From what I've read, Kanye is too much of an egomaniac to pull off something like this. From the stories in Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holloway. And also the "grabbing the mic" incident with Taylor Swift.

To be fair let’s point out that Kanye West probably has bipolar disorder, which is a serious medical condition that really does require medication, and, it’s not really clear if he is taking medication for it consistently.

To exacerbate that the music industry isn’t exactly known for being good for ones mental health - rather, the opposite. They’ll happily let someone suffer if it brings in dollars.

So while I don’t approve of a lot of his behavior (more so the trump stuff than the Taylor Swift stuff), I think Kanye gets a bad rap because people think “asshole”, instead of “someone who genuinely needs medical treatment / support and probably isn’t getting it.”

Not that the two can’t also overlap.

OK, I’ll stop ranting now :).

Kanye would probably prefer your response be "asshole", rather than this smug nonsense which amounts to: "Your opinion is invalid because you have a mental illness."

https://guscost.com/2016/03/31/the-psychology-journal-ad-hom...

I wouldn't be surprised if all the amazing things he's done was during manic phases, in which case I'd understand it if he were wary of medicating his condition.

To be fair to Kanye, he was absolutely correct. Single Ladies is one of the greatest videos of all time. Does anyone even remember what Swift's winning video was? The only reason not to give it to Beyoncé was she had just won something else and "they" were trying to promote Taylor Swift. It's a case of being technically correct but at the wrong time and place.

I actually agree that if someone is going to do it, it's going to be him.

Plus the "grabbing the mic" incident was bound to happen sooner or later. Music awards keep being given to people who clearly didn't deserve them.

I've heard artists (mostly rappers) speaking about this on their songs. Kanye simply did what many before him, I'm sure, thought about doing but didn't have the courage.

> Music awards keep being given to people who clearly didn't deserve them.

This is a new angle to the incident that I haven’t heard before. Are you saying Taylor Swift didn’t deserve the award, and Kanye was justified to speak out?

My impression is that the typical music industry exec is just as egomaniacal as Kanye, just without the creative success to justify it.

PG benefits from self-confidence as well (certainly to a less degree). Being extremely self aware and re-questioning ones positions constantly doesn't seem to be a winning trait in business and promotion. At the very least, if it's being done internally you want to continue to broadcast consistent and confident messages.

Could you expand on why you think being an egomaniac is a negative in this situation?

Firstly, it's a pain in the ass to deal with in a very direct way. A long time ago I did some work for someone who is now very well known in the music business, and we used to have conversations during which he would talk at me. Mostly about himself.

While his persona was actually fairly mild compared to some in the business, it was still not fun to be around. I imagine - possibly unfairly, but perhaps not - that Kanye is the same *10/100/1000.

Secondly it's very hard to trust someone who is primarily interested in themselves. Trust is absolutely critical to any kind of successful business venture, and if you can't manage the real thing you should at least be able to create a convincing illusion of being trustworthy.

Would you trust Kanye with anything? Would you trust him to turn up to meetings, pay people on time, not suddenly flip the table over and run the rules and the game tokens through a blender?

YC has created a certain consistent branding for startups, and Kanye in his current state is going to have a hard time doing the equivalent in music.

Which is not to say he won't succeed, because narcissism is a huge driving force in the music business, and like calls to like. But there's always going to be extra drama over and above the usual startup dramas - and that's going to add up to a whole lot of drama for anyone to deal with.

Justin Vernon from Bon Iver strikes me as another pick for the PG of the music industry. He's an unconventional thinker, a bit of an outsider, and well-connected in the industry. This includes close ties to Kanye. Supposedly he's a fantastic collaborator too. It'd be fascinating if they partnered up to create the YC for artists.

There's already been a lot of changes and efforts to remove heavy handed labels from the music industry with various degrees of success.

Tidal which is part owned by Jay-Z was an answer to Spotify and Apple. It's had varying degrees of success.

Soundcloud enabled anyone to get their voice out there and be heard. There's even a new industry term for these artists Soundcloud Rappers.

There are platforms (podcasts) which cater to these unsigned artists from soundcloud to help promote their music.

Many artists have formed their own labels, Master P who Kanye recently was posting on Twitter about is one artist who went out on his own to create his own label and promote himself.

What is the goal of Kayne on the music industry? It seems right now it is about removing the big record labels from having control over an artist and redistributing their earnings more evenly.

Y Combinator is about introducing founders to massive record labels (VCs) and getting 'singed' by them. These feel like opposite goals to me.

I think Kanye has the sheer talent and connections to build the Y Combinator for the music industry.

The more fundamental problem is portfolio construction. It is hard to invest in early-career artists on friendly deal terms because the top-performing catalogs are maybe only 1/1000 as financially successful as the top-performing YC companies.

I've written about this in more depth here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24528099

Rather than the new, toe the line, corporate approved performers, who speak in focus group validated non controversial statements, whose lyrics are simple, and who maintain image over substance.

I've always thought Kanye is one of the last few rock stars willing to buck industry norms and speak out freely(even if it can be a little controversial at times and hurt his bottom line).

He's what I consider an artist not a performer.

No.

The value that music brings to people’s lives isn’t comparable to tech. There may be conglomerates that one way or another twist people’s arms to pay them and generate revenue for artists, but as a whole the music industry does not produce enough value relative to the world of startups. So there won’t be a YC of music that is large enough.

The Earth is dying and humanity's last effort to save the species is sending seed ships to nearby potentially habitable places. You have been chosen. You will spend ten years travelling alone through the darkest reaches of space, hoping to build a new future. There is limited room in the ship for entertainment and resources. Do you take:

* A recording of Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune".

* A PDF of Uber's 2019 S-1 Prospectus filing.

?

A snapshot of the web at the moment of departure - that ought to keep anyone busy for a decade of study and entertainment.

A textbook?

Colored pencils and paper?

Not sure what you are getting at. Playing one song on loop for 10 years doesn't sound fun.

Not sure if "large enough" matters as comparing the music industry to the tech industry is like comparing a pond to an ocean.

I think the real value here is that a YC of music can fundamentally change the way the industry functions by:

- Allowing artists control over their masters/creations (equity)

- Reducing the barrier to entry to enter the music industry by providing upfront capital, and support (mentorship, music marketing & distribution)

- Concentrating talent in one area

Also if anyone is interested I'd recommend checking out this documentary by J. Cole's Dreamville[0] where a bunch of artists and producers came together in a house and built an album in 10 days (basically like a hackathon)

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-9mZLh5XU8

Yeah artists have been doing “hackathons” since day one :/.

Sorry to be that guy, I just hate seeing jargon migrate. The proper term is simply “working on stuff”, or “collaborating” if you prefer :).

Or Jamming, whatever, what have you. A lot of albums in various genres have gotten made that way over the years.

My intent was to use the term hackathon as more of an analogy than description, as hackathons to me include:

- Working on a team to build a tech solution

- Finite time restrictions

- Limited resources

- "demo day" at the end

all of which are present in this project in the context of album creation

Though I do agree with the sentiment of trying to be deliberate & accurate with word choice when describing things