It’s a rain-drenched Thursday night, and Michael Christmas is moving and mingling through the small crowd at a South Campus venue, cutting a striking and colorful figure with a large build and puffy hair that easily dwarfs the biggest afro you’ve ever seen.

 “I think I’m inspired by everyday life,” Christmas, the 21-year-old rapper from Boston, Massachusetts, said before performing at Skybarn along with rising electronic music maestro Sweater Beats on April 2.

Attendees were in a "New York State of Mind" Friday night at Billy Joel’s seventh concert at SU's Carrier Dome.

"New York State of Mind" was just one of the many hits that he played in his set, which was more than two hours long. Joel opened with "A Matter of Trust" and "Pressure" and closed with an encore set that included "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," "Big Shot," "You May Be Right" and "Only the Good Die Young." Joel also played many of his other classics, such as "Piano Man," "Uptown Girl" and "The Entertainer."

Music has always been a hard business to monetize, but as the culture of ownership has declined, it has become even more so.

Today’s youth are less likely than ever to conceptualize music as something bought and hoarded or something to line one’s shelves with and carry forever. As the outright stealing of the Napster era gave way to to the current streaming age, where a few dollars per month subscription to Spotify could be one's access to an all-you-can-eat buffet of listening, it became clear most musicians would have to find alternative revenue streams to make a living.

Jeremy Quentin, a native of Flint, Mich., has spent nearly a decade recording and touring with his folk project, Small Houses. His studio albums are rich and full-blooded, with percussion and guitar layers and vocal harmonies coloring the plaintive acoustic songs.

But on stage, Quentin stands alone, yelping his way through 50-minute sets and plucking the guitar held snug to his chest.