Some in the music industry estimate that
4 out of every 5 albums are produced using ProTools, often eschewing the expense of a traditional studio. (Not entirely, I'm sure, at least where vocals and acoustic instruments come into the equation.)
This has lowered the barrier to entry into recorded music significantly, and consequently artists no longer need six-figure advances, or indeed major-label backing, to cut a record. Which is probably one reason why the major labels are running scared and pushing for end-to-end DRM (not so much to stop MP3 swapping as to kill off independent distribution channels and protect their dying oligopoly).
(via Slashdot)
Last time my band went into the studio we first recorded the songs we did at home using a ProTools-like setup. Our demos sounded crap. The songs in the studio sounded good. Why? Because the producer/experienced mixer we got with the deal knew what he was doing and we didn't. The $1000 a day you pay for a good studio is for their $1000 microphones and $10,000 amps and $300,000 acousticly perfect room and someone who knows how to use it all. But yeah, if you know what you're doing and you have good instruments and microphones and neighbours who are quiet and a $2000 computer with lots of harddisk space you can do a record for nearly nothing.