Music is important, but where's the money?

Without music, there would be no iPods. MySpace would be considerably smaller. P2P wouldn't be much of a story.

Everyday the media is full of music-related stories.

But here's the irony. It's getting harder to sell recorded music, because it is so easily pirated. That means live music is gaining in importance as a way for musicians to make money.

But local venues are closing. There are fewer places for bands to play.

If there are fewer places to play, there are fewer opportunities for young bands to gain experience in front of live audiences.

So we get an ever increasing number of hobby bands. They can create music in their basements, and they can put it on MySpace and YouTube, but they have no experience performing in front of audiences and they don't generate any money from their music.

When do you suppose we reach a critical point where we either start supporting local music as a way to develop talent, or we see a decline in the quality of music available, which in turn impacts all those networks and devices that depend on music to attract users?

It just might be in the music and electronics industries self-interest to sponsor some local music venues.

Digital Media Content Drives Consumer Electronics - 10/20/2006 - Electronic News: "The delivery of digital media content, including video and music, has emerged as a primary driver of the global consumer electronics industry and its associated semiconductor market, iSuppli Corp. believes.

"A look at all the hot products and services across the electronics value chain—from MP3 and portable media players (PMP), to Internet Protocol televisions (IPTV), to digital video recorders, to mobile TV and mobile music—reveals one thing in common: Their value is derived from the delivery of digital media content, and their growth is driven by achieving alignment among content, operator and platforms."