I believe it was Adam Smith who first brought the idea of the law of supply and demand into the public eye, and how this determines price.

The value of something is a fickle entity beholden to the public's willingness to pay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

I live in Colorado now, because I had to succumb to this law and it's true impact on the area I moved from. Partially because of the public's decades old move from locally made and engineered automobiles, to those engineered overseas and chiefly built there, a decades long version of the supply/demand (amongst other factors - let me just put that out there) reduced demand for American engineered vehicles.

Most people not living in the midwest really have no idea what their decisions to not purchase an american engineered vehicle did to the midwest economy. GM and the others even killed the idea of having to pay any kind of finance charges to pay for vehicles, with the Keep America Rolling campaign immediately following 9/11, where they introduced zero percent financing. Yes, this kept the metal rolling off the line and prevented economic meltdown in the midwest, but it also was a tectonic shift in the mindset of the buying public as it pertained to price and so forth. The final meltdown would occur just 8 years later, when the lending market went bye-bye, and in about a 30 day period, the lease options for vehicles nearly disappeared. GM lost access to 40% of their customer base that they had trained into leasing as the preferred method to finance the use of a car, just about overnight. Law of supply and demand still central to the story. It always was, and always will be a driving factor.

There are going to be more and more people willing to play music in front of others for free. They already post their music for free online, or let customers name the price they feel the music is worth (Noisetrade.com just to name one, Bandcamp another). They already put up video content on YouTube for free. They write blogs for free. They contribute to Wikipedia for free. They participate in community theatre for free. Free isn't even a question anymore.

No castigation of folks making a living playing music live, but free music in all of it's various varieties is a reality. The law of supply and demand won't disappear.

Be outstanding and people will likely always be willing to pay for that.

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