If the music industry was just about people buying tickets or concerts, or buying records, (and buying instruments and so forth and making music as well), it'sd bne fair to talk about it as all being a matter of "choice."

But it isn't. I don't choose the music they put on during the commercials, I don't choose the music they put in between the commercial, and the programmes built around making some youngster a commodity they can make money from.

The choosing is done by entrepreneurs and gamblers and con-artists and crooks.

And so far as I can see, the only way to deal with it is to turn out back on it, and get on with making and finding the music we choose ourselves - and that is what the Mudcat is about.

Maybe we can cast a wry glance at the way the music business is destroying itself, and think hopefully that this whole mass-market phase really could be on its way out, thanks to these magic boxes on our desks - but it doesn't really matter if I'm wrong there. We still have the power to keep on making music for themselves, like we always have, and there'll always be enough of us to keep it going. Amen.