It was an interesting interview. I wonder if the comment regarding his move to solo in concert with his statement regarding the demise of sales of music CD's is more of a financial than a creative decision.

I wonder though, where all this is heading.

Assuming he is correct and that live performances become the only means for bands to make a good income, there are only so many venues, and a limited amount of time for people to attend concerts. Not every band who needs to perform live to make a living will be able to succeed. Instead, it will be only a limited few will be successful - those with the better marketing or financial backing or performance skills. Artists with poor performance skills but who are great song-writer and musicians will be marginalised even further than they are now.

Also, the lack of regular and reliable income from recorded music will be a disincentive to many musician to put time and effort into producing their best work. As a result, many great songs will never exist, instead the majority of "free" music will be cheap and nasty since no listeners will place a monetary value on it. You get what you pay for.

For touring - the audiences will polarise. Most concert goers will be young (older people have more commitments that keep them away from such things) so music will become even more youth-oriented, and everything else, especially niche markets will stagnate further.

The technology for recorded music (digital downloads, CDs etc) may also stop advancing - because the quality of sound reproduction will have to remain relatively poor in order to help induce people to attend concerts.

Perhaps there is simply too much music these days, too much choice, and too much mediocre rubbish as a result. Perhaps the next few years will see big changes and a lot of the dross will be cast aside and only the best musicians survive. Sadly though, history tells us that the best quality rarely wins over average quality that is better marketed.

In conclusion:

In ten years time we will see if the music-listening public's reluctance to actually pay for music means better music will be produced for their listening pleasure.

Not bloody likely!


hj