Dj Shadow:

Wired.com: What about the sucker punch that the contracting economy has landed on the devolution of the industry and the evolution of the internet? El-P once told me that the first thing that goes out the window in recessions and depressions is the idea that people should pay for art of any kind.

DJ Shadow: It disincentivizes some people. I’ll give you a real-world example, not a hypothetical. There are rappers that I worked with in the past who no longer rap, because why would you? It doesn’t make any money. Some of them have gone back to ways of earning a living that are a lot less productive. To me, that is a damn shame. If the Beatles were not making a living, would they have made The White Album? What makes me laugh is people who say that artists are supposed to suffer and starve for their art, cut their ears off like Van Gogh or something. It’s such a ridiculous perspective. And it’s disingenuous as well, especially when those people are paying $400 for a cellphone every six months.

This is not new:

Time for a little straight talk, from one reasonably intelligent human being to YOU, the reasonably intelligent reader. As distasteful as it may sound, the fact is that so many of our heroes: Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, The Beatles, whoever you care to name; generated much of their best art in return for financial compensation. If you take away the compensation, guess what…the art stops. For example, how many young rap artists are grinding away these days in New York, trying to get a deal? Not too many, certainly compared to the ‘80s and ‘90s. There’s no allure, no pot at the end of the rainbow. People have been asking for years now, “Where’s the next Nas, the next Jay-Z?” Be prepared to keep waiting…and for music, overall, to keep sucking. Why? Because only bottom-of-the-barrel, embarrassing pop tripe generates enough income to feed the machine. Anything unproven or risky? Nobody’s going to bankroll that kind of ‘experiment.’

previously:
Bono and Dj Shadow Should Hang Out