Originally Posted By: rockstar_not
Every person on this thread has put some folks out of work by using home recording software. If you bought your own mic, pre-amp, sound card, midi input device, etc. and are making demos, you put some recording engineers out of work, just like we put photographers out of work and graphic designers out of work, etc. etc.

We created other demand for other types of jobs to provide that gear, but the reality is that technology changes culture.

Those people filling the open mics, a good portion of them now do home recording - probably well enough to sound decent to themselves, and 15 years ago, the same type of person would have never considered an open mic.

The consumer culture expects music for free now.

I'm not saying any of this is right, but this is probably a situation which applies to everyone here - pointing the first finger points 3 right back at you.

To all of you using your own PA in your live gigs, you put a local FOH engineer out of work for that time.

Anything where we automate something on our own, do our own oil changes, do any kind of work that was a paid position for someone else, we put those folks out of work to some extent. I recharge my A/C systems on my vehicles - something that almost always used to require a mechanic with the fancy gauge set. For $35 you can get a reusable user-friendly gauge and R134 refill at your local auto parts store, and the refill cans are $10 at Big Lots. Lasts me about a month in my son's beater vehicle. Yeah, I am putting the local mechanic out of work, but I also create work for the company making the $35 kit.

There's many layers to the onion of the image on the first page of this thread.

Very well said Scott!