Björn Ulvaeus: How music streaming transformed songwriting | TED

Transcriber:

Prevoditelj: Davor Ružić Recezent: Ivan Luka Sabolović

Želio bih započeti s citatom,

jako mi je neugodno jer ne znam odakle potječe.

Ali to je jako dobro sastavljeno, a glasi ovako:

I'd like to start with a quote,

„Autorsko pravo nije osmišljeno samo kako bi osiguralo poštenje prema autorima,

but it's very embarrassing because I don't know where it comes from.

nego i kako bi poboljšalo kvalitetu života unutar društva

But it's very well put, and it goes like this:

"Copyright is designed not only to provide fairness for authors,

promicanjem napretka znanosti, umjetnosti i kulture.”

but also to enhance the quality of life within a society

Drugim riječima,

koncept kako to učiniti ekonomski isplativim za autore da bi stvarali

by promoting the progress of science, art and culture."

sada je globalno priznato kao društveni imperativ.

In other words,

the concept of making it economically feasible for creators to create

Imam jako malo uspomena o pisanju tekstova pjesama.

is now globally recognized as a social imperative.

Ali postoji jedna posebna iz davne prošlosti, koje se sjećam.

I have very few memories writing lyrics to songs.

Ležao sam na trbuhu na krevetu u maloj gostinjskoj sobi

But there is a particular one from long ago that I do remember.

s blokom za pisanje ispred sebe.

U susjednoj spavaćoj sobi,

I was lying on my stomach on a bed in a small guest room

moja tadašnja žena, Agnetha, je nesmetano spavala.

with a writing pad in front of me.

In the master bedroom next door,

Glazba je svirala u mojoj glavi,

my then wife, Agnetha, was sleeping undisturbed.

dakle nije mi trebao zvučnik, čak ni slušalice.

Melodija kojoj još nedostaju riječi je netaknut teritorij

The music was playing in my head,

so no need for speakers, not even headphones.

po kojemu tekstopisac mora opezno stupati.

A melody that still lacks words is virgin territory

Ponekad, posljednje riječi na stranici su rezultat

upon which a lyricist must tread lightly.

teškog rada, dubokog razmišljanja

Some of the time, the final words on the page

i intuicije kojoj tekstopisac mora naučiti vjerovati.

are the result of hard work, deep thought

Ali ponekad, se događaju izvanredne stvari;

and the intuition that a songwriter must learn to trust.

zatvorene zavjese se odjednom razmaknu, a melodija ti se obraća

But sometimes, extraordinary things happen;

i počinje prizivati slike pa čak i redoslijed događaja.

closed curtains are suddenly drawn, and the melody speaks to you

Sve što trebaš učiniti je zapisati to, zapišite onon čemu ste svjedočili.

and starts to conjure up images and even sequences of events.

Pjesma može doći svom autoru dio po dio.

All you have to do is write it down, write down what you witnessed.

Ali, s vremena na vrijeme kada se cijela pojavi iz ničega,

A song can come to its creator in bits and pieces.

čini se da upućuje na to da je već postojala tamo, Bog zna koliko dugo,

But when it once in a while appears out of thin air in its entirety,

možda nestrpljivo čekajući da ju ubere

it seems to suggest it had already lingered there, God knows how long,

netko s istančanim i osjetljivim uhom,

perhaps impatiently waiting to be plucked down

kao da je trebala pravi put kroz koji će doći

iz carstva ideja pa sve do zemlje.

by someone with a keen and sensitive ear,

as if it needed the right vessel to flow through

Bio sam užasno sretan kad sam završio.

from the realm of ideas all the way down to earth.

U tom sam trenutku bilo sam zahvalan za samu glazbu,

I was deliriously happy when I had finished.

zbog samog postojanja ovog neuhvatljivog, neopisivog fenomena

At that moment, I was grateful for music itself,

koji ignorira naš mozak i ide ravno u naša srca.

for the sheer existence of this elusive, undefinable phenomenon

Htio sam je pjevati naglas, ali bila su dva sata ujutro,

that seems to ignore our brains and go straight to our hearts.

te čak i u mojoj euforiji,

imao sam zdravog razuma da ne budim ženu koja će sutra pjevati moje riječi.

