Re: viability of new art music (reaching folks)

["Mike Biffle" <Mike.Biffle@asml.com>]

> I realize that public arts funding took a big hit from Jesse Helms and 
>his barbarian horde, and I've been off the circuit myself for more than 
>ten years, but it comes as a surprise to me that a small, high quality 
>record label should suffer such a decline. What's your experience, and 
>why do you think this is happening? 

This seems tragic to me... Although I suspect your point below might be 
part of the cause.

> Is this collateral damage from the overall dumbing down of American 
>culture, or is it a case of a finite listening audience being spread 
>thinner by an increase in do-it-yourself electronic music and the 
>availability of downloadable music.--  Richard Zvonar, PhD

It would be sad if this is true, but it has a certain profound ring to it. 
Post-modern culture has expanded in so many directions, and simply 
choosing something has become a difficult, time-consuming task which still 
costs money after making a selection. With a given ratio of dreck vs. 
quality, and a much larger sample group... we're going to see far more 
dis-satisfied people. Maybe rather than actually spending money, listeners 
will tend to just sample longer until finding something they actually 
like? 

Yikes! 
-Miko