>One can't just look at revenue, debt and Moody's rating of guitar makers and dealers and proclaim the guitar, the most popular instrument today by a huge margin, is dying.
The "most popular instrument today" is misleading, considering modern R&B, Hip Hop (and to a lesser degree) EDM dominate everything charts and sales wise, and they use mostly computer DAWs and plugins, something that wont register in "instrument sales" lists or music schools.
Can't compare a DAW to an instrument though. Lots of guitar players use DAWs as well, so that's not really comparable. It's a whole different segment in fact.
To correctly account for "computer-only musicians" we would have to also eliminate electronic artists that have a primary instrument such as keyboards or drums/percussion. And in any case, computer-based instruments do register sales and have their place in most music schools.
The "most popular instrument today" is misleading, considering modern R&B, Hip Hop (and to a lesser degree) EDM dominate everything charts and sales wise, and they use mostly computer DAWs and plugins, something that wont register in "instrument sales" lists or music schools.