Really though, a music economy that’s in any way dictated by tweets just seems like the logical extension of a gig economy where positive user ratings are a boon to earnings, or the crowdfunding platforms people flock to when their loved ones are sick and need insulin?

Crowdsourcing anything, whether it be vital resources or popular music, isn’t the most reliable system for determining merit, talent or need — it’s just an arbitrary way to figure out who can generate the most clicks, either by activating their “hive” or by pulling on lucky invisible tendrils of the social structure that connects us all

To paraphrase one of the great poets: “Give me your chart/make it real/or else forget about it.”