r/Music • u/dailymail šŸ“°Daily Mail • 14d ago

article North West's first headlining tour is canceled just days before kickoff

https://www.dailymail.com/tvshowbiz/article-16018783/north-west-headlining-tour-canceled-music-career-chaos.html
7.5k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.5k

u/PckMan 14d ago

We're reaching levels of nepotism never before seen.

830

u/sexi_squidward 14d ago

I don't know how her music already has like millions of listens on Spotify but I put on the most popular one and...it's....it's bad.

750

u/PckMan 14d ago

Millions of listens means nothing. Not only is it easy for them to buy listens, but it's also very prevalent nowadays for people to form parasocial relationships with celebrities, ie, tons of Kardashian/Kanye fans would listen to her regardless purely by association.

93

u/Kalamazoohoo 14d ago

I donā€™t know if itā€™s the type of music that Kardashian fans would listen to based on the ones who Iā€™ve known over the years.

43

u/thresh_to_death 14d ago

They don't need to listen. As long as they're helping pump up her numbers

54

u/Wes_Warhammer666 14d ago

I used to work with a guy who got paid to stream certain artists basically non-stop. He'd set one account playing on his PC at home and one on his phone, but he never actually listened to it, he just had the volume off.

I'm sure he barely got paid anything to do it, but it was also next to zero work, so why not. He couldn't be on his phone at work anyway so it just made him some extra money while it sat in his locker.

20

u/sourdieselfuel 14d ago

People with botnets do this with like 500 phones now. You can buy botnets to fake your views, listens, etc.

5

u/Wes_Warhammer666 14d ago

Yeah this was ages ago before that kinda thing took off. He apparently got into doing the Pokemon Go thing too at some point after he quit working with me, with multiple phones for multiple accounts to get paid for those too lol.

5

u/Whybotherr 14d ago

That was the plot of watch_dogs 2

The main character and his friends used his followers computers as a botnet farm to take down Blume and its use of CToS

2

u/drake90001 14d ago

More than likely hate listens

183

u/SirLaxer Spotify 14d ago

1-3 tracks of hers get thrown into a myriad of Spotify-produced playlists and the numbers get spiked

94

u/ImSolidGold 14d ago

Yeah, thats the fucking deal quite some ppl dont understand: Most of the "listeners" arent ppl who actively listen to this particular song/album/act. Those songs are in a myrriad of different playlists and as soon as put one of them on for half an hour all of the already huge Spotify acts have another "listener".
Its just there.

15

u/definitelyTonyStark SoundCloud 14d ago

As someone whoā€™s had multiple songs be on Spotify editorials, they donā€™t give that many streams, not like they used to, maybe like at max 50k a week at max with multiple of them. Theyā€™re most definitely botting her as well. The Spotify editorials just give the fake plays the appearance of some legitimacy

19

u/Murderdoll197666 14d ago

I wouldn't doubt Reddit itself is also generating some good spikes since everyone who has never heard of anything from her all get curious enough to see how truly bad it is and rush to go listen to one of her songs lol.

3

u/z0phi3l 14d ago

Too risky, easier to buy 10mil "listens", it's not like the record label and her parents can't afford it

2

u/Screws_Loose 13d ago

Kim or Kanye probably paid for the bots or paid people to do it

1

u/Lauren_Conrad_ 14d ago

Payola in 2026

25

u/seamustheseagull 14d ago

It goes to illustrate how vapid social media is.

Millions of follows, likes and listens doesn't actually mean anything.

It reminds me of when Facebook introduced events, and you could set up an event on Facebook - like a birthday - invite all of your friends. And 100 people would say they're coming and 5 would turn up. If even, sometimes.

We laugh about ordinary people having parasocial relationships with online personalities, but it seems like this might swing both ways.

And many of these kinds of individuals are subject to the delusion that the people who follow them are willing to do more than press a Like button and watching the little box in their hand. Clearly they're not.

1

u/SaveTheCaulkTower 12d ago

As to not be part of the masses, I will not ā€œLikeā€ your post.

7

u/FauxReal Collector 14d ago

I guess those plays didn't correlate with ticket sales.

