My numbers were made up but they were just there to illustrate that even though successful musicians have always been rare, it doesn't mean that there can't have been a significant change in the number of musicians who are able to make a living or even cover their costs. I hear lots of stories from bands who did well in the 90s and 00s, who despite having the same sort of following today, are struggling to make ends meet now.
 

open air festivals are booming, and new small ones are cropping up all the time.

 
Unfortunately festivals feature a relatively small number of bands and getting on them often means playing for free or even paying to play anyway. That €200 ticket price wouldn't go far when you spread it across 80 bands anyway.
 

When I go through the city on saturday nights, there will always be several pubs with live music.

 
Not as many as there used to be, and probably many of those musicians aren't getting paid anyway. Over here in the UK venues are closing on a regular basis because people don't want to pay to see live music anywhere near as much as they used to.
 
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/feb/22/toilet-circuit-venues-john-harris
http://www.musicsupportedhere.com/mounting-anger-over-live-music-venue-closures/
 
So fewer bands get to play and those that do are often getting nothing for it.
 

it has never been easier to get a decent recording on the cheap

 
Sure, but cheap is not free, and unless you're pirating everything and making electronic dance music, chances are you're still having to spend hundreds or thousands on rehearsal rooms, equipment hire, etc. And while the quality may be much better than the demos of the past, your output gets judged against expensive studio recordings of today, so most people still have to spend money on getting the best result. Not to mention that exposure still costs money (eg. you want PR? That's potentially over $1000. Want magazine reviews? They'll want physical CDs. In fact, they usually want you to buy advertising too, but that's another story.)
 
It's also ignoring the cost of a musician's time. If a musician is getting some decent revenue then they can afford to only have a part-time job, giving them time to work on their craft, writing, recording, whatever. If they don't have any revenue, it has to be squeezed in around their day job and any other commitments. And obviously if you're holding down a day job it's hard to go on tour (in the unlikely event of you actually being offered one). This makes it a lot harder and bands split up because of this; bands that once would have been able to continue. That's bad for music, and bad for the listeners of the future - they just don't realise it yet.

Kylotan ... Yes, I hear a lot of people say, "has it ever been different", but they're missing the scale of the problem....

 
I disagree. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In fact, we even get folks here discussing music like the goons you can find along with the king in "Amadeus" ... stick on the ground to keep time, and once in a while say too many notes, and then everyone has to agree with everyone else, or they are not people that have feelings, ideas or music!
 
There is no problem.
 
These large companies, have lived off ripping people off for years, and now it's getting harder to do so, and you are feeling sorry for them?  You don't even give a damn about the musicians, then, do you? The "companies" never supported any more than a small percentage and even then, when Led Zep and The Rolling Stones got their millions in 1974, the record distribution combine, dropped over 1000 bands from their distribution lines, and you are complaining that the numbers are slowing down. It STOPPED, one of the greatest eras of musical creations ever in the history of music, and you don't see that.
 
The business model that "was" music, came from the movie studios, that are finally learning to play the game, and doing less expensive films in order to make things work. And the number of "blockbusters" dropped some ... but you should look at the nubmers that the media is showing you ... making you feel guilty that you did not go see the movies!
 
Everyone else DID!
 
It's the same for music, with one DIFFERENCE. Music has a better defined IDENTITY, and they have learned to take the show on their own road. End of story. The RAP nation is the first example, and they told the music honchoes and record companies to go get ______! A lot of it happened in film in the 1990's with Van Peebles, Spike and others, and it helped, but they have been bought out, and the "black film" almost doesn't exist anymore, because ... it doesn't sell, and it ain't blockbuster material! But, you're telling me that they can not make enough money to enjoy life?
 

There will always be a market for touring bands as well.

 
There will be less of a need for the touring band. All you have to do is get smart and do a show live and charge a dollar for it. If you get 10K hits, I bet you will be so happy you will pee yourself silly!
 
Some of these "corporations" wants you to think that you are missing a GREAT show if you go see Styx or some other this or that. Combine that with the proliferation of all the crap possible that has any advertising or a PR person with them, and you got your answer!
 

If music is headed away from being an industry back to something social that people do for other people - I don't mind, to be honest.

 
The industrial age has been on the decline for a hundred years, but the ruling class wants to fight. It's what the proliferation of 100 plus countries around the world ... the countrol of "bigger lords and what not crumbled and continues to crumble. What is happening in America is dangerous and this corporatization of everything is going to hurt a lot later. We need to reset the local business to help itself, and if the larger company in NY can' survive, it needs to die to stop its greed because they are "bigger".
 
The music business is no different!
 
I'm not interested in any of the top ten BS tours out there, and I don't care for any of their work because it is crap! If you have to listen to Mariah Carey to get your jollies off and support the corporate model, or the Las Vegas model, fine, but stop expecting everyone else to do so! Or trying to make them feel guilty because they did not buy one of those darn top ten CD's!

Kylotan

Moshkiae

Kylotan ... Yes, I hear a lot of people say, "has it ever been different", but they're missing the scale of the problem....

 
I disagree. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In fact, we even get folks here discussing music like the goons you can find along with the king in "Amadeus" ... stick on the ground to keep time, and once in a while say too many notes, and then everyone has to agree with everyone else, or they are not people that have feelings, ideas or music!

 
I have no idea what you're trying to say with that paragraph.
 

These large companies, have lived off ripping people off for years, and now it's getting harder to do so, and you are feeling sorry for them?  You don't even give a damn about the musicians, then, do you?

 
Who is talking about "large companies"? You've come all prepared to have a "**** the labels" fight, but you came to the wrong place, because I never even mentioned them.
 

The industrial age has been on the decline for a hundred years, but the ruling class wants to fight. It's what the proliferation of 100 plus countries around the world ... the countrol of "bigger lords and what not crumbled and continues to crumble. What is happening in America is dangerous and this corporatization of everything is going to hurt a lot later. We need to reset the local business to help itself, and if the larger company in NY can' survive, it needs to die to stop its greed because they are "bigger".

 
You're veering off into crazy revolutionary territory here.
 
The industrial age isn't going anywhere. For every unit of decline in the West, China and India are picking it up two-fold.
 
But this is almost entirely unrelated to what I said, or what the other guy you're quoting said.
 

I'm not interested in any of the top ten BS tours out there, and I don't care for any of their work because it is crap! If you have to listen to Mariah Carey to get your jollies off and support the corporate model, or the Las Vegas model, fine, but stop expecting everyone else to do so! Or trying to make them feel guilty because they did not buy one of those darn top ten CD's!

Dude, I write death metal - hardly "top ten" or "corporate". I have no idea who the hell you're arguing against here.