I've long had the belief that the very act of audio-recording, all the way back to Edison's wax-cylinders, would eventually be the end of making significant mon

I've long had the belief that the very act of audio-recording, all the way back to Edison's wax-cylinders, would eventually be the end of making significant money for music makers. That and the fact that there is only 24-hours in a day. My point being that it is a matter of scarcity - or the lack thereof. Music, to some degree, doesn't age. Regardless of what new pop album is due out in the near future, we will still listen to Louis Armstrong sing "What a Wonderful World" as it nears it's 50th anniversary. Any newly produced music is competition with the back-catalog of all music ever recorded. And there is only so much time during the day one can spend listening to music, so individual "consumption" isn't going to change much as time goes one. The only real future for professional musicians is ticket sales for live performances and licensing their songs for uses in other media (movies, commercials, "hasn't been thought of yet")