I wanted to sing it out loud, but it was two o'clock in the morning,

and even in my euphoria,

Da smo Benny Andersson i ja napisali tu pjesmu danas,

I had the good sense not to wake the woman who was to sing my words the next day.

možda je ne biste nikada ni čuli.

Mogla je biti samo još jedan izgubljen san,

If Benny Andersson and I had written that song today,

[jedna od] oko 80.000 novih pjesama poslanih na streaming usluge

you might not have gotten to hear it.

It could have been just another lost dream,

svaki dan.

[one of] about 80,000 new songs uploaded to streaming services

Konkurencija je danas žestoka,

mnogo žešća nego davne 1977. godine.

every single day.

The competition today is fierce,

Čak i da su pretplatnici na Spotifyu jako često klikali na naša pjesmu,

much fiercer than it was back in 1977.

male su šanse da bi tantijemi platili bilo čiju stanarinu.

And even if our song had been clicked very often by Spotify subscribers,

Dakle, želim danas razgovarati s vama o

chances are slim that the royalties would have paid anyone's rent.

tome kako ja vidim promjene u industriji pisanja pjesama

So what I want to talk to you about today

služeći s mojom perspektivom o tome kako je to bilo raditi kao tekstopisac

is how I see the changes in the song economy

kada je glazbena industrija bila jednostavnija, a možda i predvidljivija.

using my perspective of what it was like to be a songwriter

Ovih dana sve se prati pomoću naših podataka.

when the music industry was simpler and perhaps more predictable.

A podaci iz streaminga nam govore

da slušatelji puno češće klikaju svoju omiljenu pjesmu

These days, everything is tracked by our data.

nego omiljenog glazbenika

And data from streaming tells us

na streaming usluzi.

that listeners much more often click their favorite song

Ponekad nisu ni sigurni koga to oni uopće slušaju,

than their favorite artist

ako se, npr. radi o popisu pjesama.

on a streaming service.

Dakle, ako obraćamo veću pozornost na pjesmu, no

Sometimes they're not even sure who it is they're listening to,

što je s tekstopiscem?

if it's a playlist, for example.

Tekstopisci su potjerani na stražnje sjedalo,

So if we're paying more attention to the song, though,

čak bih rekao, spremljeni u prtljažnik.

what about the songwriter?

Songwriters have been forced into the back seat,

Brinem se da su tekstopisci u opasnosti da postanu nevidljive žrtve

and I would even say, bungled into the trunk.

promjene koja je u tijeku.

My concern is that songwriters are at risk of becoming invisible victims

Glazbena industrija je sada

industrija pisanja pjesama.

Ipak, autori pjesama koje ju pokreću dobivaju najmanji komad kolača.

of the change that is taking place.

The music business is now a song economy.

Kako je došlo do toga?

Yet the creators of the songs that fuel it get the smallest slice of the pie.

Ni na tren nisam namjeravao predložiti da trebamo vratiti sat unazad,

How did that happen?

što ste možda očekivali od stare pop zvijezde.

I am not, for one moment, about to suggest that we should turn back the clock,

Ali, što se dogodilo u prošlom desetljeću

ima potencijal biti nevjerojatno pozitivno za tekstopisce.

which you may have suspected from an old pop star.

Sada, umjesto toga, opisat ću neželjene posljedice

But what's happened in the last decade

has the potential to be incredibly positive for songwriters.

streaming revolucije,

kako oni preoblikuju živote tekstopisaca.

Now, instead, I'm going to describe the unintended consequences

A, onda ću iznijeti nekoliko prijedloga

of the streaming revolution,

kako se utjecaj ovih nenamjernih posljedice može riješiti.

how they are reshaping the lives of songwriters.

And then, I will present some proposals

Nikada nije bio bolji trenutak za pisanje i stvaranje glazbe.

for how the impact of these unintended consequences can be addressed.

Danas svatko ima potencijal pronaći globalnu publiku,

It has never been a better time to be writing and making music.

te ako tako odluče,

mogu čak pokušati to učiniti sami, bez diskografske kuće ili izdavača.

