We live in an age where the commonly used instruments of the past have been cast aside by almost all of the modern producers. Where the riff has taken more of a front and center role rather than pure creativity. This is true in pop culture music for the most part, for instance even I as a musician based on the masses desires have made music based almost entirely out of riffs., and to my surprise....it's some of my most popular music whereas the music that I have written totally by hand note by note measure by ever loving measure that is totally new gets very little play.

 This in my opinion has to do with society getting comfortable with certain types of sounds just as people were used to a certain type of sound in the past, but what has changed is that NOW society thinks we as musicians should give our music away. This causes an incredible problem in the music industry as we are currently fighting just to get the streaming companies to pay us fairly. Music costs money and time to make it is an investment of time love money and energy to hopefully come up with something the masses will enjoy and can bring us an income so we can make more great music.

  The Cut and dry to this is being used to a sound is ok but insisting that we give our music away basically is destroying creativity, a new good keyboard can run into the 10's of thousands of dollars and just an emulation to use in our digital studios can cost almost a grand at times and that's just a emulation of the instrument we are seeking. 

 So next time you pirate some music or complain because we put a commercial on youtube remember we are just trying to make a pittance so we can continue to bring you new and relative music, and also remember that BECAUSE OF THE INDUSTRY ONLY ABOUT 2% if that make enough to live on their music creation the rest of us that continue to bring you music despite this LOVE music just for the sake of loving it for the most part, yes we would love to do nothing else but the reality is in the current climate 97-98% of those left will disappear quickly as they cannot afford to continue to write music.

   But be of good cheer there are those of us such as Me and a whole mess of artists that I know who are keeping it real, we are actually thinking outside the box for your enjoyment. I personally do not follow a genre I will play what I want to play that feels right to me as the artist so as to keep my music original even if it is made from previously used material into a remix, it has tones and persuasions from the previous materials but keeps the material new and alive as it has changed in evolution to something new like a butterfly.

 So Our pro is a large community RIGHT now of independent artists just outside that mainstream music, I challenge everyone to give at least 1 artist that is new a try everyday who is slightly outside your normal sound or even a completely different sound than you used to.The pro is you and your ability to think for yourself. I'm not saying abandon your music I'm saying enrich your listening pleasure by diversifying the sounds you hear thereby making your ear more responsive to all sound and embellishing your listening experience. It's kinda like a taste tester with their pallet but with your ear. I also challenge you to find something in every song you like even if you dont like the song, it may be the guitar or that drum man, those bongo's are crazy lmao.

 Look what I'm trying to say is music is dying because people aren't enriching themselves with new music like they used to, gone is most FM radio yielding to satellite or radio from our phones. We ourselves have become creatures of habit by accident tied to our ease of use not realizing we aren't exploring like we used to in a record store, well because a record or cd store is a thing almost of the past. We have our streaming services and they keep us in a comfortable bubble for the most part, it's us as the consumer (I write as well) who need to diverge and consume outside our own comfort zone. I myself have found so many pearls this way.But the sad truth is most don't last long the work vs reward becomes to much and the pearl is lost except for that work thats still up and will stay there forever if they did it right, but the sad truth is that so many artists pay so much to have their work put up a year that they never make enough back to continue to even support that work.

  Uh oh another con, in today's music climate the small artist unless they are very clever cannot get their music put up without paying very high fee's sometimes per year per album this puts a great amount of financial strain on many artists just to maintain albums already produced and provides to the disappearance of their work almost entirely from the digital world almost as if they never existed.The other con of this situation is that by the time any royalties get to us the artists we've been chipped at till we make pennies per so many thousands of streams. Don't get em wrong it's slightly better since the major artists are fighting alongside the independent artists as the disparity in our pay is terrible I have songs that get streamed and Ive never been paid for those streams for instance, I didn't give them royalty free rights and so I am due my tiny pittance just a few dollars compared to a large artist but they used my material and made a profit and i dint get my share because I'm too small an artist to put up a fight even though I am a BMI artist the amounts are just to small but now if you multiply that by all the artist that aren't being paid and cha-ching baby you have a pretty nice payday. This has been accomplished through the purchasing of a company by another then never syncing the server to the current month and promising when this is finished we will finally transfer your money.

 In actuality this is the fifth time this has happened in years I've actually lost a substantial bit of change that i can't even track anymore as this one closed down as was sold to that one and that one closed and was sold to that one errrrrrghhhh.I've been independently producing for 10 years actually and Presonis (not affiliated other than a software owner very happy with studio one 4 pro)gave me an answer in NIMBIT it's a site where I can put up all my music in a store add video's if I make them from youtube to the cover sell albums assign original ISRC codes freely to my music right when I'm putting it up there 1'st thereby retaining all original recording rights immediately upon production finish not only in original master but ISRC recognition of that piece (International Studio Recording Code), with the correct software and then the right distributor you can keep an online presence forever. But again the initial costs are high and you must be dedicated as you may not make much or you may end up with a one hit wonder when your in the fringe. We run into all sorts of complexities when we try to distribute our music for your pleasure and almost all companies want to take $ out of our tiny pockets on both ends and this is what kills many a great small artist. They lack the support from listeners who think what we do is cheap and should be free. I know not all listeners are like that as I've slowly over years cultivated a small following but I need to produce something new for them and am working on it at present but its evolution is coming slower than I'd like :).

 Pro Artists such as myself have huge libraries of already produced music that is of permanence on all the mainstream streaming services and so in time our work gets noticed, hopefully before we retire or worse pass on, but as my dad says fame doesn't necessarily equate real talent, nor does raw talent equate always to fame.

Iv'e added a soundcloud track for your enjoyment in case you may be interested in my work 

https://soundcloud.com/qi-ball/xtfm8