Pollyanna
Platinum Member
Does anyone remember when computers and robotics were first introduced to industry with the promise that this would lead to a leisure society with machines doing all the work. Our biggest challenge would be working out what to do with all that free time.
Now we probably work even longer hours but our productivity has been massively increased. Jobs were lost and new ones found, plus the nature of work changed, due to technology.
I see the biggest threat to music via technology is not automation but competition. Video games, DVDs, DTV etc have really cut into music markets. LIve music at venues was at first being replaced by cheaper DJs but there was still a live music scene, albeit weakened.
Now many clubs/pubs don't bother with music at all and instead have banks and banks of shiny gaming machines producing the kinds of returns that bands and their drunken revellers can't hope to match. But even that wasn't just technology; it took changes to licensing legislation to really screw the live music scene up.
Now we probably work even longer hours but our productivity has been massively increased. Jobs were lost and new ones found, plus the nature of work changed, due to technology.
I see the biggest threat to music via technology is not automation but competition. Video games, DVDs, DTV etc have really cut into music markets. LIve music at venues was at first being replaced by cheaper DJs but there was still a live music scene, albeit weakened.
Now many clubs/pubs don't bother with music at all and instead have banks and banks of shiny gaming machines producing the kinds of returns that bands and their drunken revellers can't hope to match. But even that wasn't just technology; it took changes to licensing legislation to really screw the live music scene up.
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