While* all of the recent talk about "Killing Hollywood" has sparked conversation throughout the hackasphere, the truth is the the record industry, the movie and tv industries are and have been the best employers of artists this side of the Medici clan.

To understand the problem, it is in my opinion crucial to understand what it is that artists do, and what the (few) industries that explicitly support artists mean to those whom they employ.

Unless and until the tech industry can do this, and help develop new ways for artists to empower themselves, the self-righteousness will backfire, the way it did for musicians who railed for generations against the powers that be and are now left with less employment opportunities in the industry than at any time in the last 100 years.

I'm a musician, and software developer myself, here is my attempt at solving the problem: http://www.feed-forward.net

I think that helping artists self organize is the future, to that extent I've developed an application that gives incentive for artists to engage each other in meaningful discourse over each others work. The more constructive criticism and positive reinforcement artists give for one anothers' work, the more exposure they get for their own. In this way I hope that artists won't have to "Kill" their corporate masters, but rather that we can become our own bosses. After all I read somewhere once that people are willing to work harder for less if they are doing something that they love...

What does HN think? -Shoham