Anyone today has the potential to find a global audience,

and if they so choose,

Pojavljuje se cijela industrija glazbenog softvera,

they can even try to do that on their own, without a record label or music publisher.

zadovoljavajući potrebe nove generacije glazbenika i tekstopisaca.

A whole music software industry is emerging,

Streaming je omogućio ovu novu glazbenu paradigmu.

serving the needs of a new generation of artists and songwriters.

Kada je pandemija u 2020. zaustavila glazbu uživo,

Streaming has enabled this new music paradigm.

mnogi su glazbenici shvatili da ne mogu plaćati svoje račune samo od streaminga.

Once the pandemic stopped live music in 2020,

Neki su se vratili živjeti sa svojim roditeljima,

many artists realized that they couldn't pay their bills on streaming alone.

a drugi voze Uber da bi spojili kraj s krajem.

Some have moved back in with their parents,

Prije je streaming bio više-manje promocija za njihove turneje,

and others are driving Ubers to make ends meet.

i nastupe uživo, koji čine daleko najveći dio njihovih prihoda.

Previously, streaming had more or less been promotion for their tours,

Smiješno je, ali za Abbu u 70-ima je bilo upravo suprotno.

and live appearances, by far providing most of their revenue.

Jedva da smo uopće išli na turneje, a kad jesmo, gubili smo novac.

It's funny, but it was exactly the opposite for Abba in the 70s.

Ali, mislim da je sviranje turneja trebalo biti promocija za album

We hardly toured at all, and when we did, we lost money.

pa to nije bilo važno.

Ne mogu se sjetiti da smo se ikada žalili na iznos naših tantijema,

But, I mean, the touring was supposed to be promotion for the album

što su umjetnici, tijekom pandemije, žestoko zahtijevali,

so that didn't matter.

And I can't recall that we ever complained about the size of our royalties,

kod su streaming i tantijemi iznenada postali jedini izvor prihoda.

which the artists, during the pandemic, have done bitterly,

„Ako je to udarac na glazbenike,” pomislio sam,

when streaming and royalties suddenly were the only source of income.

„dobrodošli u svijet tekstopisaca”.

Većina profi autora ne ide turneje,

"If this is the impact on artists," I thought,

oni ne prodaju majice ili drugu robu...

"welcome to the world of songwriters."

Računaju samo na pjesmu.

Most professional songwriters don't tour,

Ali, izgleda da se i to mijenja,

they don't sell T-shirts or other merchandise ...

jer je pjesma evoluirala kao odgovor na streaming,

They rely on the song itself.

i sve je češća pojava da izdavačke kuće

But even that seems to be changing,

because the song has evolved in response to streaming,

okupe velike timove tekstopisaca da rade zajedno, koji stvaraju

genetski modificirane hitove.

and it's increasingly common for record labels

Pjesme su napisane i strukturirane tako da

to get large teams of songwriters to work together,

budu optimizirane za algoritme koje streaming usluge koriste

creating almost genetically modified hits.

da odluče koju glazbu vi i ja slušamo.

Songs are written and structured in ways

that are optimized for the algorithms that streaming services use

Provedena su neka istraživanja koja sugeriraju da ovih dana,

to decide what music you and I listen to.

Billboard Top 10 hit ima, u prosjeku pet tekstopisaca --

Some research has been done to suggest that these days,

ne jedan ili dva, nego pet -- a ponekad i 10.

a Billboard Top 10 hit has, on average, five songwriters --

I povrh toga, moraju pisati više pjesama i što brže,

not one or two, but five -- and sometimes even 10.

kako bi držali korak s nezasitnom potražnjom

za novu glazbu koju streaming stvara.

And on top of this, they’re having to write more songs and more quickly,

Nakon što je ABBA 1974. osvojila Pjesmu Eurovizije s pjesmom „Waterloo”,

simply to keep up with the insatiable demand

for new music that streaming creates.

tantijemi su se odjednom počeli slijevati,

After ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with "Waterloo,"

a Benny i ja smo si mogli priuštiti da pišemo pjesme puno radno vrijeme,

od devet do pet sati.

royalties suddenly came pouring in,

To je napravilo tako veliku razliku.

and Benny and I could afford to write songs full time,

Mogli smo si priuštiti odbaciti 95 posto onoga što smo napisali

nine-to-five.

