You need to take into account inflation, how much was invested vs. how much profit was made & various industries across different sectors. The overall trend has been less and less profit over time, which means companies have to be more and more exploitative or delivery a shittier product over time to keep getting the same returns they have been used to. Eventually it will reach the point of no profit, which is the end-point of capitalism in which it will start another world war or implode to reset.
this is why i feel lucky to have been able to use my stimulus checks on music production gear bc the golden era of cool cheap music equipment is almost over. everything is gonna get shittier but at least i can make annoying music in my apartment.
Nothing specifically is being taken away but a lot of the gear companies like Akai, Moog, Avid (maker of Pro Tools) have been bought out by venture capitalist firms. Akai is actually good example of this. One of their flag ship devices is the MPC line, which has barely been updated since 2017 (the updates they have done recently don't really amount to much, just extra memory and RAM with a giant price jump to match.) They also use worse parts in some of their newer models so things like buttons and drum pads are more likely to fail in comparison to the older ones. They also allegedly don't sound as good as the older ones but you can kinda fix that in a DAW or through external processing if you know what you're doing.
I might be exaggerating a bunch since Behringer is still around and making cheap stuff is their MO but I feel like what's gonna happen is a lot of brands will stop selling their budget lines or make their budget lines way shittier. there's also a good chance a lot of the more innovative/weirder equipment gets discontinued as these VC owned brands focus on the more popular stuff that sells better.
in terms of what I got, I got a crazy deal on a Korg Monologue, which is a pretty cool analog synth that Aphex Twin helped design. I also picked up an Arturia Microfreak which is still getting cool free software updates 3 or 4 years after it originally came out and a Roland SP-404 mk2 sampler and I picked up an old 2012 macbook pro that somehow still runs all the music programs I want after I swapped out the hard drive for a solid state.
it sure is fun having every form of art and media in your life experience enshittification
falling rate of profit goes brrrrrr
profits are high as ever, but wages and quality are just as low
No they aren't, profits have been continuously falling since WW2. They are as low as ever.
really? companies have been pulling in trillions in profits
falling rate of profit doesn't mean there was a loss. Just less profit (by percent, ROI) than previous years
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2022/12/18/the-us-rate-of-profit-in-2021/
https://thenextrecession.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/usrop1.png
You need to take into account inflation, how much was invested vs. how much profit was made & various industries across different sectors. The overall trend has been less and less profit over time, which means companies have to be more and more exploitative or delivery a shittier product over time to keep getting the same returns they have been used to. Eventually it will reach the point of no profit, which is the end-point of capitalism in which it will start another world war or implode to reset.
this is why i feel lucky to have been able to use my stimulus checks on music production gear bc the golden era of cool cheap music equipment is almost over. everything is gonna get shittier but at least i can make annoying music in my apartment.
what are they taking away/what did you get?
Nothing specifically is being taken away but a lot of the gear companies like Akai, Moog, Avid (maker of Pro Tools) have been bought out by venture capitalist firms. Akai is actually good example of this. One of their flag ship devices is the MPC line, which has barely been updated since 2017 (the updates they have done recently don't really amount to much, just extra memory and RAM with a giant price jump to match.) They also use worse parts in some of their newer models so things like buttons and drum pads are more likely to fail in comparison to the older ones. They also allegedly don't sound as good as the older ones but you can kinda fix that in a DAW or through external processing if you know what you're doing.
I might be exaggerating a bunch since Behringer is still around and making cheap stuff is their MO but I feel like what's gonna happen is a lot of brands will stop selling their budget lines or make their budget lines way shittier. there's also a good chance a lot of the more innovative/weirder equipment gets discontinued as these VC owned brands focus on the more popular stuff that sells better.
in terms of what I got, I got a crazy deal on a Korg Monologue, which is a pretty cool analog synth that Aphex Twin helped design. I also picked up an Arturia Microfreak which is still getting cool free software updates 3 or 4 years after it originally came out and a Roland SP-404 mk2 sampler and I picked up an old 2012 macbook pro that somehow still runs all the music programs I want after I swapped out the hard drive for a solid state.
The microfreak is easily going to be a classic. That touchbed is super fun to noodle on and cv out is awesome for eurorack