Sowhat (I wish you would put your name at the end of the post)

You are actually making the point. "But back then, I wasn't buying music, I was listening on the radio. I didn't have the money to buy and I don't really now, but it would be a good cheap form of entertainment to me now to buy music and I hate to keep picking through videos on youtube. I have been to just a few concerts in my life. Tom Petty, Charlie Daniels, and Aaron Tippin (sp) to name a few. I didn't pay for any of those concerts. I like those artists, but would not pay to see them. The reason I say this is because I was a teenager and didn't pay for any of it. Now that I would like to, there's nothing left."

This is the point. How much did record labels make off of you? How much were they able to use to pay for their rent, their food, their children's education, running their tour buses, printing up their t-shirts, their studio time, pay their musician's salaries? How much were those T-shirt vendors, their recording technicians, etc. how much of your money were they able to spend on THEIR own projects, lives?

See how this works? The audience actually will leave the scene first. Artists will quit getting the airplay. Their shows will sell less and less. They will have to downsize. Their audiences will go on to other things. There will be more that come up behind them with new audiences.

We all wish they would keep on making the music that we love, but frankly if we are not buying it and going to those concerts, who exactly are we to say what is right or wrong.

But again, you make the point. You just don't want to have to go through You Tube or other processes to find the music YOU like. But it IS out there. It is up to you to find things you like.

Again, the country music industry continues to expand it's fan base. So they are responding to the marketplace. That is what you have to do to survive.

MAB