[FierceDraka]

Of course once the bottom drops out of the CD market then the bottom will drop out of the entire music industry. Without the CD to push a band will no longer be able to build the reputation necessary to have a large profitable tour (where the real money for the band has always been). Then it's bye bye full time music makers, making music will once again be a hobby that some people do during their free time.

And is that outcome necessarily a bad thing? I believe, as an earlier poster stated, that the buggywhip makers and blacksmiths felt the same way a hundred years ago. And you're right - making music might be a hobby, just like the buggywhip makers and blacksmiths are today.

[discostu]

Of course the difference is that buggywhips were a simple product with a simple use, music is art it's one of the things that enriches our lives, those are bad things to lose. the world probably won't be a worse place without Brittney Spears, but it most assuredly will be a worse place without Jethro Tull, Pete Frampton, Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson, Meatloaf, Nils Lofgren, Planet P Project and the rest of the catalog of music lieing beyond the very narrow confines of pop.

Oh, and there's still plenty of blacksmiths, that industry has actually grown and subdivided but there's even still classical blacksmiths.