Rampant Music Piracy And Broke Artists

When you hear the phrase "starving artist" you generally think of some poor sap painter with only five fans. Four of those fans are members of his family. It has typically implied the world of unknowns, some deserving of recognition and others who should find a new career. We don't really think about the famous musicians we know and love today. They're famous after all. How could they be struggling with bills? But politicians, people against music piracy, and some artists themselves have been very forthcoming about the ill fate that has become them in an age where no one buys CDs.

Even in the good ol' days when people were willing to dish out $18 for a single CD, musicians never made quite that much off album sales. Case in point, R&B group TLC -or so I learned from watching their Behind the Music special. They sold millions of albums, performed sold-out shows, and still had to file for bankruptcy. Granted part of that might have been bad management, spending money on lavish video and concert sets, but they weren't rolling in the dough as one would expect. Flash forward to today and any money you could possibly make off album sales is almost completely gone. I can't imagine your iTunes sales are raking in the dough for your personally. If anything, it's paying back the loan to the record label for studio time.

Artists are not making money off their music these days. Instead, all the money is coming from concerts and merchandise. But unless you're Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber selling out every stadium in the world, you still won't make that much money from concert sales. More and more artists are having problems selling out larger venues. The really big name acts and well-established bands seem to be doing okay. But bands I once saw playing medium-sized venues are now playing Terminal 5 in Manhattan. It's not some small stage in the back of a bar, but there is still a lot less people as say Hammerstein Ballroom. It's mainly because record labels are afraid of investing too much into an artist. It looks much better to sell out Terminal 5 then only sell 75% of the tickets at Hammerstein. More people would probably be more willing to go if ticket prices weren't so incredibly high. Ticketmaster is, without a doubt, a monopoly gauging you with insane fees. If I didn't have to spend an extra $10+ on an already expensive ticket, I'd be more include to go to concerts and music festivals. Even merchandise at the shows are exorbitant. The t-shirts are always $10 cheaper on the band's website.

I don't believe all the music out there today just sucks that badly. Will I stop downloading 90% of my music? No. But these guys do have to eat, right? Most big name bands are not living off bologna sandwiches and living in a van down by the river. Most are well-off. But those moderately famous bands deserve more than just the apartment above their parents' garage.

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