It has long been my hope that the internet will give most artists a reasonably effective way to market their music without involving the "industry" at all. Even with the current rate of piracy, I think the average artist would lose less than would have been lost by dealing with the music corporations

On a related note, there seems to be a trend around here of clubs that only hire musicians who play original music. That way they don't have to worry about paying ascap or bmi

The local bands are responding by preparing two sets... one set of cover songs for the usual places, and a set of originals for the clubs with a forward-looking plan.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0