This seems to be an argument that the price of music has fallen because we no longer have to pay for little plastic disks. Nobody was paying for the plastic disks or the clunky reels of magnetic tape.
I'm having a hard time understanding how musicians could be better off in 2013 now that a manipulated robotic market has driven the price for recorded music down to $0. As hard as it may be to stomach, the facts seem to indicate that they were better off in the era of A&R reps and cigar-chomping label execs. The things people claim make musicians money in 2013 were also revenue sources, also in the mix, in 1981 (another idiosyncratic tech belief is that the Internet taught musicians how to make t-shirts --- which also get pirated!). Most live musicians make fuck plus all on touring.
What might be the case is that 2013 is a better time to be a hobbyist musician; you might get some national exposure. But since the entire market for recorded music is collapsing, along with many (most?) classic artist follow-on jobs like recording engineering, session musicianship, scouting, and promotion, it seems like 2013 is a distinctly worse time for professional musicians.
(I'm not a musician but come from a family of musicians; my brother is a professional musician, for instance).
ps: I'm not voting your comments down, and voted the parent up; I couldn't disagree with you more strongly but appreciate your civility, which is unfortunately atypical of music licensing discussions on HN.
I wouldn't expect you to vote me down just because we were in disagreement. I know you well enough for that :)
But back to the discussion.
All people start as hobbyists when it comes to playing music. It's something you do, not because you have to, not because it helps others, but because it's fun. It's for most a performing art.
More people can start as hobbyists today than ever before and more people do. More people are also today able to put out records for almost no money.
50 years ago it was both much more expensive and the only distribution you had was the one that the lables owned.
Today everyone can put out a song and everyone an access it. A professionally sounding song has also been driven down to almost nothing.
You need a string quartet? No problem, here is a sound. Need a xylofone? No problem, here is a sound.
Spotifys data show that people are listening to much more off-chart music, because they suddenly have access to it. Bands that was never heard of before or wouldn't have had a chance now has an audience. They wont make Elvis kind of money, but they can at least make a little.
This is the reason why music is a commodity. Not the individual artist but the process of making music and reselling the same performance.
The individual artist can still sell their concerts and do so in fact at many times higher prices than they used to, and people are buying it.
Most musician always made fuck all on touring. Let alone on their records.
I made fuck all when I was a struggling musician myself. Very few people have ever made money on music besides the record labels.
Music isn't an industry it's performing arts and that you can always make money on.
The record industry has nothing to do with music besides it selling it. If anything is a myth, that is the myth.
I'm having a hard time understanding how musicians could be better off in 2013 now that a manipulated robotic market has driven the price for recorded music down to $0. As hard as it may be to stomach, the facts seem to indicate that they were better off in the era of A&R reps and cigar-chomping label execs. The things people claim make musicians money in 2013 were also revenue sources, also in the mix, in 1981 (another idiosyncratic tech belief is that the Internet taught musicians how to make t-shirts --- which also get pirated!). Most live musicians make fuck plus all on touring.
What might be the case is that 2013 is a better time to be a hobbyist musician; you might get some national exposure. But since the entire market for recorded music is collapsing, along with many (most?) classic artist follow-on jobs like recording engineering, session musicianship, scouting, and promotion, it seems like 2013 is a distinctly worse time for professional musicians.
(I'm not a musician but come from a family of musicians; my brother is a professional musician, for instance).
ps: I'm not voting your comments down, and voted the parent up; I couldn't disagree with you more strongly but appreciate your civility, which is unfortunately atypical of music licensing discussions on HN.