I am sharing this post that I previously made on a music board. It explains my opinion about music:
This may sound like pessimistic response, but there is not much of a music industry. Once music became compressible on mp3 and shareable, it sucked the life out of the industry.
People still download music off the net without paying, and if they are using a paid streaming service, the songwriters are getting next to nothing. It's criminal. Shows like The Voice, and Idol, in my view, simply manufacture "artists" . That's why many of them are short lived. Do you think Bob Dylan would ever have succeeded on Idol?
Making matters worse (and perhaps better in some cases), is that music making has been democraticized. In the old days, you had to play an instrument to write a song (or, be musically gifted and write melodies using only your voice). Usually songs came from somewhere- a wounded soul, a heart break or another experience. Now, there are zillions of software products that enable you to generate pre - recorded or generated chords, move them around at will, add a loop or two, and you've created a?????...well, I guess, a song. More like manufacture a song. It generally requires no musical sense or ability, although many people have musical sense who use these products. But it does not require musical sense.
Thus, you have anyone who can operate software stringing together pieces that one would never do with guitar in hand. Some call that innovation, others call it musical junk.
The evidence of mindless songwriting is all over the radio today. Loops and vocals is sometimes all that is required to release a "hit" song. Sad.