played over streaming services and use of social media platforms, etc, but it applies to broader independent (indie...? do people still use that one?) artists too. I thought some of you might get something out of it. 

https://bluegrasstoday.com/the-real-cost-of-free-music-how-fans-keep-bluegrass-musicians-going-strong/

For the record, I still buy hard-copy CD's, directly from the artists when possible. In my world, we run into each other in festival parking lots. (as mentioned in the article there...) I'm a dinosaur. I like to read the liner notes. I like the somewhat permanent nature of hard copies, for reference if nothing else. You can't get that from a stream. On the other hand, they are convenient.

I no longer purchase CD's, but I "directly" support musicians by purchasing and downloading tracks and albums through Bandcamp, where musicians receive a very high percentage of sales.  For those musicians I want to support but who are not on Bandcamp, I purchase and download tracks and albums through Qobuz.  On both sites I download in Flac format for CD quality sound.

All of my CDs have been ripped to a huge hard drive. These days CDs are a last choice for me. I buy some vinyl but mostly digital music through Bandcamp. The artists get paid well and in most cases if I buy vinyl through Bandcamp I also can download the digital version of the release for free. Merch remains as an important income stream for all performing musicians, we need to support them however we can.

I always buy CD's.  Physical media is invulnerable to memory crashes.  Plus I get liner notes and get to skip the 'earbud mix' with downloads.'

C-Ya

I just pre-ordered two copies of a CD coming out in late July from a couple friends of mine... one for me, one for the Ol' Man. I could have waited and got them next month in-person when they are playing near here, but there's a chance I'll miss the gig. 

I do follow their YouTube channel, and I knew the project was due out soon anyway, so as soon as the notification came, I placed the order. 

Another thought-provoking article... I don't know Terry that well, (we've met...) but I've known his business partner John Lawless for close to 30 years and played in the band with him for 10 of them. Tracked a couple records too. I like to tease John about AI taking his gig, before he can retire, but Terry makes a few good points here about the larger issue. 

https://bluegrasstoday.com/ai-knows-bluegrass-but-who-paid-to-teach-it/

I was reminded of the big bad bot attack here earlier, and wondered how much was just information being harvested, and where that information may resurface later. 

Reading that article now; thanks!

The latest thing appears to be using bots to manipulate Spotify ratings in order to win money on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket.

https://www.wired.com/story/spotify-streaming-manipulation-prediction-markets-polymarket-kalshi/

We live in a strange time line; and I'm thinking it can't possibly be the true, prime, time line.