I have a great deal of empathy and compassion for artists. These are people who pour out their hearts and souls and lives for the sake of us and our culture. They deserve to be met with a response that cares about them. You're completely right. They define us, and tell us who we are.

Yet, what form should empathy and compassion take? Empathy isn't a policy prescription. It doesn't come with technical requirements. Artists have alternate sources of income available, but this often runs into the basic problem that they aren't structured like the album sales of yesteryear. Different skills and approaches are required.

So what's an empathetic lover of music and culture to do? I only know that the previous system didn't work any better - Courtney Love doing the math made that clear.