If the record companies don’t figure out a way to make money in the age of Internet file sharing, a return to music supported by patronage may be in our future.
Oh, they can make money. It’s called the iTunes Music Store.
It’s just that they can’t make those obscene profit margins any more...
To heck with the record companies. My sister, a classically trained mezzo soprano with several world tours under her belt as well as a stint as 'Tituba' in The Crucible at the Kennedy Center, has put out her own album and made it available on the digital music sites. She has had some sales of the CD, but gets downloads of her music all the time. She is paid royalties for the downloads. People use MP3 players; they want to quickly download what they want rather than buy the CD and copy it over to their player.
It's not just file sharing that's an issue; it's how the music is packaged (Granted, there may be less choice with a classical piece such as an opera than deciding which songs to put on a rock or country CD) People will pay for what they want. The record companies still haven't figured it out.
I like to browse their online catalog, and I've found some real gems at the site. One of my favorite 'early music' groups is Sequentia, and I've found some lovely CDs by them at the site, including "Edda", a musical setting of the medieval Norse epic tale, and two I recently bought of the group singing the music of Hildegard of Bingen, a Medieval Abbess. The music is just ethereal.
That is already happening, from what I can tell.
Have you seen the price of concert tickets lately?