To look on the bright side - There is more music than ever being created and more and more ways to find it. As an example, A few years back I was in Boston (for my day job) and as is my wont, I went looking for some folk music. I found it at an open mic at the Coffee Cup, out in the burbs. I had a great time and was very impressed with all of the performers (a bunch of punk kids, if you ask me!)both in regard to their skills and attitude. The featured performer was particularly good and mention that he was working on an album.

Fast forward to about a year ago.
I found myself humming a tune and realized it had been sung by the featured guy at the Coffee Cup. Gee, I wonder if his album ever came out? Luckily, I had written his name in my journal - Mark Herman - and in a blink I had found him and had ordered his album on the Web. It's really good, too.

My point in all of my posts on this thread is simple. Don't wail and gnash teeth about the music business! It is what it is - a money making machine built around music rather than canned soup, or shoes, or tractors. Ignore them and do it yourself. The technology to make recordings is better and cheaper and easier to use than ever. And the distribution potential because of the WWW is unsurpassed.

If you love acoustic music, traditional folk music, country blues music - you're better off not having it sucked into the "star making machinery" (there, I said it). In a business sense, to the music industry our music will always be an afterthought; the changes you have to make to music this personal to make it a mass-consumed commodity just eviscerates it. And when your favorite folk hymn has become muzak fodder, the pop spotlight will move on to something else, anyway, leaving you to pick up the pieces. I see this happen every few years to one of my true loves - country music. Popularity just ruins it.

If you have some music to sell there are now other ways to do it yourself. Thankfully, right here (thanks to Max) you can get in touch with a core audience of people who appreciate this music on a whole different level than "the music business" or the average Bay Watch-loving crowd ever did or ever will. So make your own kind of music and let everybody here know when it's ready. I can't wait to hear it! To H*LL with the music business, long live the Mudcat.