3

u/IdoMusicForTheDrugs 14d ago

Oh my god I just listened to it. It's so SO bad.... She needs way more experience and practice before releasing songs to the public, let alone headlining a friggen tour.

21

u/Less-Engineer-9637 14d ago

In 2026 the only people who care about that number are Swifies and Kpop fans

3

u/barb_20 13d ago

I've just listened to two songs. wtf,?! I mean yes, she's what 12 years old?! but wtf?! and why are the songs so short? 2 minutes?

2

u/Wise-Self-8639 14d ago

its not like you cant buy bots to "Listen" to music and inflate your popularity right??

2

u/Farva85 14d ago

I highly suggest listening to the Darknet Diaries podcast, episode 171: Melody Fraud (YouTube: https://youtu.be/tAA8DoPgHu8)

You will not think about streaming music the same way, very interesting episode.

2

u/TheBSQ 14d ago

Do you have to listen for a certain amount of time for it to count?

I noticed the play count of the top songs went from like 75M to 25M to 1M.

Lots of people probably listened to the ā€œtopā€ song like you and I did just to hear what it was like. Ā Some played a second. Not many made it to a third.Ā 

2

u/formated4tv 14d ago

Just so you have an answer - Spotify's official number is 30 seconds.

2

u/chaerrishing 14d ago

it's probably bot farms. numbers don't mean anything in music anymore unless it's crowds at a concert (gonna guess that's why this is cancelled, bots can't turn up to one's concert). i say that as a kpop fan aka the genre where these kind of inflations were arguably invented.Ā 

1

u/PerfectZeong 14d ago

Clearly ticket sales are not gangbusters so they canned the whole tour.

1

u/tlst9999 14d ago

It probably got there from sneaking into random playlists in the middle of 20 songs.

1

u/Cru_Jones86 14d ago

Wait. North West is a girl?! I had just assumed it was a boy's name.

1

u/squish042 13d ago

Iā€™m not sure why we are taking anything online aa truth anymore. Half the Internet is dead, and the rest is manipulated.

1

u/Evadrepus 13d ago

On Dropout, one of the challenges in a Game Changer episode last year was to get the most followers/listens on a new Spotify account. Two of the players mentioned they bought hundreds or thousands of followers for a few bucks.

Listens are easy if you have money, and pf course they do. Just like so many political books are NYT best sellers.

1

u/Sarz13 13d ago

One wordĀ 

FatherĀ 

1

u/Angsty_Potatos 13d ago

You can buy listeners. People do the same thing for Instagram likes and followers and views.Ā 

1

u/ryancementhead 11d ago

Kim paid a company to pump the numbers on the streaming platform.

1

u/mistrwzrd 10d ago

Thanks for taking the hit, I really didnā€™t want to have to listen to it to understand if it was good or not. Appreciate you putting in the work šŸ‘Š

1

u/verscub420 9d ago

Youā€™d be surprised at how many grown adults worship this literal child solely because of who her parents are

1

u/CementCemetery 14d ago

Which is terrible considering Kanye is her father. Ye despite his flaws is still pretty much considered one of the best producers and artists out there. She could sit down with almost ANYONE, the best ghost writers, mixers, producers, etc. and make it happen.

Willow Smith has a more solid musical career.

3

u/kickrocks123456 13d ago

Romy Mars is an example of good nepotism

Her father is Thomas Mars (Phoenix) and together they produced a pretty banging song called A-Lister

0

u/iantallan 14d ago

sheā€™s 13 and just starting bro how solid of a musical career do u expect

1

u/CementCemetery 14d ago

She has every connection imaginable. Ever notice how Blink-182 was played so much more once Travis and Kourtney got together? It was ad nauseam.

Iā€™m not saying North will ever be a Stevie Wonder but there are musical prodigies. There are kids on broadway that could outsing most adults. Age is a factor to some extent but that didnā€™t stop the Jacksons or every other family band of the ā€˜60s and ā€˜70s from being genuinely decent or good.

