One guy on Twitter recently posted an interesting question. Actually, it was more of a statement. He said, “Who in their right mind would want to be a musician in this environment?” I though to myself, who wouldn’t? I think there’s no better time to be an indie music artist than right now.

Obviously, the thrust of this guy’s question was that a music career isn’t lucrative anymore. I say, but it was never lucrative to begin with. Sure, a few people became megastars and made millions, but what about everyone else? You were lucky if the labels even paid attention to you. And if they did and you happened to get signed, you were extra lucky if you didn’t get totally screwed. At least now, everyone has a shot at making a decent living in music if they put enough effort into it.

Clearly, the author of that tweet isn’t a real indie music person. There’s an interesting anecdote about a magazine editor who asks a millionaire investor why he keeps doing what he does. The editor asks, “You’ve already made millions. Why do you keep risking your money and time trying to make more? I would have quit after I made my first million.” The investor responds, “That’s exactly why you would never make a million.”

The point is that you do something because you love it, not because you care about the money. If you love it, you’ll do it well. And if you do it well, the money will come. Maybe it won’t make you rich, but at least you’ll be doing what you love.

You know what the best part of it all is? If you are a real music person, economics and popular culture are on your side. Pop culture killed Top 40 Radio. In 2005, an average of one U.S radio station went out of business each week. I love the very idea that when Kanye West releases his new single on the radio, nobody really cares.

On March 21, 2000 Jive Records released “No Strings Attached,” the second album by NSYNC. It sold 2.4 million in its first week, making it the fastest selling album ever. That was only eight years ago. My, my, how the world has changed. Now people are exchanging tens of millions of songs on the P2P networks instead. The vast majority of them aren’t top hits. Some of them might be yours. Hopefully.

It wasn’t so much that file sharing made us stop buying music, but that file sharing exposed us to the vast universe of music out there that nobody knew about. The notion that file sharing killed the music industry because it made people stop buying top hits is one of the most persistent myths out there.

Case in point: the other day, I’m typing something up at my computer. And as I’m typing, I’m listening to a song by a New Jersey based band called A Little Affair, which I wrote up a review for recently. Even though they have areas where they could improve, I think their tracks are kinda’ chill. I wasn’t listening to Coldplay or 50 or The Smashing Pumpkins. I was listening to A Little Affair. Why? Because I could.

The Top 40 era is coming to a close, and music is more popular than ever, not less. Take it from Rupert Murdoch. In a 2005 speech he said, “Young people don’t want to rely on a God like figure from above to tell them what’s important. They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it.”

Their media is your opportunity. Forget the naysayers. If music is your calling, do it. Do it because you love it.

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