okay you talked me down

A couple weeks ago I freaked when I saw this graph in the NYT. A really smart-sounding guy named Andrew Dubber made me feel a lot better. He sayeth:

"The boom and bust pattern of each recorded music format adds up to an overall rise and decline of corporatism in the recorded music industries. Culturally, this could well be something to celebrate."

Indeed. That's what I meant to say all along... 

It's not a matter exclusively of whether music is selling well or how concentrated the profits are. It's about participation, dialogue, listening, sharing and involving our time with something creative and cohesive. Dubber goes on:

"The graph above only represents a crisis for a particular way of organising music business, and not for music business itself – and certainly not for music.

In fact, if we’re clever about it, this might be one of those golden ages for musical culture that seem to coincide with the skinny bits of that graph."

Entrepreneurialism seems like what America needs in general, and maybe music will lead the way.