60spicker - Posted - 03/17/2014:  15:00:56

I'm late to this discussion, because I only recently joined. I do, however, have strong opinions on the matter. I've written two books, "Reinventing Local Media, volumes I & II," and I think there are two separate issues here. One is the "2nd Gutenberg Moment," brought about by the Web and life therein. This is the most all-consuming change in the way we communicate since the 1st Gutenberg Moment in the 15th Century. All of Western civilization will be impacted, because the role of the middleman in economic transitions can be by-passed in many ways. This is what Jack's lamenting in the collapse of hierarchies and accompanying middleman profit centers. These things are industrial age relics. I'll agree that many people are being hurt, but trying to roll back time with whining and complaining accomplishes nothing. The horse is out of the barn, and we're better off looking for ways to profit in a middleman-less universe. The second issue is the complaint of artists since time began. I recall a scene from the Charleton Heston film "The Agony and the Ecstasy," the story of Michelangelo painting the Sistine chapel. In the catacombs, a group of artists are gathered to support Michelangelo, for he's just been forbidden from finishing the project. They're all complaining about how artistic people should have the money to do what they want, when one guy says, "But we're artists. We'll always be a slave to another man's nickel." How true this is, for artistic people find value in other things. Don't get me wrong; I'd love to be rich. I'm not and never will be, and that's okay, as long as I have my banjo.

Frankly, the music community is discovering new ways to reach their fans and new talent is being discovered in different ways today. These are both GREAT for music and its advancement, but what's hurting is the established music industry. My view is perhaps that industry needs pruning, for surely what began as a way to support artists has become a den of thieves who profit, as middlemen, in the relationship between creators and consumers. It'll all work out in the end.