[Aquinasfan]

The days of going into the studio once every two years to work for a few days and then going out and living the high-life in hotel suites for a few months promoting the record are over. There is no more free lunch for musicians. They may need to put in 40 hours a week like the rest of us unglamorous slobs.

Well, what about big-production music, and music that really can't be performed live?

The record companies, like magazines, provide editing.

And they generally do as good a job of editing music as the editorial staff of the Newsweek does editing news.

Or "National Review", "This Rock" and "First Things." I could never find this writing on my own. But then again, without copyright protection, writers would stop writing altogether.

I have no problem deciding for myself what news is trustworthy and important and what music is good.

I don't have the time. Most people don't.

[wideawake]

Well, what about big-production music, and music that really can't be performed live?

(1) Big production music is generally concert music and is recorded live or in live-like conditions (i.e. a Philharmonic recording a piece in an empty hall for their label and then performing the same piece in the same space that evening for the audience).

(2) All music can be performed live. Music that incorporates hard-to-reproduce-live studio tricks is still performed live in differently-arranged versions - Pink Floyd is a classic example.

I could never find this writing on my own. But then again, without copyright protection, writers would stop writing altogether.

We're not discussing pure copyright here - copywriting in its pure form as it applies to music applies to the written score, not a recorded performance.

A writer wouldn't write unless he was entitled to be compensated each time what he wrote was printed or reprinted.

Likewise, composers are compensated each time someone purchases their sheet music or performs their music.

Recorded performances are not the same as a novel - they are more like the author reading the novel aloud - which authors routinely do for free in order to generate buzz for their book.

Musicians generally perform for money, unlike authors - yet expect to be compensated for copies of performances, like authors. Double-dipping is nice, if you can convince people to do it.

I don't have the time. Most people don't.

And you get out what you put into it: not much. If you care about music - just as if you care about wine, or cigars or what have you - you will gleefully do the research and the hunting to find what you really enjoy.

If you want quality wine, you will have precious few choices at Wal-Mart. If you want quality new music, you will have precious few choices at the majors.