Ray,

I really dont konw where you get your information? Do you just make everything up or do you actually know ANYONE in the music industry except for some "publishers" you read about in some obscure music magazines? There are many many studios here and actually more opening all the time. There are not as many on Music Row, because they moved out to the BERRY HILL area, south of town starting about 20 years ago. There are more people recording than ever. But large studios have gone away mostly because no one needs the room to make records. And there are more home recording and smaller studios around. Musicians work nonstop in certain areas. There are more and more people that come here continually to record and then go home to other areas. Nashville is in a population BOOM and a great deal of that is due to "musical tourism."

So that hasn't stopped either. Neither have the video studios, the promotional companies, etc. As I have said what has died is the art of the "outside song". But the Internet has created a very false narrative on that as well. Everyone thinks they can "send something in" to publishers and have them pitch those songs. That is not how it works. Those publishers you are talking about are only "publishers" in name. They are "SONG PLUGGING" companies that are FEE FOR SERVICES. Also "film and television libraries" that make pitches to film and television industry, which are most often based in places like LA and New York, where they run headlong into THOSE cities inner workings.

As Fdmetiro says, live gigs are still around but they pay less and less money, once again because of THE ENORMOUS SUPPLY. That is what has really grown and why the dynamic of the entire business has shifted. When there SUPPLY outnumbers the DEMAND, you have less ability to make money out of it. But again, all of this is on the lower and middle rungs of the ladder. The people on the top of the ladder are doing quite well. And there are other people in the middle rungs that use the Internet to their advantages.

The differences have been ushred in cheifly by the "AMATEURIZATION of the music industry." When the main forums are REALITY TELEVISION SHOWS, AMERICAN IDOL, AMERICA'S GOT TALENT, BRITIAN'S GOT TALENT, AUSTRALIAS' GOT TALENT, THE VOICE,MASKED SINGER, etc. YOU TUBE, FACEBOOK, SPOTIFY, PANDORA, you have a GIGANTIC GLUT OF PRODUCT. That is what creates the inequity of people TRYING to do this and people WANTING TO DO THIS.

But studios, musicians, producers, arrangers, etc. There is NO SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN, OR EVEN SICKNESS in those things. There are MORE things going on than ever.

Sorry to contradict your beliefs, but when they are wrong , someone has to say something.
MAB