brainwagon

I was reading a Slashdot article this morning entitled A Music Industry Case Study, and was suddenly struck by the apparent absurdity of the term the Music Industry.

People never discuss “the Drawing Industry” or the “Sculpture Industry”. Why is music singled out in being labelled an Industry?

My online dictionary defines “industry” thusly:

in.dus.try
('in-(.)d*s-tr{e-})
Etymology: MF i[industrie] skill, employment involving skill, fr. L 
   i[industria] diligence, fr. i[industrius] diligent, fr. OL 
   i[indostruus], fr. i[indu] in + i[-struus] (akin to L 
   i[struere] to build) -- more at INDIGENOUS,  
   STRUCTURE]
1) n, diligence in an employment or pursuit
2) a) n, systematic labor esp. for the creation of value
   b) n, a department or branch of a craft, art, business, or
      manufacture; esp.: one that employs a large personnel and 
      capital esp. in manufacturing
   c) n, a distinct group of productive enterprises
   d) n, manufacturing activity as a whole

It appears that definition 2b comes the closest to an explanation.
The reason that we call the Music Industry an industry is that it employs vast amounts of capital and personnel to bring you the latest Britney Spears album. The music industry is a huge lumbering behemoth, supporting a wide array of musicians at levels far below minimum wage in an effort to find the few acts which they will promote into success.

Most of the people I know who are musicians have day jobs. Most don’t really complain that much about the lack of jobs or
money. They enjoy what they do. They’d do it for free. They’d do it if it cost them money (which it sometimes does, either directly or indirectly in the form of lost wages they could be receiving if they abandoned their musical aspirations).

People repeat the glib phrase “it’s all about the music”, but it obviously must be true, because to a first approximation, nobody makes any money at it. Frankly, I think music would be a lot better if we gave up the hope that it would be an industry, and accept it for what it is: art.