There are two truths that we have been faced within in the present day of digitalization. The first is that the love of music is a life-long pursuit. The second is that the love of free music is not.

With the age of Napster, the ability to download music, and to do this for free, was like a godsend from heaven. Suddenly, we had all the music we could ever want at the touch of a button. The problem however was that the music industry started losing money (which no one really cares about), and then the bigger problem (which we all cared about), that downloading music for free became illegal.

So Napster fell under, and the age of free music was lost forever. No big deal, although it was nice while it lasted. Still, the impact this change has left upon music and moreover upon the music industry, it seems, will have longstanding consequences. Formerly spoiled by the high prices for CDs, the music industry is slowly being forced to offer music at more competitive prices. Although you can't get free downloads anymore, at least not legally, you can get music at a much cheaper price, and even make your own music with such new developments as free music software, through the blessings of advertising.

Most people dislike big business houses, at least, if they are not a part of it, and this definitely includes the music industry. So when we now hear the industry complaining that it is losing money or in some instances that it may be forced to change its methods or shut down, we tend to face such comments either with apathy or antipathy. Who really needs the music industry? The average musician has to pay tons of money just to get into a recording studio, and less than 5% of musicians tend to profit from their music anyhow. So who's making all the money?

The fact of the matter is that no matter how rich or poor people are, they are going to continue making music, simply because they love to make music - the first truth. One only needs to look at such examples as the blues which came out of impoverished New Orleans back in the 1940's following the Great Depression, or the newly ‘discovered' music in Cuba, portrayed in the Buena Vista Social Club. Certainly those guys weren't expecting large royalties throughout their lives, nor could they have ever dreamed that they would actually get the chance to play in Carnegie Hall. Many of them died before the money even came even, but that didn't stop them from making music.

So as both technology and the times change, the music industry needs to change with it, and as far as I'm concerned such a change would be for the better, even if it means that musicians of the future will be limited to home recording studios. Most musicians probably have some kind of computer driven studio anyhow, and the fact that we're not hearing their music isn't a fault of bad music, but of the obsessive manner in which the music industry still wields control over what we are able to listen to. So with the coming of the new age, hopefully we hear more music, less commercialized, and at prices that we're all happy with, including the lone musician.