A good look at the music industry

We hear this all the time: the poor music industry is being put out of business by all those pirates out there stealing music. When the music industry went to court to sue the Limewire music sharing site, the figure they cited for the money owed to them was in the neighborhood of 75 trillion dollars. Trillion dollars. They were laughed out of court, but that has hardly stopped them from complaining and defending their position. An article on The Quietus by Wyndham Wallace talks about a different side of the changing music economy, and how it affects those affected the most: the musicians.

"Touring's where the money is, the mantra goes, and that's the best way to sell merchandise too. But this is a similarly hollow promise. For starters, the sheer volume of artists now touring has saturated the market. Ticket prices have gone through the roof for established acts, while those starting out are competing for shows, splitting audiences spoilt for choice, driving down fees paid by promoters nervous about attendance figures. There's also a finite amount of money that can be spent by most music fans, so if they're coughing up huge wads of cash for stadium acts then that's less money available to spend on developing artists. And for every extra show that a reputable artist takes on in order to make up his losses, that's one show less that a new name might have won."

Read How The Music Industry Is Killing Music And Blaming The Fans

Source: TheQuietus.com