What a terrible time we live in to try to make a living as a musician. It’s never been an easy profession by any means, with far more would be musicians than paying customers. But along comes the internet and sites like Napster as a way of stealing the work of people you admire. Of course there are rampant other forms of online piracy, but even legal downloads are problematic. iTunes is a great system, but by unbundling albums so that users only purchase individual songs it has turned a $12 album purchase into a few $1 purchases – great for the consumer who only pays for what they really want, but not so great for the artists. And now along comes music streaming services, which offer all-you-can-listen streaming for a low monthly fee, which is cutting into iTunes revenue. The revenue scenario for artists just seems to get harder and harder.

Of course, the big commercial artists like Beyoncé will always find a way to get rich. But for the vast majority of musicians, just making a living becomes harder and harder.