I got an email today from someone (with only a first name) who claims to be an editor at an online mag, which I googled. Despite a lot of protestations from AI and others that it’s legit, it appears to be a national scam, targeting artists.

There is a level of desperation and despair among most of the artists that I know, which has increased in recent years. As a result we are vulnerable to those who promise to “discover” us, or raise our visibility, when in actuality they merely want our money or our labor, or both.

On the other hand, I got a message from Europe that someone wanted one of my recordings for a film. Everything looked legit - real people, real project, looking for free music, and all my music is free. So I said, sure, great.

My colleagues, years ago, used to berate me for supplying free music, which they imagined hurt their marketability. They did not realize that far larger economic forces and players are what really impact their “market”, and by now we all know that Spotify is the only king. All classical music has become worthless.