I agree with a lot of this ... but how about the idea of multi-millionaire rock-star musicians is going away?

I wouldn't feel bad for musicians that make 50-70K per musician a year touring and selling t-shirts.

That's a great point. I don't have a problem with musicians who make a boatload of money, but it seems like for musicians, they're either starving or multi-millionaires. I know that's not factually true, but what would happen if there were many more musicians making a middle-class salary from their music? For one, I think it would legitimatize music in the eyes of many people, that is, make it a "real" job.

Of course, that would rely on a much broader consumption of music and a whole lot of other factors, but I do think that if there is some way that could be found for artists of all stripes to do their thing and live, instead of these planetary bodies that some of these pop-stars or New York Times best-selling authors are, then that would be better all around. I really think that that competition and legitimacy would drive the quality a lot higher than the passing consumption of the fairly rare art objects that are now created.

I'm sure that there would be problems with my vision and I'm not proposing it as a viable solution, though I do think that monetization of the arts needs to be implemented in a much different way.