What if I told you?

What if I told you what I really thought about the music industry?
What if I told you that there are people in this city who are struggling not for fame, glory, or riches, but just to make a small living doing what they love while they work paycheque to paycheque in an unaffordable city?
What if I told you that there are some people who are so talented so so talented and you may never hear them and if you do, the music that you hear doesn't even represent how brilliant they are?
What if I told you the only way a band can get heard in this city is if you win a radio contest?
What if I told you that if you were a part of one radio contest, you'd burn bridges to another entire side of the local music industry and never be apart of other local radio contests?
What if I told you that most local artists who are currently having some success on their own through word-of-mouth could never win a radio contest or even be selected and wouldn't even want to apply?
What if I told you that because of local bylaws in this city there are only a small handful of venues that bands can perform in?
What if I told you that the city's culture doesn't support local, independant, live music?
What if I told you that the costs of touring Canada and get out of this city are so high that it's almost impossible to get anywhere unless you leave your family, friends, and life behind and move to the other side of the country or another country altogether and start at square one?
What if I told you that recording costs are bloated?
What if I told you that costs of pressing CDs are bloated and no one even buys CDs anyway?
What if I told you that as YOU were reading this blog, YOU were listening to a song on your iPod that YOU didn't even pay for?
What if I told you it didn't matter if you paid for that song, it's an artist that is already so successful, so powerful, backed by so much money, that it doesn't matter in the slightest whether or not you paid for it? 
What if I told you that you're willing to pay $75 or more to see said artist in a venue that isn't intimate, isn't real, doesn't even have quality sound?
What if I told you that for every illegally downloaded song or album by a bigger artist, there is a small artist that would not be developed, and that the independant labels who develop small artists are struggling just to pay their bills in their overpriced office space in this overpriced city?
What if I told you not to believe anything you've just read?

Love,
Marty
@martyzylstra