>Granted it's a Wikipedia article and not the original research, but I have two quibbles. The first is that it still takes the same number of people to perform a Beethoven symphony, but 4 kids with electric guitars and barely any training can now perform music to a packed concert hall or dance floor. And those kids are under price pressure from someone who can now deliver the same productivity with a laptop. (I was one of those kids once).
I'd argue this is still a version of the Baumol effect. For example, some people look back at 1950s nightclubs and wonder why they can't have that now.
It's because, as you say, the productivity of automatic music increased but live orchestras didn't.
So if you want "music" you can get it cheap, if you want "live orchestra", you can't.
That's interesting, you could get a live orchestra when cost of music production was higher, but no more because big-band music was replaced by power-trios.
People were able to afford something earlier which in these days they no longer can.
I'd argue this is still a version of the Baumol effect. For example, some people look back at 1950s nightclubs and wonder why they can't have that now.
It's because, as you say, the productivity of automatic music increased but live orchestras didn't.
So if you want "music" you can get it cheap, if you want "live orchestra", you can't.