Sam Rosenthal Although I agree with most of what Michael says — and I’m always telling my fans to BUY MUSIC, rather than STEAL IT — I will disagree by saying there still is money to be earned in the music industry. Legal digital income increases every year for my label; it actually evens out with the loss of money from physical sales. “Staying the same is the new getting ahead” — that’s my slogan.

Mike Blaty replies“LOL… I like your motto Sam and it is too true. It happens that I also agree with the fact that there is still money to be earned in music. It’s just much harder to achieve under the current set of non-rules. Perhaps my point was made too ardently and too pessimistically. I still have hope that the music industry will somehow right itself.

Though I think it’s in our nature to choose the free option rather than the one that costs money when given the choice, I have hope there will be a way to keep artists doing what fires their souls. I speak more from the frustration of my own ignorance as to how it is currently done, than from a blanket rebuke of that which I clearly do not understand.

As a recording engineer, I started about the same time as you, Sam. Some of the most rewarding moments of my life were spent in that chair helping to create music. It’s a calling that defies all efforts of self preservation by denial. Now that I’ve taken jobs in other areas of the industry, I scratch at my missing studio like the phantom itch of a missing limb. I used to glibbly say that even if people didn’t pay me to record, I would do it anyway… but it turns out we all have to make a living sometime. It makes me happy to know that some still cut a path down this overgrown, but worthy trail.”