- Maybe the closest thing to represent the idea of music are musical notes, but I agree that the implementation of it could still be more diverse than other ideas that could be described amd sharded. - It depends on the motive for making music. If it's only done to make money, I think you are right. However, if it's done to express your intrinsic creativity, itch your own scratch or establish your talents for a greater public, I doubt if you would stop even if it has costs associated to it. Many artists these days (writers/musicians/painters, etc) establish themselves through their craft and monetize it indirectly through concerts/workshops/public speaking, etc. - A good concrete analogous example are open source software developers. Or, imagine the inventor of fire/wheel/electricity/etc to artificially restrict its access... - Lastly, I personally think it's a good thing to support and I am willing to pay creative, productive people and great implementations of ideas...