Ray, the thing I never understand is where did all these people get the idea that YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO HUSTLE? It's ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY!!!

You all really should watch the Ken Burns documentary, and see the exact same things that happened in the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and so on and so forth. Artists were on the road all the time. The songwriters all knew each other and were all involved in tight enclaves and it all took time. Songwriters worked multiple jobs, Kristofferson was a janitor at CBS WHILE having the songs "ME AND BOBBY McGHEE, SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN, HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT. Willie couldn't get arrested for a record deal. Inner office politics, one company buying out another company. One generation being replaced by the next generation and "NOT GOING QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT" the fight between what "is and isn't country." Labels coming and going. Stars outliving their successes.

Everybody would help themselves by doing a little historical research and find out some truths instead of invented stories.

As for anybody "using their legs" and such uninformed nonsense, as usual they know very little of what they talk about and don]t go to the trouble to find out about the hundreds, thousands and hundreds of thousands that "had legs, looks, money behind them, political contacts and clout and STILL couldn't do anything. Can't force anyone to BUY anything. And now is the era of FREE MUSIC. People get it easily, endlessly and for free. So you can bet if someone is actually getting money through streaming, they are selling a LOT of problems.

Vinyl is making a comeback and Garth just sold a miliion units of his new album. They are on track to sell more vinyl this year than anything else. But those are misleading, because that is against CD's and legal downloads. They are not really including streaming in the mix, so the numbers are a bit skewed.

At any rate, many artists find their own niche, expand their niches or are on the top of the world. Just like always. There is another interesting parallel.

For many years, actually since the 60's, there were songs that were RADIO HITS, and songs that were PRODUCT HITS.

There were songs that got a ton of radio airplay, but really didn't sell that much physical product.
There were songs and artists that sold a ton of records but never really did that well on radio.

Things like Jimmy Buffet's "MARGARITAVILLE" never got above #10 on the charts, but has resulted in a $2 billion dollar industry. So as always, monetary figures, market share, softness or activity in a market are confusing and not always what they seem. So quoting one statistic or chart or whatever and saying "It's all dead" or :It's all incredible" are wildly off base.
The more things change.......

MAB