Originally Posted by scottandrew
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Album sales have never been the main source of money, it's playing live.


Oh no, to the contrary, album sales are still a huge source of income. The margins are being eaten by digital options and piracy, but it's still a significant income stream.

I would argue that the market for live performance is limited to artists who can perform live and audiences that go to such shows. I have no proof, but I'll bet it's easier to convince someone to buy an album than go to a show. I mean, how many band t-shirts does a fan need? They can't ALL be superfans.

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Your right, people want to write a song, have someone else record and perform it, and sit back and watch the profits roll in.


There's nothing wrong with that, though. The star machine still needs raw material. I think that's a separate issue from the royalties question.


to the contrary, many bands say they dont care if people download their music free, and that they wanted no part in organizations who protect the artists, they never asked for help.

And the reason being is that they make the majority of their money from live shows. If you sell tix at 100 bucks each, in a 100 k capacity place thats a million bucks for one show.

They dont care. Depends who we are talking about.