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quoted 5 lines the way i see it, quite simply, if artists don't make a living from sales of

> the way i see it, quite simply, if artists don't make a living from sales of > hard copies of their work, they will ultimately have to return to > life-eating day-jobs which will only destroy their potential. > you can't be expected to create great music as well as catching the bus to > work every morning...

This will *mostly* only happen to the artists that deserve it. Let's try to loosly categorize recording artists (this isn't exhaustive): I. Untalented Artists i. No image - These artists don't have any sales anyway, so it doesn't matter. Plus, they're untalented, so they don't deserve to make a living off music. ii. Appealing image a. bad production/little ambition/little luck - No sales and no record companies means that these artists, who sometimes get rich, will flounder. And deservingly so. b. good production/ambitious/lucky - Even with minimal record sales, a few of these artists will make it and drive us nuts. But that's how the world works. They will have huge stadium shows, appear on MTV, and have their 15 minutes of fame. Perhaps they will make slightly less money in the pure digital music world, but it doesn't matter, because many will lose it all anyway by the age of 29. II. (somewhat or very) Talented Artists i. Mainstream appeal (U2, Madonna, Radiohead, Bjork, etc.) - Will continue to make loads of money by touring, movie soundtracks, etc. They are barely hurt by dropping record sales. ii. Nonmainstream appeal a. Strong fan base (Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Tortoise, etc) - Will make money with touring, or if they don't tour much, with album sales etc. because their fans are obsessive and will buy anything they release. They will make a complete living off this, but can't expect to be extremely well-off because, after all, they appeal to a *relatively* small group of people. b. Experimental w/ little fan support (countless examples) - Here's the tricky one. They don't appeal to many people, but their existence is crucial because it makes music interesting and progressive (standard e.g. Neu! wasn't popular but influenced music dramatically). However, these type of people fall into two (perhaps not mutually exclusive) categories: 1. Come from wealthy families, don't need to worry about day to day living. - Obviously record sales don't hurt these people, until Daddy pulls the plug, and perhaps they've made it by then. If not, well at least they had the chance. 2. Are so passionate about music, that they will take sacrifice everything to be able to make it. - The really great artists fall here. Some get lucky and eventually make it. Others don't. But whether there is music pirating or not isn't going to stop them from making music. If they are truly talented, their work will eventually get discovered, and then they can tour, be happy, and move into category I.ii.a. Otherwise, they will tragically disappear. But such disappearance isn't new - being an artist has always had that risk. And in my opinion, this risk will actually *decrease* once recording companies fall away, because the public won't be as hand-fed their music as in the past. But this is but a prediction. So who gets hurt who might not anyway with decreasing record sales? No category that I can think of. As I said, this isn't exhaustive, so if people come up with new categories, I'm all game. -marco --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org