Hi Marc My post was not meant to be insulting. I was just stating the differences between how many this side of the pond see things and how our US friends differ. Much of what you say is true. However the biggest is not always best despite you claiming it to be. Not all musicians are mercenaries who only think dollars. Nashville does generate huge sales and does attract folk from all over as it is the centre for Country music. Some who are not of that genre view Nashville musically as unimportant to them personally just as some Nashville people see the outside world musically as pretty unimportant to them.

Wether you like it or not music has always been a place to exploit and a heck of a lot are exploited. Fact..... there is a huge marketplace for these IMO dubious services. Some can be described as positive but there remains a huge proportion who do rip off wannabe songwriters whether intentionally as a scam or as a coat tail industry. It is also a fact that many people welcome being ripped off and accept it as a part of the learning process and a necessary way to progress.

Perhaps if I lived in Nashville or even other parts of the USA I would see or think different but I live in UK where we do things different.

Re all the people flocking to the US to enter the HUGE music industry there. That is a fact. That said however few British acts will aim at the closed country shop. Most do not produce that kind of music anyway prefering to try to promote their own original music styles.
The Beatles did come to America to promote themselves, by that time they were internationally famous anyway and the Nashville country music scene was not exactly the marketplace they were aiming at.

Lastly you scoff at certain Brit and Euro music for not being very good UNSTRUCTURED RANDOM AND UNDECIPHERABLE well so do I BUT it DOES offer variety and scope for individualism and is not thrown in the bin because it does not comply with the rigid preset templates of country music.... same old tired stories, chord structures, tempos and arrangements.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687727&songID=5238055