🚨 "These people are so stupid. I almost feel bad for taking advantage of them."
That was a Live Nation executive. About YOU.
This along with Charlie Puth joining an AI music company. And a band with 500M streams sued Sony for $800K unpaid.
🔗Here's the full story: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
🚨 Live Nation bought South America's biggest stadium, Europe's largest indoor arena, and Italy's top 3 venues.
All in the first 8 weeks of 2026.
Meanwhile they are on federal antitrust trial.
🔗 The machine doesn't stop. Here's the full story: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
Spotify's scandal. Story by Vinyl Culture.
🚨 Question for music fans ➡️ Have you ever used Spotify's Discovery Mode?
🤔 If yes, you accepted that artists get a 30% royalty cut for "algorithmic promotion." Discovery mode is not about discovery, it's paid promotion.
🔗 This + much more. Link to the full story in comments 👇🏼
🤔 Can human musicians survive in an AI world?
That's the question the music industry is finally confronting as Bandcamp says no to AI. Sweden also disqualified an AI song from its charts.
Here's a deep dive into the AI music wars and what comes next in 2026 👇🏼
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
Here's what happened to music in 2025 & our 2026 predictions... 👇🏼
🤔 While you were listening to Spotify, the music industry sold out human creativity.
🧐 AI music. Corporate betrayals. $400M+ stolen from artists.
🔗 Here's everything that happened in 2025 and why 2026 will be darker: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
Artists; you need to read this... 👇🏼
This is the same strategy labels followed with #Spotify. Profits over everything... 👇🏼
🚨 Warner Music sued #Suno for copyright infringement 17 months ago.
Today they are partners building #AI #music models together.
🤔 Why?
👉🏼 Suno's revenue: $200M/year
👉🏼 Suno's valuation: $2.45B
The labels chose profit over principle.
📚🔗 Full story here: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
This isn't just about #music. Creative displacement is happening 10x faster than industrial automation... 👇🏼
#Spotify has 12M #artists, but...
👉🏼 Only 0.6% earn $10K+
👉🏼 82% can't afford touring
👉🏼 #AI Music: $3.9B→$38.7B by 2033
This is the engineered death of music's working class.
📚 Read our investigation into the elimination of middle class musicians: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
#MusicIndustry
🚨 Artists are calling Daniel Ek "a warmonger who pays poverty wages" as he exits as the #Spotify CEO.
Artists like Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu pulled their entire catalogs.
📚 Read what 20 years of algorithmic exploitation did to #music culture: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
🚨 #AI is about to steal 24% of #musicians' income by 2028!
This isn't just about #music; it's about what we value in human creativity.
Read the full investigation with into how AI is re-shaping the music industry and what it means for #creativity itself 👇
open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
🚨 Social media & labels turned #artists into content machines...
The shift from "music" to "content" wasn't semantic; it was strategic devaluation of artistic expression for algorithmic optimization.
📚 Full investigation: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
#MusicIndustry #AlgorithmicCulture #Music
🙌🏼 Picture this; A talented musician spends months perfecting their sound, only to discover venues want THEM to pay $500 upfront + 25% of merch sales... 🤦🏻♂️👇🏼
🚨 The artist community is under attack globally. Pay-to-play venues + crushing visa costs + merchandise cuts = 82% of indie artists priced out of touring.
🤔 We need to talk about this. Change is possible when we demand it.
🔗 Deep dive: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
#ArtistCommunity #Music
The choice is yours... 🤷🏻♂️
What kind of a company do you want to support? 🤔👇🏼
#Music people of bluesky: We need to talk about what's happening at #Spotify
#AI songs on dead artists' pages + CEO investing in military drones = Artists have had enough.
Xiu Xiu has called it a "garbage hole violent armageddon portal."
The whole story is wild👇🏼: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
This isn't just about music—it's about the technical infrastructure of deception in the AI age.
Our investigation with breaks down the technical methods and detection strategies: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
Are current AI detection tools sufficient for the content we're seeing? 🤖
The Velvet Sundown Investigation by Vinyl Culture
The Velvet Sundown case is a masterclass in AI manipulation:
🔍 Technical Analysis:
👉🏼 Suno 4.5 generated 12/13 tracks (100% confidence)
👉🏼 Deezer's AI detection caught them; Spotify didn't
👉🏼 Deepfake band member photos passed initial scrutiny.
Link below... 👇🏼
open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
🚨 AI music platforms are secretly defining "good music" for millions of users... 🤔
🔥 Hot take: AI music platforms claiming to "democratize" creativity are actually centralizing cultural power in Silicon Valley.
This isn't technological progress; it's algorithmic colonization of global musical culture.
Full story 🔗: open.substack.com/pub/vinylcul...
#AIMusic #AlgorithmicBias
Thanks for the comment! It's more complicated than that. The data of what you're listening to & how you are reacting can be used not just by Spotify, but other apps & websites you use as well.
Sometimes it's difficult to point out but other times it's blatant. 🤔
