09-01-2016, 12:19 PM
http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/201...ve-economy
Quote:Nearly 200 A-list musicians have signed an open letter to Congress calling for better protections against copyright infringement and higher royalty rates from streaming sites. Current licensing laws, they say, are out of sync with the digital age and threaten the ability of artists and songwriters to make a living. It’s an oft-repeated critique that will sound familiar to anyone in a creative field: that the Internet and media consumption habits have strained the economics of producing art to the point that musicians, writers and filmmakers will be forced out of business. Yet the reality is more complicated. While it’s true that many of these professions increasingly favor the few, there’s little reason to worry about the creative class disappearing altogether.
The state of the creative economy is the subject of frequent—and often conflicting—headlines. Critics warn of rampant piracy and collapsing prices while declaring everything from music sales to print to photography dead. In 2015, the book Culture Crash insisted that technological and economic forces are making it impossible for the middle class to pursue creative careers—the same year a New York Times Magazine cover story argued that most professional creators are actually faring as well as they did 15 years ago....
http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/201...e-economy/