I’m a 23 years old, started my career in September, and still live with my parents. While I understand and agree with some of your points against supporting a young adult, my parents are putting me in a really good position to help myself and them in the long run.

I do not pay rent, but I pay my share of the cable/internet bills, my cell phone bills, my car insurance, car repairs, gas, and obviously any type of entertainment.

My main point is that I really don’t drain my parents at all, being that the house was built for a family of 4-5 people. I do eat their cooking for free from time to time, but I don’t eat ridiculous portions so it’s not much extra for them. I help out with various chores to keep the house in decent shape. All the while, I am saving like a fiend.

When I finally move out, which could be this fall or the year after, I will be debt free, and have a ton of extra money to invest or accumulate in savings. You better believe that a good portion of this extra money I have will go towards my parents’ well being when the time comes for me to return the favor. Think of me living at home as another investment, and for my parents, it’s the easiest one they’ve made. It’s only easy, however, because I’ve been making some responsible financial choices. This won’t always be the case when young adults live with their parents, but sometimes it can be a win-win situation.

It seems the thing that’s changed about music publishing is the Barrier.

Fifty years ago, if a person wanted to have their music recorded in a form they could pass out at shows or give to their friends, or just listen to in their own home, they would need to 1) purchase a block of recording time in a recording studio, which at that time was at least $10,000 and then 2) physically press vinyl records, and THIS is the thing that the Record Industry literally had a monopoly on.

Now, an artist’s options start at the price of a computer (to do digital-only distribution) and they can have a CD fully published and distributed for only the up-front costs of manufacturing.
Oasis
Disc Makers

How about one-stop digital licensing that an artist can build and control themselves?
http://www.theorchard.com/

What does this mean for the record industry? A lack of the physical need for large-scale record companies.

HOWEVER, there is one very important thing which an “industry” provides for the individual “artist”. If you are an artist, you know how to make music, but maybe you don’t know how to strategize your public relations, design an album cover, or build a web page.

My personal answer to this? As a strategist, designer, video director and website contractor, i have had a symbiotic relationship with a number of musicians that i really love, for whom, over the years I’ve done either free or inexpensively priced album covers, music video, web site or social media consultation (as I know you do, Doug).

So… I believe the best investment we can make is time & energy, making contact with people one-on-one. Find out what industries people are in, and look for people who are at the same level (aspiring) in their field as you are in yours. If you have an amazing song, and find a video director who would love to simply have a song and a personality worthy of their amazingness, you’re in luck! They may be as happy to have your song in their video as you are to have their talent presenting you and your song. A budding social media strategist (a bright ambitious communications major with a passion for innovation?) can give you gems in minutes of consultation at a time.

Compile everyone’s opinions and make your own decisions. Basically I couldn’t agree more with Doug’s point – there will always be people lining up to charge you money, but in this area, the best things you can do for yourself are now free in our fantastic modern world, and we should never be afraid to just go and do it 100% ourselves. If anything, do it the free way for a while first and then, with some hindsight, decide what else might be worth paying for.

As voters, we get agitated about issues that are either more morally charged (eg, reproductive rights) or tangibly felt (eg, gasoline prices) or universally compelling (eg, global warming).

But as voters we don’t pay attention to the decidely unsexy arcana of things like financial sector regulation. This was a simple matter of [Normal Human Pursuit of Material Gain] + [Prolonged Poor Regulatory Oversight by the Federal Government] = [Large-Scale Disaster]

Next time you get to vote at any level–local, state, federal–it’s worth paying attention to where politicians stand on the boring stuff.

As to ‘why the bailout?’ – because the alternative to spending billions to fix messes created by a few unregulated capitalists is to return to a barter economy…anyone willing to give me a set of clothes in exchange for my pet pig ‘Sneezy’?

has also picked up our serialization of Trust Me!

Thanks for your work