The music industry isn't in decline.
You knew that right? If not, click on the link and read the article. When people talk about the decline of the music industry, they are talking about a small group of major labels. If you broaden your sights a little bit, you find that the old world music industry is a small part of a much broader, totally vibrant, and growing world of music, small independents, and alternative platforms that can reach us in a gazillion ways.
The music industry is thriving. And although some of us look fondly on the early Sixties as a golden age, (back then music had a huge cultural significance - there was the culture vs the counter-culture), there is an amazing flowering of great music being made today all across the globe. And it is all accessible!
There are bands and artists alive right now with amazing catalogs of stuff, and making some of the best music you will ever hear that stands up with the greats.
Some of the faves in our record collection: Radiohead, U2, Wilco, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, Yoko Ono, Bjork, Ryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen, The National, Arcade Fire, Patti Smith, Neil Young, Wye Oak, Sigur Ros, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Okervil River, Anthony and the Johnsons, The Flaming Lips, Drive By Truckers, Sonic Youth, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Lucinda Williams, My Bloody Valentine, Patti Griffin, Tom Waits, Jakob Dylan, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Johanna Newsom, Mavis Staples, Brian Eno, David Byrne... oh yeah and etc...