> nothing can replace live music played by humans, as the experience and the very real positive benifits of an audience comming together can not be digitised

I wish it were true but I'm also very aware of how many people I see in audiences today are scrolling instagram while the band plays.

> There are hundreds of thousands of full time touring musical groups world wide, and millions of music festivals every year.

Those figures seem very high, do you have a source for these? Or even how you worked it out as a guesstimate?

8 billion people, maybe 9 billion...200000 bands that gives one band for every 42500 people..... 23 bands in a city of a million was a pure guess, but low right