Yeah, it's actually much grimmer than most people realize because the problem is actually two fold.

The first is endless product for free. For over 20 years, the world has gotten as much free product as they could ever want. Billions of songs, millions of artists, and all types of creators. Same with photographers, article writers, book authors, anything that is of a creative nature. The lifeblood is the Internet, but the very thing that is nearly impossible to monitor and regulate is the Internet. They' aint paying. Doesn't matter what law you throw up, they'll break it. Many of the providers and platforms are in countries that there is no jurisdiction on One of the biggest of the illegal sites, PIRATE BAY, operates out of Sweden and there is no chance of getting any jurisdictions over that. You are also dealing with countries and governments that belive in all things free all the time, and that there should be no borders, no regulations, no governence of any kind. "Imagine their's no countries...not so hard to do..." Thanks John Lennon. The "Peace and Love, tune in drop out" generation pretty much engineered their own destruction.

The second is endless artists. And with each generation, they get more entitled, more demanding, more ego filled, and less and less ability. It's the "bad cassette day" scenario. In the "old days" you might get an album or buy the cassette of that album. And you would make a copy for a friend .Who would make a copy from that copy, who would make ten copies from those copies, who would make 100 copies from those copies, and so forth and so on. With each generation, the sound got worse and worse.

That is the generation of younger people that come to music now. They can write what they call a song, tome poetry, get some beats, redially availabile on the Internet, completely engineered tracks, band in a box, guitar hero, whatever, or just throw chords against a wall and that's it. They can throw it on their phone, record full tracks on their phone, record the video on their phone, put it on FACEBOOK, YOU TUBE, and whatever new platform of the minute is, and boom they are in the music business. They get "likes" from their friends and family and they are stars in their own minds. The concept of money to them doesn't really exist because it has never existed within their realm of information. And that over glut of everything crowds out any "real music" (which is a definition that changes by minute) and money in music is a foriegn concept that doesn't really exist anymore.

And it all suffers. Radio is a migmash of garbage, Music and all entertainment is a reality television show., The Kardashians are actually the rule now, rather than the exception. The era of CELEBRITY has replaced the ERA OF THE SONG. With a general public that has an 8 second attention span, they are pre-disposed to move on past a song after a few minutes if they get that far. It's always the search for something else. Surfing is the norm.

Along with that comes the CANCEL CULTURE, where you say one wrong thing, tweet one thought or idea that someone doesn't agree with, and you are deplatformed, erased and ended. Period. No grace period, no second chances, nothing. You no longer exist.

There will always be people that try to do this. Somehow, somewhere, there will be people, songs, entities that exist and break through. But they will be very very short. Brian's "5000 fan scenario" is actually the most relevent I've seen. We are all in a "NICHE WORLD" now. Find a niche, find an audience, fight for every second of attention, spend your life and sometimes your income on expanding and developing that niche. The chances of overall world wide success are almost nil, but people try. There are also Casinos and lottery's and people try those too.

Music is no longer in the forefront of our lives. It is in the background. It is something some people listen to, along with the billions of electronic pieces of information they have floating in their lives, streaming services, NETFLIX, HULU, YOU TUBE, getting their Amazon packages. playing their Cell phone games, and are bombarded every second of every day by constant information. Honestly, I'm surprised we don't all implode due to strokes all the time. The days of pouring over 45's ,and records are gone, except for collectors. Music, like most things, are primarily for the young, and they have the attention span of a gnat.

So what do we do? Have no idea. Today, I'll have a 19 year old girl and her Father as a client for my mentor business. They have been here two days, I'll do my best to help her with her songs, do my best to help her write something that sets her apart from others, introduce her to some people I know that might help her and try to advise them on how to best spend a little money without going broke. Yesterday we wrote a pretty interesting song she performed another song we wrote previously, last night and did very well, gathering a couple more potential co-writes, a few more fans, did an interview for a new podcast, and learned a bit on how to conduct herself for interviews and networking. All of these very things are part of their education and my suggestions of caution in all of this.

From there, they will have to find their way. My advice is always caution, and take with a grain of salt. Pretty level headed folks and I think they'll be fairly smart. She'll do her best and see where it takes her.

About all you can do in today's world.
MAB
MAB