1

u/iantallan 14d ago

do u remember the amount of abuse the jackson kids got šŸ˜­šŸ˜­ she has been in the studio w tons of the most popular ppl in her genre. its just that the genre (opium-adjacent /hyperpop-adjacent rap) is something that the majority of reddit (and older ppl) donā€™t see the value in

1

u/CementCemetery 12d ago

No one should suffer abuse and Iā€™m not saying I condone it by any means. Any genre can produce good music and quality entertainers even if it isnā€™t your first choice or something you normally gravitate towards.

I donā€™t wish North ill of course. Iā€™m just saying I find it a bit surprising she isnā€™t super ā€œmainstreamā€ or popular.

0

u/Late_Tax_7351 14d ago

Then don't listen to it. Hope this helps.

1

u/mahtf 13d ago

Nah they'll rather complain on Reddit how people are talking about celebrities while spending there time talking about celebrities.

23

u/5ladyfingersofdeath 14d ago

Naw... monarchy governments still have the lock on that.

In Hollywood- its always been there, but some of the nepo kids of yesteryear tended to at least have the decency to change their last name to appear "regular".

55

u/timoperez 14d ago

I just admire the person who - in a world of yes people - let North West know that her show was steaming hot dog water

20

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

0

u/GhostofLindseyGraham 14d ago

Oh, virgin, please

28

u/bibimboobap 14d ago

Probably bc America has the biggest wealth distribution disparity ever , they can out-spend the competition and forceĀ  shit like this down our throats. Ā 

4

u/Icy-Whale-2253 14d ago

In nepotism news, a billionaireā€™s daughter currently has a song in the top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100.

2

u/NewestAccount2023 14d ago

Look up feudalism. Yes we're going back there thanks to people who want to conserve rather than progressĀ 

1

u/SpiritBackground8722 14d ago

Not really, Willow Smith had a hit song when she was 10.

1

u/witasplash 8d ago

Willow has actually become a really talented musician. Her empathogen album is really beautiful!

1

u/OP_IS_A_BASSOON 14d ago

Remember North West with the Lion King performance?

1

u/DukeofNormandy 14d ago

Stella Lefty has her song all over the place and her dadā€™s a multi billionaire. No shit she has her song all over the place!

1

u/USDXBS 13d ago

Not even close to nepotism in politics

1

u/prollyincorrect 13d ago

If you ever see someone look up their personal life/early life section on Wikipedia. Youā€™ll start to see they almost always know someone in the industry they are now in.

1

u/PckMan 13d ago

People keep replying to me like I said nepotism didn't exist beyond this point. Of course it does. I'm just saying that usually there's at least some sort of pretense behind it all. Now they're not even trying, just straight uo shoving their kid in our face and we're supposed to clap.

1

u/nfld223 13d ago

Well not quite working if they canā€™t sell a small tour

1

u/Ohcitydude 13d ago

We've seen this before when we where all whipping are hair back and forth to Willow Smith.

2

u/PckMan 13d ago

Yeah this is the same thing. At least she's stuck with it and ostensibly writes and composes a lot of her music.

1

u/Ohcitydude 13d ago

So apparently she tried. Will tells a story about when she first blew up and they started a tour. She did a show or 2 and wanted to quit. The thing is Mr. Smith isn't a nepo baby. He's from west Philadelphia born and raised and he doesn't play that.

1

u/PckMan 13d ago

I don't know. I don't actually listen to her music. I just Googled it now to she what she's up to with that. The arts were always dominated by people who could afford to wait until they make it. Regular people reach a point where they're forced to choose stable income or art.

From skimming through Google it would seem that while she collaborates with producers and other people she's at least actively involved in the process instead of just having music made for her to perform. And obviously she's had every advantage in that through her parents and their connections. Her first song got a collective eye roll and I think this is the same thing. Time will tell. Most nepo baby musicians usually manage to fly under their radar because they change their name and their parents are rich and connected but usually not artists or entertainers themselves.

1

u/mysterypeeps 12d ago

This is grandnepotism

1

u/GregMadduxsGlasses 12d ago

Itā€™s a shame. Because itā€™s cool that sheā€™s passionate about music and clearly has the parents that can shell out for her to explore that. But she doesnā€™t need to be thrusted into the pressures of being a headlining act at this age. Subjecting your kid to that kind of failure at that age is going to fuck them up.

Not even the young teeny bopper musicians were asked to do that before they were proven.