The other DSPs are much more creative and allow room for more interesting music. My experience has been that Amazon is my personal favorite from a curation standpoint. I discovered Yonatan Ayal via amazon meditation programming and his solo stuff is arguably the most interesting ambient record of the year.

I run a label that has direct deals with certain major DSPs. We do over a billion streams a year.

The entire “wellness” music category is programming driven. Much of my energy is spent building and maintaining relationships with the programmers, even with our direct deals. We take a reduced payout on the master side in return for preferential treatment on playlist positions.

I have an active roster of extremely talented producers. It’s a volume play. I’ve made tracks that I’m quite proud of in 90 minutes that have done 20+ million streams.

It’s a wild system but we’ve made it work. Not really a critique or an endorsement - just making a living making music.

Edit: fun fact, Sleep Sounds is generally the #1 streamed playlist on the entire Apple Music platform.

Just curious, what kind of software do you use, and / or, what is this category of music based on? Brian Eno and the ambient movement as a whole?

It sounds like the kinda thing that'll earn you a paycheck, but not fame. Or the kind of fame that can land you work from e.g. Spotify, not the kind of fame that'll fill up concert halls.

I think it's a sobering look into the music industry (not just your whole comment but the article + comments); the perception is that if you're not filling up concert halls then you don't matter, but the truth is that good or successful music does not necessitate the accompanying fame or "interesting" personality / personal branding.

On one hand, it’s a way to guarantee visibility and streams... On the other, it seems like another symptom of how streaming has commodified music... (I'm talking about the reduced payouts for preferential playlist treatment)

> I’ve made tracks that I’m quite proud of in 90 minutes that have done 20+ million streams. Regardless of the ethics that's quite incredible!

I would love to listen to your music. Can you name it?

What's the wellness category about?

Outcome based music generally - sleep, meditation, yoga, focus, etc.

I honestly don't give a shit about music nor artists. Never have. But I'm at the gym about 3 hours a week and need a soundtrack so I like to listen to synthwave that the Spotify AI recommends me.

Spotify seems to trigger the hell out of music purists...

I got a Komodo a few months ago in LA area for $3500 used with multiple cards and gold mount batteries, outrigger handle, pl mount adapter, etc. They’re out there, a lot of people upgrading to the X.