Why don’t they play indie alternative pop music? It’s easier than ever to create, surely there are many bands with almost no audience who would give away their music for free. The reason may be discovery, but they could band together and make a centralized platform.

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neutronicus 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Because then the coffee shop has to curate it or the band needs to market to the coffee shop.

Incentives are mismatched here - the indie band benefits from being noticed and sought out, the coffee shop wants to set a vibe without distracting or irritating anyone (which music can do simply by repeating, if you don't curate a large enough collection).

So unless your playlist is, like, part of the product you're selling (which it is for a number of coffee shops to be fair), you just look for something like "10 hours of lo-fi beats to study to" and throw it on.

	▲	rvnx 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The indie band in France also collect subsidies from "SACEM" AND "SPRE" (and YouTubeurs from "SCAM"). With SACEM, if you have a cafe, then you have to pay 4000 USD per year to support musicians, etc etc. Of course, this is only broadcasting rights, you have to acquire the music (or rent it) on a B2B platform. If you play AI Lofi in theory you don't have to, but don't worry that inspectors will find a way to fine you. Ironically, the human band you are playing will get zero, and it will go to the big rich and popular artists.