That made such a huge difference.

te zadržati samo ono naj, najbolje.

We could afford to throw away 95 percent of what we wrote

Naučili smo kako prepoznati smeće,

a to je neophodno ako želiš postati dobar u svom zanatu.

and just keep the very, very best.

We learned how to recognize garbage,

Tantijemi su nam jednostavno omogućili da imamo vremena i kreativne slobode.

and that's essential if you want to get good at your craft.

Dakako da nećete imati ni jedno niti drugo

Royalties simply gave us time and creative freedom.

ako si u žurbi i netko ti puše za vratom cijelo vrijeme.

Needless to say, you will have neither

Industrijski pristup pisanju pjesama otežava

if you’re in a hurry and someone is breathing down your neck all the time.

mnogim tekstopisacima da izgrade održive karijere.

The industrial approach to songwriting is making it harder

Oni koji su uspješni jako su uspješni,

for many songwriters to build sustainable careers.

ali oni u nižim slojevima,

koji su nekada mogli živjeti od pisanja pjesama,

Those that are successful are very successful,

stvarno pate.

but those in the layers below,

Oni postaju dijelovi sustava kojemu služe više nego što on služi njima.

who used to be able to make a living from songwriting,

are really suffering.

Evo tri ključne bolne točke.

They are becoming parts of a system that they serve more than it serves them.

Kao prvo, streaming usluge uobičajeno plaćaju otprilike četiri puta više

And here are three key pain points.

za snimanje glazbe nego za kompoziciju,

Firstly, streaming services typically pay out about four times more

što znači da je prihod od streaminga još i manji za tekstopisce

nego što je za glazbenike.

for the recording than they do the composition,

To je nasljeđe iz prošlosti,

which means a streaming income is even smaller for songwriters

kada su snimanje i pakiranje fizičkih proizvoda bili su vrlo skupi,

than it is for artists.

pa je veći udio za snimanje bio opravdan.

It's a legacy from the past,

when recordings and the packaging of physical products were very expensive,

Ali to se promijenilo.

Ali, promjena se još nije odrazila na podjelu tantijema.

so a larger share for the recording was justified.

Kao drugo,

But that has changed.

čak i način na koji usluge streaminga plaćaju tantijeme je problematično.

But the change has not yet been reflected in the division of royalties.

Slušateljeva mjesečna pretplata od 9,99 ide u središnji lonac,

Secondly,

even the way that streaming services pay royalties is problematic.

koji se zatim dijeli s ukupnim iznosom broj streamova u tom mjesecu.

A listener’s monthly 9.99 subscription goes into a central pot,

To odlučuje o vrijednosti pojedinog streama, ili slušanja.

which then gets divided by the total number of streams that month.

To znači da, ako si ti streamao jazz trio Arnea Jansena,

That decides the value of one stream, or listen.

i ako si to učinio 50 puta u prošlom mjesecu,

This means that you if you have streamed Arne Jansen's jazz trio,

a susjedova kćer tinejdžerica je streamala Justina Biebera 5.000 puta,

if you have done that 50 times in the past month,

samo mali dio tvojih 9,99 će stići Arneu Jansenu.

and the neighbor’s teenage daughter has streamed Justin Bieber 5,000 times,

Ništa protiv Justina Biebera,

only a small fraction of your 9.99 will go to Arne Jansen.

ali kako to nagrađuje tvog omiljeni glazbenika?

I kao treće, loši metapodaci su veliki problem,

Nothing wrong with Justin Bieber,

but how does that reward your favorite artist?

metapodaci su relevantne informacije o pjesmi i njenom snimanju.

And thirdly, bad metadata is a big problem,

Vrlo često se snimke stavljaju na streaming servis

metadata being the relevant information about a song and its recording.

bez točnih podataka.

Na primjer, nedostaje ime autora.

Very often, recordings are injected into a streaming service

To znači da streaming usluga ne zna kamo točno poslati tantijeme,

without accurate data.

