The pie (the total of paid-for music) is shrinking too, though - because people are giving away free pies because they can.

And like any folk scene, Christian rock fans hate their bands for getting successful just as much as any metalhead or indie kid. "Oh, they're getting a bit worldly." No, you're a hipster.

Well, actually, they are. Fan fiction directly competes with what was the midlist of books. Fan fiction is laughed at for the hideous shit, but lots of it is passable quality if you like the characters, and it turns out the precious commodity is reader time and attention. So it plays out just like with music, except you need even less equipment. It's also totally a folk culture - the writers are the readers.

Audacity - simple, clunky, terrible interface Audacity - is basically the multitrack recorder we would have FUCKING KILLED FOR in the 1980s. And 1990s.

Trouble is their weapon was Rebecca Black. FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIIIIIDAAAAAAYYYYYYY

But it might indicate that man is no longer dogs' best friend.

It's not obvious that a large number of musicians having a very small slice of the pie is worse than a very small number of musicians having a large slice of the pie.

How is this measured?

A poll might be a start...

I can quite believe it, but do you have a cite on that 8 million that I can use? Thanks :-)

I used to be a music journalist, so "Old man yells at cloud" describes my life pretty accurately.

Yep. Note also how fan fiction actually competes with what was the midlist of books. Fan fiction is laughed at for the hideous shit, but lots of it is passable quality if you like the characters, and it turns out the precious commodity is reader time and attention. So it plays out just like with music, except you need even less equipment. It's also totally a folk culture - the writers are the readers.

This already happens. Deadmau5 has confessed he basically shows up, presses "play" and dances a lot. (no cite readily to hand, sorry)

I blame neoliberalism. Day jobs are fucking horrible these days too.

What you're missing is that the mainstream has never been about seeking out aesthetic quality. The driving force has always been to market things they know how to market. Weird shit can spend its time in the indie leagues, and we can pick it up later.

Yeah, that's 'cos there's not enough free autotune plugins.