MBW Views is a commentary/editorial series from celebrities in the music industry…with something to say. The following information comes from Mark Davyd (pictured), CEO of the Music Venue Trust – A UK registered charity that works to protect, secure and improve music venues UK base. This work originally appeared on Davyd’s sub stack.
I’ve spent the past week in Liverpool, a city that has given up on itself after Eurovision with the enthusiasm you’d normally find at an eight-year-old Mexican’s birthday party around the time they started hitting the pinata.
It’s all a bit more than capable, with music pouring from literally every door, window, bar, restaurant, and library. But somehow the city has managed to deliver something that is truly warm, comprehensive and truly representative of the entire musical history that has made Liverpool the top city in the world for music. music, while keeping Eurovision fans happy. Honestly, the whole place is buzzing with music and it’s a great time to be there and be a part of it.
But. You know there will be a ‘but’, right?
Right in the middle of this fun music festival is a giant billboard featuring Sam Ryder, with his hair and spacesuit.
Now, you might be surprised to learn that I have a slight crush on Sam. What you might not know is that before the pandemic, Sam went to great lengths to cure baldness by trying every avenue available to build himself a career as a musician.
- Sam debuted as a singer and guitarist at the age of 16 when he co-founded the band The Morning After, which released two albums.
- After The Morning After broke up, he joined the Canadian Rock band Bless by a Broken Heart and contributed to their album Feeling the Strength. He left the band in 2013, auditioned to be the new lead vocalist of American Rock band Close Your Eyes and contributed to their album. Sugar in the sand.
- In 2016, Sam recorded an album with producer Bryan Wilson in Nashville, Tennessee, although it was never released.
- By 2019, he is working as a wedding singer.
That’s his route so far; at the age of 30, having tried everything, Sam sang for his dinner while the brides were carried away by the grooms. Then the pandemic hit, and everything changed for him.
If you know the full story, then you know that someone like Sam doesn’t just happen overnight. He’s not an instant internet sensation. He is someone who has worked extremely hard to get where he is and has earned and deserved the success he has achieved.
This makes me question why there is a 60-foot-tall poster in central Liverpool with the Tik Tok logo proudly proclaiming “Where the Stars Begin” featuring Sam Ryder.
I thought about reporting it to the advertising standards regulator, but they got bored with my calls about tech platforms turning themselves into music companies.
It will be necessary to recalibrate all the ridiculous claims made about how we are supposed to ‘make’ artists on these platforms.
Because TikTok doesn’t build Sam’s playing skills. TikTok doesn’t teach Sam to write good songs. TikTok did not teach him how to attract and manage an audience. TikTok doesn’t even help style him.
TikTok provided a platform for him to be exposed – specifically in the case of Sam during the pandemic when his talent really got a chance to shine on the platform that TikTok provided. I bet Sam was incredibly grateful for that, and was probably well paid for using his super large image.
But that doesn’t make the claim that TikTok is “Where Sam Ryder started” any less misleading or deceptive.
Companies like TikTok are very trustworthy, just like every other part of the music industry – and there are more and more people exploiting that industry’s technology (I’m looking at you). Spotify) – into a simple activity that none of them seem willing to invest in as part of their business.
At the age of 11, Sam Ryder was inspired to pursue a music career after seeing a concert by Canadian rock band Sum 41. Culturally speaking, he had the chance to see it. and he decided to be it.
There are thousands of young people in the UK who could be TikTok’s next Sam Ryder. But they won’t be. Because their local place, where they might have seen it and decided to ‘try to be it’, closed this week. And we could have prevented it from closing with 10% of what TikTok spent on a poster in the middle of Liverpool pretending they make artists.
Or 0.001% of the amount Spotify gives FC Barcelona to put their names on the players’ jerseys.
Something will have to come up with this facade. We can’t continue to pretend that everything is going to be okay for the live music industry by allowing TikTok, Spotify or YouTubelet us know that success on their platform equates to long-term successful artists with a fan base that can sustain the live music scene.
What a foolish game it is to put all our eggs in the basket of these unproven foundations in the hope that artists will magically emerge from them and start making headlines in Glastonbury. .
Live music is a data game. Anyone who puts an uncertified artist to headline a major festival, an artist who hasn’t proven himself by ticket sales, not clicks, is taking a big risk with his wallet. their.
No amount of clicks ‘generated’ by Sam Ryder. He created himself. With hundreds of gigs, years of hard work, with the support of the crumbling infrastructure all around us while the tech platforms sit there chanting ‘everything is fine’.
We need to start asking that the money that should be invested in the future of music isn’t wasted on poster campaigns that tell the public a shamefully false story about how artists are ‘made’. .Global Music Business
