This is only a problem if you think musicians need to be rich and famous. That is, before feeling bad for artists, remember that the cost of producing and dist

This is only a problem if you think musicians need to be rich and famous. That is, before feeling bad for artists, remember that the cost of producing and distributing music has also gone way down. A desktop computer with electronic instruments is sufficient to cut a professional quality song. Artists who produce music will slowly become like bloggers. You will find them through the Internet and recommendation engines, not through MTV, just like you find bloggers through Google rather than the opinion column of the Washington Post or NYT. And just like with opinion, the best stuff will be done by talented amateurs for free (e.g. everyone here can name 100 bloggers better than Maureen Dowd). Eventually, just like the NYT syndicates some top blogs, so too will the major record labels pick up some Internet artists (Soulja Boy being a leading albeit cacophonous example of said trend). But this is just a stopgap en route to a new future where Google (via search) and Apple (via iTunes) and Amazon (via reviews) are the middlemen and respectively replace the RIAA's promotion, distribution, and quality control functions. ...two other thoughts. First, the role of the composer looks set to return to importance once a database of every possible sond and voice is compiled. There's definitely room for software to produce a "perfect" song entirely from the sheet music + sound/voice synthesis + historical data, without any live voices or instruments at all. For all I know, this is how Trent Reznor already does it. Second, the analysis above places little weight on the experience of listening to live music. I guess if you are a big fan of concerts, the Internet will kill the (music) video star.