I was browsing the Contemplator website when I came across this;

Before the printing press broadsides were written by hand. Before folk songs were written by hand there was a centuries-old tradition of minstrels and folk singers. As these declined and the printing press became more common, folk music transmission was channeled into broadsides. Broadsides contributed to the further decline of minstrelsy. Broadsides were, in turn, replaced by newspapers and printed sheet music.

Of course, this is a simplification but it kind of looks familiar. I think we are in a similar period of transition with the relatively recent invention of electronic media which has had a profound effect on the way music is transmitted. I have for quite some time now held the view that the invention of printing had a profound effect on the society of its day in a similar way that the invention of the computer is having on ours, though maybe it is not just the computer but the whole business of electronic recording and transmission of information in all its forms that is having the effect.

One of the negative effects is taking music making away from ordinary people and making it the province of "experts"