This is a response blog post to Katie Applebaum’s “The importance of a middle class”
I do agree with her idea that “middle class” are important. Indeed, they support the economic growth and help the country grow. Her blog post was about how new artists are struggling to grow and earn money due to already famous singers having the money to promote their new music, whereas middle class artists cannot afford to do so, and how pirating music makes it easier for people to download freely, which means that there are no profits being made for artists. I feel part of this is true and part of this is false.
Promoting their music and battling against singers with million hits may be almost impossible. Without money, it would be again, impossible to create music without good resources Monarch Studios holds.
The thing is, it all depends on the people who are listening to the music. For an example, Japan, my home country has a site similar to Youtube called the Nico nico Douga, created by Dwango. co.
And in this Nico nico douga, are hundred million music created by amateur artists, using Vocaloids, a singing voice synthesizer. There are many people who have made a lot of money through this, as these songs become a popular hit (mostly after gaining 500~900 thousand plays), they become CDs, be used in Japanese games, and so on.
It is a hard time since technology is developing and famous artists are becoming even more famous. But remember, Justin Bieber became famous from getting a call from his current manager after watching his videos. It is so hard to predict what could happen in a music industry. A normal boy in youtube can eventually become a billionaire, and so can an anime character like Hatsune Miku too. Allowing many people to create music is great, but involves what kind of music they are presenting (whether it fits the taste of music for the listeners or not), and if they are lucky enough to become famous.