Were the Spice girls good at that or was Cowell’s team good at that?

I guess that’s why I included the brand and image as well as the music as requirements for success. The Spice Girls were clearly an interesting group of individuals but I have no doubt that much (most?) of the success is attributed to those behind the scenes: composers/choreographers/PR guys etc. I suspect that the royalties were shared between everyone. Either way, some talented people wrote some music that people liked and were rewarded for it.

The Spice Girls launched an anti-division Brexit reuinion tour……bleughhhh

humans will regret losing the ability to come together like that and produce art

No they won’t. People will do it because they enjoy doing it.

My history with buying music.
Thru the 90s I bought CDS – a few hundred of them half cheapo remainders so maybe a couple of hundred quid a year ish? Napster / limewire came along and I was an early adopter and my music buying dwindled. Along came legal streaming and again I was an early adopter and pay my £120 a year. I haven’t bought a cd for decades.

So now from me artists are getting less – and its much more widely spread but I am paying for my music. I would happily support a way of paying artists more fairly but I am not going down a route that costs a lot more or provides a lot less.

No they won’t. People will do it because they enjoy doing it.

The level of adrenaline that the orchestra is showing at the end only ever comes with playing at or close to that level.

People don’t whoop and holler at the end of Daves brass band playing the theme tune to Dads army in a Doncaster park.

The level of adrenaline that the orchestra is showing at the end only ever comes with playing at or close to that level.

AIUI most orchestras haven’t been profitable for decades, they’re mainly subsidised by the state eg the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is funded by the Arts Council.

People don’t whoop and holler at the end of Daves brass band playing the theme tune to Dads army in a Doncaster park.

Not sure what your point is here tbh.

Re streaming, I just discovered Rival Sons by clicking on a scroll bar. Halfway through this album, it’s already added to my collection. Can’t beat that with CDs.

I pay for streaming for the kids mostly. Its good for checking out stuff that’s new to me but I could do that on YouTube anyway. If I find something I really like I buy it on CD or vinyl. I listen to enough podcasts with musicians to know how much they appreciate it when people do that. Also I pay more attention and enjoy the music more if I’d made a little more effort to listen to it. But if you think putting a cd on or flipping a record is too much trouble then you need to have a word with yourself. Music has really helped me this year and buying a few albums is a small price to pay.

I use Spotify a lot at home but I have an old fashioned CD stereo in my car so I have plenty of physical music too. I’ve found a fair few bands through Spotify that I wouldn’t ordinarily listen to and gone on to buy CDs from the band’s website. Just yesterday I ordered 2 signed copies of the new Nothing But Thieves CD (one for me, one for my daughter who loves them). I only bothered listening to them because I could stream their music to see if i enjoyed it first.