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The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

(thewalrus.ca)
300 points pseudolus | 4 comments | 28 Jun 25 22:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.22s | source
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parpfish ◴[28 Jun 25 22:58 UTC] 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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jleyank ◴[29 Jun 25 03:51 UTC] No.44410229[source]▶
How many financially self-sustaining software developers should there be? AI code generation has caused the number to fall, but FOSS before that likely made it fall as well.

I can keep playing this game, as can others. Why do we need all that money invested in data collection and disseminating cat videos, political unrest, etc.

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1. Ekaros ◴[29 Jun 25 07:06 UTC] No.44410895[source]▶
Answer is enough to sustainably run needs of modern society. And that number is probably significantly lower than we now have.

And for me with musicians the number is zero.

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2. ringeryless ◴[29 Jun 25 10:29 UTC] No.44411906[source]▶
? you are suggesting that zero musicians are required by society in order for society to function?
3. jleyank ◴[29 Jun 25 11:09 UTC] No.44412130[source]▶
I would rather musicians get paid in genres that I can’t stand than see the legion of programmers employed in “social media” and “on line marketing” and other things that keep people isolated and usually angry. Hell of a lot better things re personal and social interaction than having my phone glued to my wallet or my amygdala.
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4. Ekaros ◴[29 Jun 25 11:32 UTC] No.44412244[source]▶
Neither musicians or social media is needed for modern life. Or even online marketing...

You probably want digital payment systems like banking and warehouse management. But I am thinking those sort of areas are only fraction of modern software industry.