On August 19, Steve Johnson authored a cover story in the New York Times entitled “The Creative Acopalypse [sic] That Wasn’t”. He argues that even though disruptive technologies like the MP3 file and streaming have pretty much turned the Music Industry upside down, musicians have managed to thrive and adapt and make sufficient and growing income. The Future of Music Coalition, a terrific advocacy group based in Washington, responded with a series of arguments that question the validity and sources of the date used and documenting that unfortunately the number of full-time musicians has gone down, the number of musicians that need to find a second job is increasing and unfortunately many data sets only report the gross income without considering the rising expenses that most often make for negative net income for a touring band. The exchange extended over a second blog for each group and it became clear to me that it is very difficult to understand the issues that musicians are facing in this new economy and the real dangers of having cultural capital diminish and become more mainstream for the general public.

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