LOL...timing...
I had just opened this in my email this morning. ;)

Literally watched it two hours ago!

Reminds me of the joke: How do you end up with a million dollars after a year of doing music? Start with two million.

There's no doubt that the game has changed - in some ways for the better, in other ways for the worse.
It's never been easy to make money in music. Even "big stars" in music have been royally screwed over by labels and management throughout the years.

In some ways, the internet has sorta leveled out the playing field, so that "getting that deal" from one of the labels isn't really necessary anymore, because anyone can now hear and pay to download your music without buying a record or CD.
The other side of that coin is getting people to do that. And, opening up these hi-tech opportunities to people who really have no business being songwriters and musicians ( or engineers) is the obvious down side. There are a huge number of people who are writing and recording and releasing music that have no business doing so, and that makes it tougher for the true artists who are turning out good songs. It's kinda like trying to find a needle in a huge stack of needles.

But, adapting to the new ( and ever-changing) business and distribution models in the music industry is just something we either have to accept (and get used to) - at least until one of us here finds a "better" way ... or, chuck it all in, and start selling real estate, insurance or medical supplies. ;)

I wish I knew how to build OB analog gear - and I mean good, high quality pieces. But I don't. And even if I did know how, I'm betting that more often than not - knowing my own personal history and experience with sharp things and pointy things and hot things and things that carry voltage - that I'd probably end up in the ER a lot more than in the workshop. ;)