All of you guys really bring up some good points... My concern is more - do we have the time for things to change and get better? To me, music is dying every second that we are in this transitional period, and to me, music is dying faster than the system is recovering. ?uestlove made a very scary claim when he said that "The Roots" is the last black band signed to a major. Im a big Roots fan, but they have made 14 or 15 albums which means they are nearing the end(totally from a time wise viewpoint).
What I'm seeing is - the labels had WAAAAY too much power and control over the industry, artist, sells and ALL other aspects of the music game. Now with internet file sharing, the over saturation of mp3 devices, the NEW "garbage" artists, and even the dying of home stereo systems will leave us in a position where one day we will wake up one morning to NO music at all and wonder where it collapsed on us at. The labels are having a hard time coming up with a "system" that will work for this economy and environment, it even appears that they are waiting and watching to see whats gonna happen.
Bottomline, I think we are in more trouble than we realize.