Many musicians got their start in local music venues. Many fans have had the luck to witness unknown bands perform in local music venues long before they "hit it big". With the ongoing change in the music industry today and with a growing number of musicians producing their own work, local music venues have become increasingly important to the world of music. The recent innovations in the high tech world have made it easy for musicians to produce their own music as well as market themselves on the internet. Many musicians today use websites and forums on the internet to list the local music venues where they will be playing while in their own home town or when on tour. Fans flock to local music venues all over the country to see bands and solo musicians perform live. A musician today can record a song and burn a CD or create an MP3 and have it available for sale within a couple of days. Local music venues provide a location to showcase their new music and have CDs available for sale during the show. This is an exciting time to be a musician today. In the past, local music venues were a chance to perform their songs in the hopes of catching the interest of a major record label. After signing, shows were often held in big, impersonal arenas, quite often robbing the soul out of the experience. Musicians often lost their edge, lost what it was that inspired them in the first place. It's quite common these days to see a band or songwriter with national recognition playing in local music venues.