The name of the writer is missing, for instance.

a novac je stavljen u takozvanu „crnu kutiju”.

That means that the streaming service doesn't know where to send the royalties,

On samo leži tamo.

Nedavno,

20 streaming usluga raspodijelilo je 424 milijuna dolara

and the money is put in a so-called "black box."

Just sits there.

jednoj američkoj neprofitnoj organizaciji,

Recently,

20 streaming services distributed 424 million dollars

koja bi trebala pokušati pronaći zakonite primatelje za sav taj novac.

to a US nonprofit organization,

To će potrajati godinama -- ako ih ikad pronađu.

which is supposed to try and find the rightful recipients of all that money.

Kombinacija svih ovih problema i drugih

stvaraju savršenu oluju za tekstopisce.

It will take years -- if they ever find them.

Tijekom posljednjeg desetljeća, gledao sam kako ova situacija postaje sve gora.

The combination of all these issues and others

are creating a perfect storm for songwriters.

A tijekom proteklih pet godina,

Over the last decade, I've watched this situation get progressively worse.

bio sam uključen u projekte koji ciljaju učiniti nešto po tom pitanju.

And during the past five years,

I kako mogu pomoći?

Pa, prije svega,

I've been engaged in projects that aim to do something about it.

Danas me svi ovdje slušate,

So how can I help?

a to je, naravno, ono što želim učiniti -- podići svijest.

Well, first of all,

Ali, želim učiniti više od podizanja osviještenosti o problemima.

I have you all here today listening to me,

and that's, of course, what I want to do -- to raise awareness.

Također želim pomoći industriji da pronađe rješenja.

But I want to do more than just raise awareness of the issues.

Evo par prijedloga,

I also want to help the industry identify solutions.

od mnogih.

Prvi: tantijemi ovisno o obožavateljima.

And here are a few suggestions,

Kako bi se osiguralo da svi tekstopisci budu pošteno plaćeni,

out of many.

One: fan-centric royalties.

Predlažem streaming usluge raspodijele svoja plaćanja tantijema

In order to ensure that all songwriters get paid fairly,

na temelju ponašanja pojedinih slušatelja.

I suggest that streaming services allocate their royalty payments

Pojedinačni opis trebao bi biti podijeljen s brojem pjesama

based on the behavior of individual listeners.

koje je pojedinačni slušatelj preslušao tijekom mjesec dana.

The individual description should be divided by the number of songs

To svakoj pjesmi daje vrijednost.

the individual listener has played during a month.

Ako je pretplata 9,99,

a slušatelj je, ponovno, preslušao 10 pjesama Arne Jansena taj mjesec,

That gives each song a value.

If the subscription is 9.99,

svaka pjesma ima vrijednost od 0,99, skoro dolar,

and the listener has played 10 Arne Jansen, again,

i to je iznos koji će biti isplaćeni Arneu Jansenu.

songs that month,

each song has the value of .99, almost a dollar,

Prema postojećem sustavu,

možete biti sigurni da će Arne dobiti

and that's the amount that will be paid to Arne Jansen.

iznos od 0,00-nešto sitno dolara.

Under the current system,

Dakle, ovaj pristup tantijemima vezano za obožavatelje donio bi potrebnu pravednost

you can be sure that Arne would get

the value of .00-something dollars.

te može graditi na važnim temeljima koje su napravili Deezer i SoundCloud.

So this fan-centric approach to royalties will bring much-needed fairness

Ali, možda najjednostavniji i najučinkovitiji način

and can build on the important starts made by Deezer and SoundCloud.

za poboljšanje tantijema od streaminga

bio bi kada bi streaming usluge povećale iznos koji naplaćuju.

But perhaps the simplest and most effective way

to improve streaming royalties

Cijene streaminga stoje na smiješnih 9,99 već više od desetljeća.

would be for streaming services to increase how much they charge.

U međuvremenu, čini se da Netflix povećava cijene svaki tjedan.

Streaming pricing has been stuck at ridiculous 9.99 for more than a decade.

Istraživanja pokazuju da će pretplatnici platiti više;

Meanwhile, Netflix seems to increase its pricing every week.

