Making a living wage in music

This scenario only works if people buy music, which they may not.

Others can argue that it used to be a better time for full-time musicians because there were more and higher paying live music gigs in every town.

Digital production and distribution has allowed many more musicians to make a small amount of money, and thus reduced the opportunities for full-time musicians to get paid for what they do.

Pandora's Playlist :: Philadelphia City Paper: "Before going off to work, mommy and daddy will load the family station wagon with amps, drums and 2.3 children. On the way to school, there will be no fights over which radio station to play. An intelligent recommendation engine streaming over the ubiquitous Wi-Fi waves will choose music suitable to everyone's taste. Then mommy and daddy will practice at their bandmate's home studio and record music to be sold over the Internet at 25 cents a song, providing comfortable wages for each band member's 2.3 children.

"Is this the future? Probably not, but Tim Westergren, founder of the Music Genome Project and Pandora (a site that recommends and plays music based on your evolving preferences), doesn't think this is too far off the mark.

"'I think what we'll see is the beginning of the musicians' middle class,' he said last Thursday evening at a town-hall-style meeting in the University of Pennsylvania bookstore."

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Pandora