Troll much? But I'll bite anyways... No, it's not a troll, you called me an armchair musician when you know nothing about me, that is presumptuous. In your ori

Troll much? But I'll bite anyways... No, it's not a troll, you called me an armchair musician when you know nothing about me, that is presumptuous. In your original post you concluded that anyone who disagrees with you "doesn't know what's going on", also presumptuous. Where did I ever say that you don't need to practice alone? To quote you verbatim: "Practice does not make you a good stage performer." I think that statement pretty clearly asserts that practice does not contribute to performance quality. If you want to retract that statement, go ahead, but don't pretend like you didn't just say it. Practicing in a room, without an audience, does NOT make you good at anything other than practicing in a room without an audience. Another stellar quote, but ultimately a meaningless tautology intended to downplay the role of technical discipline in favor of experience on the stage. Once again, nobody cares about your stagecraft if you get up on stage to perform Little Brown Jug. No matter how many hours I put in alone on my instrument, it still won't prepare me for playing with other musicians. Right... but playing with other musicians will. What is your point? You don't need a record label to practice with your band. No matter how many hours I put in practicing in a rehearsal room with other musicians, it still doesn't prepare me for playing on a stage in front of audience. I apologize if English is not your first language, but you need to research the definition of the word "rehearsal" before you argue that many hours of rehearsal with other musicians doesn't prepare you for a live performance. Practicing in preparation for a live performance is the literal definition of rehearsal. This entire discussion we're having is completely irrelevant. Your central argument is that piracy has made record labels scared to invest in risky music, and this is killing the music industry because the only way to become a good performer is to use an infusion of record label cash to tour till you become good enough to make a profit touring. I rejected this claim as bullshit because any intellectually honest person will admit that the most critical part of a concert is the actual music (you know, the primary product a musician is tasked with producing), something that has zero connection to VC money.