I read a blog recently by a music industry insider. He's usually pretty good but I think I had to disagree this time. He said, in essence, the music in the niches doesn't matter. Because he writes mainly about pop music music and arena size acts I suppose he can be forgiven for thinking this, but music in the niches has really been the disruptive influence in the past.
In the early 1950's R & B and "Hillbilly" music had small but dedicated audiences. But when these two forms were blended by Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis this got pretty exciting. Then Elvis came along and blew the roof off. Shortly after came folk music. Not a large audience initially, but it grew into a powerhouse commercially ("Tom Dooley" was in the top ten for nearly a year and sat at number one for weeks and weeks) as well as socially. It was at the heart of the protest movement of the sixties and influenced many rock/pop artists. Jazz/rock fusion, punk, and hip-hop have all spent their time in the shadows.
As a classical musician I look at this genre and see a bunch of specialties. Ironically the most recent niche in classical music is "Early Music" as people rediscover music from the renaissance and baroque periods. There are musicians/academics who work hard to discover music from this period and then perform it on period correct instruments. It's quite a revelation to hear a virtuoso recorder player when your only experience with the recorder is your third grader valiantly squeaking out "Hot Cross Buns".
Other niches today include "Americana" which is a form of folk music that embraces the sounds of roots music in a contemporary setting. And "Finger-style" acoustic guitar music. These will never draw arena size audiences and I suspect that was the bloggers point. But they give us options. And hope. When we complain about how bad todays music is, we can find something that is new, fresh, and meaningful in a setting that we don't have to share with 50,000 of our closest friends.
As a classical guitarist (speaking of niches) I prefer to play in smaller more intimate settings. Financially speaking, the larger the venue the more money is on the table. And in large venues you can't even see the audience past the first row or two so you don't really get very nervous. But musically I can play quiet and be heard, and play loud without really being that loud. I have the freedom to be an artist without the obligation of being an entertainer.
If you haven't already done so, take some time to do a little exploring. Look in the shadows for some music that you may have overlooked in the past. I'll even help you get started while I do some shameless self-promotion:
Former student Jennie Knaggs with her husband Nick Shillace singing as Lac La Belle https://youtu.be/G1qMsSqb5v0
Former student Mark Kroos: https://youtu.be/b0eknUtEMWw
Me playing early music: https://youtu.be/_7AwX2zBaWU?list=PL5T0sEEE0jx49NB--DubcZIB22PuDbzu6