Re: Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?

["Warren Sirota" <wsirota@wsdesigns.com>]

And I'll go one step further: in plumbing, you're not "competing" (for attention, if nothing else) which 1/3 of the other kids on the block who all grew up wanting to be plumbers. Now that we have a world in which the lines between "serious amateur" (like me, for instance - someone dedicated for life but not making a living at it or expecting to) and "college student with academic pricing on a cool music sw package or two" is fading fast, we'll soon be paying listeners instead of vice-versa. 

If memory serves, a theme in PK Dick's "The Game Players of Titan" was such an over-abundance of product and advertisers that *consumers* were the valued commodity. I don't think we're so far from that in the music world. I think we have to find a way to see this as an "explosion of creativity" and trust (or perhaps help shape) the good things to come out of it.

And maybe it *is* a good thing if some of the corporate music structures fall, and people are supported by the freely-given generosity of their fans in appreciation of music that is freely-available. There *are* some people supported by this model, though I fear that number will continue to be small. But perhaps something new and better will rise from the ash heap of the music industry. I know it's a vague hope, but it's the best I can do right now.