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300 points pseudolus | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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parpfish ◴[] No.44408859[source]
How many financially self-sustaining musicians should there be? Streaming has caused the number to fall, but recorded music before that likely made it fall as well.

Should we stop thinking about music as a job and start thinking about it as a hobbyist art form? Nobody is out there lamenting that you can’t make a living off of landscape painting. It’s a fun form of self expression that people will do regardless of the economics, so maybe the problem was ever thinking you could make a profession out of it?

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1. Gigachad ◴[] No.44410122[source]
It’s already happened to DJing. Used to require very expensive gear, crates full of expensive records, and a ton of talent.

Now someone with a $400 controller, pirated music, and some free time can do it. Loads of people willing to play at venues for free just for the fun of it have crushed the viability of doing it as an actual job.