Kubernetes and co do not reduce the amount of work - it’s just shifted to the next abstraction layer. Before when DevOps meant „you build it - you run it“ we removed dedicated ops teams to which the code was thrown over the fence and to reduce the animosity and friction between dev and ops. This was great but now all the hips companies have dedicated ops teams only that they are now called „platform teams“. Instead of code artefacts it is now containers that are thrown over the fence and now the ops part became so complex that separating dev and ops again seems reasonable. Luckily for me I managed to keep the good old DevOps of working, developing code and running it or bare metal servers with FreeBSD and Jails - even converting an existing Kubernetes setup back to bare metal. In my opinion the platformisation of the internet infrastructure isn’t a desirable state, monocultures are too and for the vast majority of projects kubernetes is overkill as they won’t ever reach the scale that would justify a kubernetes setup. It‘s like the milage fear for EV cars - but I guess everyone wants to hit facebook or google scale and that desire misinforms the early infrastructure architecture. That is just my 40 years old grey beard view which you can happily ignore whilst flying amongst the clouds :)
I'm running my own mail server for a couple of years now. I'm using postfix and dovecot. I have SPF and DKIM set up and I'm using spamassassin, roundcube.
Setting up a working mail server is one of the biggest challenges because so many components are involved these days and you need to make them play perfectly together. I'm against using out of the box VM images / installers because then you don't understand whats going on under the hood. Mail servers are these kinds of beasts I would suggest to understand as best as possible before letting it loose on the world.
Its like with security. There is no "Just press this button/Just install this software and you are secure" solution - There is no easy and convenient way to run your own mail server without getting really involved with it :)
Just saying this as a warning for everybody who has this thought. I've been through it and my mail set up is running for 5 years like a charm now. But it was a steep way to get there :)
And they fail horribly to enable artists to make money. Soundcloud, sadly - is just a fancy and mostly free data store for audio files. So yeah - you nailed it pretty much :)
That is good for the labels but not for the smaller artists. I talked to people from indie labels and major labels from the digital divisions - they said all the same. If you are not already big you will get little to nothing out of Spotify etc.
Well you can definitely do all that stuff which I would file under my promote yourself and think for yourself section. But these days the labels got so desperate that the will only give out contracts that grant them shares of all revenues - even concerts, merchandise and all the other things. In the good old days you always had certain money streams which you could keep for yourself - thats pretty much over now.
No you don't you can go to studios or rehearsal rooms where you can rent all the stuff you want and pretty cheap. Even if you spend 5-10k you will have spend A LOT LESS than any label. You get the money back directly, if you are break even you get to keep all the money. Its a much better bet than hoping to win the record label lottery. Its no guarantee to be successful but along the way you will get a good grasp what your chances are and if its worth recording a smurf death metal techno album. :)
Yes and no. First of all there are no real indie labels. If a label gets successful enough a major label will come by and make it a sub division. Even the labels with the best intentions need to get their money back at some point the market for them is the same as for everybody. If you are in the right niche at the right time there are of course exceptions - but well these are exceptions
Do you know anybody running indie labels? I do. You are only talking about major labels and "mainstream" music in your article. But, it's hurting EVERYBODY.
Some of the reactions here are silly. If you love an artist buy their record, tell your friends, go see them in concert. Blaming labels (big or small) as a justification for illegal downloading is [ insert descriptor of your choice ].
Supporting your favorite artists is cool and the right thing to do. Let them deal with their labels whether they wish to have one or not.
Yes I know people from indie labels and as I have stated earlier - there are no true indie labels which surprised me as well when I found out. The successful ones usually belong to another major label.
I don't encourage illegal downloads, quite the opposite. But the labels deserve blame as well as artists who are sitting on their faces, waiting for the labels to figure it out somehow. In the book »Appetite for Self-Destruction« its described pretty extensively how that is unlikely to happen.
To resolve the dilemma we need a revolution, coming from the artists and the consumers and I hope I inspire some people to wake up, use their brain and make things better without the labels.
Lets say you pay 10$ for Spotify and you only listen to my music for a whole month then Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Beyonce will get 99.999999% of your 10$. Its because all the money, be it advertisement or subscriptions is thrown in a huge bucket and divided by play count. It will take you a looooong loooong time to get even one single dollar out of this model.
>> "Its because all the money, be it advertisement or subscriptions is thrown in a huge bucket and divided by play count."
Source?
Also, that's still not a reason not to be on it. Lots of people use Spotify and if your music isn't available on it they either won't listen at all (you lose) or will download it illegally (you lose).
In this case people from indie and major labels. You have to trust me there but it might be even in their terms and conditions. On the web you will also find plenty of artists complaining about that model.
Furthermore you can't just be on Spotify. You need a middleman to be allowed in the labels domain. Like I said, most streaming services are controlled by the labels. Now there are some cheap proxy companies that will publish you on Spotify and sure, you can do that but in the beginning of your journey - which I was referring to - you don't need to bother. It just won't give you anything. Later its surely nice to be there but even then you won't get anything out of it money wise.
I still respectfully disagree about Spotify :) With CDBaby you can pay $50 and be on all online retailers including paid and free streaming services. With so many services out there (and so many people choosing to use different ones) I think it's best to be on them all or you risk people not being able to listen to you.
