MY recent stories on the struggles of the creative class have hit some people hard — I’ve gotten more emotional responses from these, I think, than anything I’ve written in two decades as a cultural journalist.
(Due to the mean-spirited, anonymous nature of Internet culture, I’ve also gotten nastier comments than I expected, along with some smaller doses of smart, reasonable criticism.)
In roughest terms, my stories take different angles to look at the same problem — the decimation of the creative class, which includes artists of all kinds as well as the people who distribute and assess their work — in recent years due to digital technology, the recession and changing values.
In any case, as I dig deeper into the issue, I wanted to make all of these pieces available to interested readers. Here’s the series, so far, in total.
Steal This Album:
What happens if no one pays for music?
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/20/steal_this_album_what_happens_if_no_one_pays_for_music/