A Cure for Musicians Afflicted with Baumol's Disease: Squeezing More Music out of Performance in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Abstract

and String Quartets Productivity growth in a service oriented economy, such as the United States, tends to lag behind productivity growth in a manufacturing economy [ 1 ]. One explanation for this finding is that the conditions of production in service industries preclude such growth because within any given service indus try, The work of the performer is an end in itself, not a means for the pro duction of some good [2]. This princi ple was named Baumol's Cost Disease (or simply Baumol's Disease) after it was proposed in 1966 by economist William Baumol. An oft-cited example given in support of this principle is that a group of musicians need as much playing time to perform a string quar tet piece today as they did in the 19th century [3].