Major disagreement with Tom...

Just listened to the TV/Music episode where the guest mentioned that opera attendance dropped dramatically after the introduction of the phonograph (and what I assume to be opera records). Tom argued that this can't be proven to be true and that perhaps people just stopped liking opera suddenly. Really!?! Come on Tom, it isn't like there were all these different styles of music back then where people went back and forth between genres. It seems pretty obvious that when a new technology came out that had recordings of music, that this directly lead to a drop in attendance to the same music produced live. There is nothing wrong for saying this is true and that even if this is the case, companies/industries need to adjust to the new technology. All too often it seems tech pundits try to argue that there is no solid proof that piracy causes drops in movie purchases, or that releasing movies on DVD when they come out at the theater reduces movie goers. I'm not saying it is 100% fact, but at least admit that these things are LIKELY true, but that even if that is the case, the industries need to adjust to the change.