The record industry pretty much died.
The rest of the music industry is severely injured and trying to hold on.
People just don't value music as much as they used to.
Bars simply don't need live music when people are just as happy with a jukebox or DJ.
Still, that doesn't stop creative people from doing what they love. There will always be music
And as long as there is music, musicians will search for an audience.
My question though...
Is the number of YouTube artists, online lessons and video games that teach you to play guitar
feeding in to the notion that anyone can do it and musicianship is nothing special and not really
worth valuing anymore?
This is kinda how I see it. HD video cameras are going to be considered a normal outboard gear necessity in project studios, if they aren't already.
I seriously think there will be a time when most original music will showcase and live it's life on youtube, and all live music occurring will be covers.
Why pay for music (live or otherwise) that's you're not already sure to enjoy?
As for the question, one can hope that the cream tends to rise to the top. The beautiful thing about the internet and youtube is that anyone can post a video that can be seen by anyone, anywhere, at anytime. The downside is that anyone can post a video that can be seen by anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Democratization is anything but clean and orderly. But what becomes popular does move to the top, often without the help of promotion and third-party funding. Just by crowdsourcing, internet buzz, and viral movement. That can be both a wonderful, beautiful, and scary, awful thing.
Maybe value isn't going down, so much as how are what is valued.
Incredible creations, published by the artists themselves, get seen by millions. But less-than-great videos do, too, particularly when they become a joke, meme, or anything else that gains movement by cyber bullying. It happens rights here on TB.
My kids are youtube generation. They know all the big names (pewdiepie, etc...). The youtuber thing tends to revolve around the themes of reviewing and playing video games with humor, excessive use of the f-bomb, and silly internet memes. There is no scripting - it's all film and edit later. I for one can't stand that crap. But my kids love it - it is their MTV. And my son in particular wants to do that, so much that I have to put the brakes on his "creative endeavors". Simply put, he want to have the benefit of an creating an internet personality, but he doesn't really want to create any content. I don't know where he gets such narcissism (he says, without any hint of irony). Our rule is that his mother and I have to review and approve any game or video that he makes before he publishes it. That, and he has to actually plan something out, and spend time on it. Else, he would just scream and cuss at a camera for 10 seconds, figure out a youtube name for himself, "release" it, and text all of his friends and spend the next 4 hours finding forums to spew on. I'm trying hard to keep him from becoming the next meme target, at least until he's old enough to deal with the consequences on his own. He's into the youtubepoop thing. Google it, but be warned.
This is the new reality.
But there's also a cool challenge in trying to create something "good" with "less", as it were. A music video can be done for next to nothing (see my sig for an example, he plugs shamelessly). I'm not one for posting videos indiscriminately - we've all seen what can happen there. But I do think there can be a punky, DIY ethos to it all. It doesn't have to be glossy. It just has to be DIY-ok, as in "ok, you were able to do
that with only
this? Cool."
