I read Seth Godin’s blog post today and just had to smile 
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/music-vs-the-music-industry.html
He quotes:
“This is the greatest moment in the history of music if your dream is to distribute as much music as possible to as many people as possible, or if your goal is to make it as easy as possible to become heard as a musician. There’s never been a time like this before.”
I was at a company meeting last night and as it always happens someone else got interested in the band (DonkeyBox), and the general music scene. As always the typical question is along the lines of:
“Are you aiming to get signed?”
My answer to that is always:
“Why get signed? So I can sell my music in the biggest music stores in the world? But I can already do that on iTunes!”
The music industry is frankly in a huge mess, they’ve extracted too much money out of you and me in the past. Now things will be available in more quantity, with more choice and a better way of storing and organising.
The future is bright and both as a musician and a big consumer of music I love it!
I agree that it is a great time for music…always has been. Check out my words on the downfall of the music industry at http://www.thegreenfuzz.com.
Wade
Thanks for the feedback and the encouraging comments on this. I have a new follow up post coming from this too. I am found on twitter as http://twitter.com/atulrana
I agree it is a great time to be a musician. Developing the tribe is a slow process. What is available to me as a musician today was unheard of previously. One just has to spend time making contact with listeners and spending time making music.
http://www.PatrickSmithMusic.com