Thanks for the elaborate response, although I fear I still don't agree. No halfway sane person will pursue music fulltime if he cannot earn a living off it. W

Thanks for the elaborate response, although I fear I still don't agree. No halfway sane person will pursue music fulltime if he cannot earn a living off it. Who said musicians are necessarily sane people? ;-) I don't deny that there will always be hobbyists. But the world will be a much poorer place, musically, if we don't allow music as a fulltime career. This is a strange choice of words. Music has never been a "career"-choice that your parents would be happy with. The prerequisite to becoming successful with music is talent. Not even necessarily musical talent (although that obviously helps), but at least a talent in entertaining people with whatever kind of noise you're able to make. And ofcourse luck, lots of it. The only regular "careers" in music would be in auxiliary branches (studio technician and such) or - given the basic talent - the job of a concert musician. Some of that might go away if all music was set to be free. But complaining about that is about as productive as complaining about low-wage jobs moving to china. It's just the way things currently develop; adapt or die. However, those who are driven by music will always find a way to do it. And I don't even think it will be harder than today. Au contraire I think it will become much easier for independent artists to gain traction, due to the great equalizer: YouTube. Sheer talent might actually finally regain the relevance that it deserves once we take the music execs and their marketing campaigns out of the equation. However, I will quit my efforts making music, at least with a band, if I don't manage to get some kind revenue off of it. To not do so would be idiotic. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but if your goal in making music is the money then I don't think it will be a great loss. There are plenty dedicated "idiots" to fill the gap, no harm done. Fine, you say: make money through other means -- play gigs! Actually what I'm saying is: There is no god-given right to make money with music. If society values music enough to make people rich for it then new ways to make that happen will evolve. Crying after an old model that has long expired is just pointless. You know, I'd much prefer to ride a horse to work. It just has so much more style than those soul-less vehicles everyone is using today. But no matter how hard I stomp my feet, I have to acknowledge it's 2010 and my poor horse would be overrun by a SUV in short order.