9,99 bi vrlo lako moglo postati 11,99,

možda čak 12,99.

Research shows that subscribers will pay more;

I treće: zamorna, ali apsolutno potrebna registracija.

9.99 could quite easily become 11.99,

perhaps even 12.99.

Gdje god 80.000 novih pjesama dnevno ulazi u glazbenu industriju,

And thirdly: the tedious but absolutely necessary registration.

trebaju postojati portali za registraciju koji su jednostavni za korištenje

Wherever the 80,000 new songs per day make their entry into the music industry,

kako bismo bili sigurni da bitni podaci o autorskom djelu budu zabilježeni rano.

there should be user-friendly registration portals

To bi smanjilo problem s crnim kutijama i sukobima.

to make sure that relevant information about the work is captured early.

Smatram da je to obaveza društva za kolektivno ostvarenje autorskih prava,

This would diminish the problem with black boxes and conflicts.

koja skupljaju tantijeme autora na izvoru,

treba modernizirati i prilagoditi njihovu tehnologiju na digitalno doba.

In my view, it is an obligation for collecting societies,

who collect creators' royalties at source,

Znam da je meni lako stajati ovdje pred vama

to modernize and to adapt their technology to the digital age.

i nabrajati popis prijedloga za industriju --

I know it's easy for me to stand here in front of you

puno lakše od ostvarivanja tih promjena.

and reel off a list of suggestions for the industry --

Ali, promjene se moraju dogoditi,

i to uskoro.

much easier than making these changes happen.

Presudno je da ova promjena treba biti potaknuta

But change does need to happen,

od glazbene industrije u cjelini,

and soon.

svaki dio radeći zajedno.

Crucially, this change needs to be brought about

Pjesma i tekstopisac pokreću sve,

by the music industry as a whole,

od snimanja do nastupa uživo,

each part working together.

The song and the songwriter fuel everything,

ni majica kratkih rukava ne bi se prodala da bend nije imao dobre pjesme.

from the recording through to live performances,

Stvorio sam uspomene na neke od tih pjesama,

even a T-shirt would not sell if the band hadn't good songs.

od Everly Brothersa

I have created memories to some of those songs,

a onda Beatlesa,

Eltona Johna i mnogih drugih,

from the Everly Brothers

pjesme koje bi me ponekad iznenadile s ubodom ljubomore,

and then the Beatles,

Elton John and many more,

brzo zamjenjene njihovom čistom ljepotom

songs that sometimes would surprise me with a stab of ending,

i inspiracijom koju su mi dale.

Znam što znače

quickly washed away by their sheer beauty

i što su značile za mene.

and the inspiration that they gave me.

Često sam se pitao: Što bismo bili bez glazbe?

I know what they mean

and what they meant to me.

Manje ljudska bića, u to sam uvjeren.

I've often wondered: What would we be without music?

Ako ne bismo mogli slušati glazbu, na što bi onda još bili gluhi?

Less human, I'm convinced of that.

Izgleda da nikada ne razmišljamo o tome,

If we couldn't hear music, then what else would we be deaf to?

iako je glazba cijelo vrijeme svuda oko nas.

But we never seem to think about that,

Ovo je trenutak da cijela glazbenu industrija potakne ulaganje

even though music is all around us all of the time.

u ono što je, bez sumnje, njena najvrednija imovina.

This is the moment for the entire music industry to invest in supporting

Previše tekstopisaca pate u ovom škripajućem sustavu.

what is, without a doubt, its most valuable asset.

Rješenja poput onih koje sam naveo, mogu pomoći rebalansirati glazbenu industriju

Far too many songwriters out there are suffering in this creaking system.

tako da sve više tekstopisaca i njihovih slušatelja

Solutions like those that I have outlined could help rebalance the song economy

će se moći nasloniti i reći, potpunu iskreno,

upravo ono što sam rekao u pjesmi o kojoj sam govorio na početku:

so that more songwriters and their listeners

will be able to lean back and say, in all honesty,

„Hvala vam na glazbi.”

exactly what I said in the song that I was talking about in the beginning:

"Thank you for the music."