OriginalRecipe

ireland said:

...every modern popular artist I can think of puts on a voice that doesn’t seem like their own. Adele, Ed Sheeran—all these guys. Quit hiding behind that stupid thing you’re doing with your voices and reveal yourselves. Teenagers are hypnotised into thinking these guys can sing. This fake singing ain’t real singing.

* apologies that this was posted from Safari on a Mac, which strips out all of the returns after each paragraph - next time I'll post from my Windows laptop This is a curious question, given the examples you cite. Adele and Ed Sheeran are "fake"? I can understand your label of "fake" when pointing out the numerous artists who use vocoders and overly precise auto-tune processing to cover up their inability to carry a tune. But even some "great" artists have experimented with creating an entirely artificial sound for their voice, so it may not be so obvious who falls into the group of "fakes" vs those who are simply pushing the boundaries of popular sound in their music. Adele and Ed Sheeran have both recorded a number of "unplugged" tracks, so how do you define this "fake" quality? Even the very best singers have a "singing voice" that sounds very different from their natural "speaking voice", so putting aside audio processing in the studio, what is it about their performances that crosses a line in your ears into "fakery"? When a singer is performing, by its very nature, the singer is changing their voice to sound different than it would if they were sitting at a table in front of you - the intonation, or the way they pronounce certain words or phrases, is part of the artistry of how a song is performed. You specifically mention the voices of the artists themselves, so let's put aside overly-produced songs with thick effects processing that hide the voice of the performer for the purpose of defining "fake". In the numerous "unplugged" tracks one can find with Adele or Ed Sheeran singing with a simple guitar or piano track, do they still sound "fake" to your ears? Or is this "fake" quality just a matter of whether some of their intonation sounds overly affected or "stressed"? And how do you define a "modern popular artist"? Charting on Billboard, or simply alive and kicking with some radio play now and then? Is Annie Lennox in your "fake" group? Listen to the first 70 seconds of Annie Lennox singing, "I Put a Spell On You". Simple piano with some very light percussion, and her voice is right there in front of the mix. This track is not overly produced, so to my ears, Annie's voice sounds very natural here, without any noticeably strange or stressed intonation. According to your criteria, is there anything overly "fake" about Annie's voice on this track? Perhaps if you could share some more details about this "fake" quality, your "rant" would be a more useful critique of modern popular music, at least as you define it.

Unfortunately for Bryan Eich, no corporate lobbyists will be required to dismiss this case, since the facts don't seem to be on his side. Unless you can explain a subtle nuance the rest of us are missing, Bryan Eich is simply not on Apple Music, so how in the world is he being "cheated" out of his earnings when none of his music is available for playback?

anantksundaram said:

SpamSandwich said:

Maybe the problem is Bryan Eich is a nobody? Something to think about anyway.

Maybe he is. What does that have to do with his right to do this? Are you — and the others here who appear to agree with you —saying that he had to be aTaylor Swift to take on a big company? If so, you sound like a third-rate corporate lobbyist. 

Apple has no legal, moral, or ethical obligation to provide a dumping ground for every single song that was ever written by anyone, regardless of talent. Being small and unknown does not magically give a musician's work "street cred" or turn it into a "hidden gem". Mr. Eich's songs simply don't have much of a following, and Apple declined to list his work. Bryan Eich apparently has all of 269 listeners on Pandora, a number of videos on YouTube from a few years ago that are "not available", and a music video on Vimeo with all of *8* views. He's also on Google Play, so there's that. There's no "corporate conspiracy" to cheat Bryan Eich. He simply doesn't have much of a following. Does Apple need to give out token payments to every musician, to give them an A for effort, regardless of having any listeners to their music - even if their music isn't available on Apple's store? Mr. Eich should focus more on his work as a musician and building a following, instead of trying to litigate his way to success.