DIY 2.0

what is often forgotten these days, is, that it was not as easy to become an "artist" as it is today. art, music, was a world of its own; it was almost confusing that musicians belonged to the same human race as everyone. they were stars, idols, far above the common world and common people. it was not something that was "copied" easily. surely, in those decades there were also many kids who tried to become rock'n'roll, or other music stars themselves. but generally, for the general population, trying to pursue a "music career" seemed irrational, far away from the serious occupations one should dedicate oneself too. you were either born a musician - or you were not.
punk was one of the first biggest challenges to this. everyone could become a punk musician. this is one chord, this is a second - now start your own punkband. it was not a "specialist" "occupation" you had to learn lengthy.
kids could do what they want, express themselves musically - and became "stars" (or anti-stars) in the new scene.
with techno, the change was even more drastic. people, with somewhat of a lack of social contact, would buy a second hand sampler, and a few months later play in front of thousands at a people at a rave, and punching out a new 12" every few weeks.
with techno, *really* everyone could finally become an artist. the aristocracy of music and art, it's elitism and tradionalism, was finally overcome - seemingly.

nowadays, even the techno revolution seems kinda shrunken compared with todays field. today, literally "every joe" is out to be an artist and doing techno, or other music, or other art.
yet there is a bitter taste to it. this "grassroots cultural revolution" was propagated by some of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, and countless of energy by a multitude of persons was invested in it. and now this victory finally came true. yet it does feel like a bitter victory, after all. it doesn't feel like the envisioned utopia after all, were the common people and the societal fringe make wondrous works of art one after another, now that they own the means of cultural production in true "cultural anarchist" style. in fact, a lot of music that is now produced feels bland. and in fact, to many it feels more bland than the music of the times when producing music was only left to "experts" and the elite.

what did go wrong? were our sonically revolutionary ideals too lofty? maybe people are not just interested in music too experimental or groundbreaking after all?
no. what went wrong was something entirely different. what is wrong is that, in the moment, we have only made half the way, for a true cultural anarchist revolution.
the revolution was more or less total in the field of the ability for people to create music themselves. but creation is only one half: what is missing is distribution.

we have the means of production, but the means of distributing music, art, sounds, is still "in the hands of the enemy". a lot of peole will concur: everyone can "distribute" the music himself too now; put it on soundcloud or youtube or any other service. yes, but this is very weak distribution. at the lowest level. a band that plays in a famous TV show or at one of the big festivals will reach *much* more people than those who just upload it to youtube, or soundcloud, or a social network.
yes, there, and there are many, people who got "well known" (remember, we should be anti-stars though - but this would need to be addressed in a different text) by social networks or soundcloud only - but these are a few - in numbers maybe even comparable to the "elitist" artist before the DIY age.
to a large number, using this services, usually yields a very minimal result. some of the most wondrous tracks i heard on soundcloud do not even have listener counts above one hundred.

so, yes, distribution is open to everyone - but the "powerful" distribution to only a few, and the real powerful ones to even fewer people. for example, even the sonic experiments of those who attend an academic setting (students) usually arise more interest than those who "just" put it on a cloud. because academia offers a more powerful distribution to the clouds.

i am hundert percent sure this problem can be overcome, maybe easily, but it would probably a hard, difficult task - at least as difficult to attain as the first DIY revolution i addressed at the beginning of this text.

it is possible to generate a situation where you, as a noone, as the average guy (but not with average mindset, i hope!) can make wondrous, fantastic, adventurous music, and then use a form of distributions that will easily let you reach hundred of thousands, maybe even millions (or billions?) of listeners.
how that would, and could be done, that would demand the place of a different text.