Yes. It’s already exists on a micro level in the sub-industries of the larger umbrella that is the “music industry.” The sub-industry that I am directly involved with is music production and recording. There are currently countless small studios (1,000 sq feet or less) operating in Toronto and most of them are missing the big landmark items that people associate with traditional recording studios like large mixing consoles, gigantic in-wall speakers, and a small museum’s worth of very expensive processing equipment. The proliferation of these small studios is a recent occurrence (in perfect parallel to the demise of the large scale studios.. sound familiar?) that can be attributed to many things, although technology has provided the biggest gateway.

On a larger scale, there will be/is a breaking apart of the archetypal hot-beds of LA, New York, Toronto, London, etc. They will never cease to exist, but the playing field will be leveled out. The big industries aren’t dying, they are simply being forced back into a naturally sustainable package after being unnaturally bloated for the past few decades. The much-used bell-curved growth/decline graph is a perfect example of what is happening. The big business on the right side on their way down, and the small folks on the left on the way up.

But the cycle will happen again. Out with old and in the with the new unless some dramatic shift happens in the human condition that removes the irresistible dangling carrot of progress and growth from our list of desires.