Started a new, related thread.
http://forum.cakewalk.com/m/tm.aspx?m=3789934

Jim Roseberry
 
Unless you've got a songwriter's masterpiece... and it's getting massive air-play on radio, most folks aren't downloading the whole record.
What is a $12 record, results in two singles downloaded at a whopping $2.
Now cut that down to the artist's share.  Probably making ~$0.25
If it's a band, divide that quarter up several ways.  
 
I liked vinyl because the larger package with artwork, pictures, lyrics, etc.
When the industry moved to CDs, the fidelity was nice (for back then), but the art/packaging took a major hit (IMO).
Moving on to digital downloads, it's convenient and inexpensive, but the art/packaging (compared to the days of vinyl) are all but gone.
 
 

 
I can't remember the last time that any album, even by artists that I already like, didn't find my attention wandering after 5 tracks or so. I do wonder if this is because albums are no longer albums in the sense of the word that I grew up with. Sure, you still had single releases lifted from the album, essentially to plug the album, but the actual album itself was compiled in a way that made each track a part of the whole thing. I guess the advent of only buying the tracks you like has made that concept redundant but I prefer when it mattered what order the tracks were played in.

In some ways the new way of doing things gives musicians way more choices.
 
For example, not every musician wants to (or can) go out and tour to promote their album. Not every musician wants to make a whole album.
 
Back in the "old days", you got a 3 or 4 album deal and you (a) had to record/release the albums within x number of years, and (b) had to tour, do press interviews, or anything you were told to promote it. There were limits on who you could work with, what remained your IP - in a lot of ways, you were selling your soul.
 
Nowadays, you can either just put it out there, or you can promote it however you see fit. You might want to gig locally. Your band may be split up across the globe, so you may want to use social media to promote it.
 
But the new way of doing things not only makes your music more immediately accessible, it also makes the musicians more accessible to the fans. There's a bunch of up and coming independent artists who regularly do live video casts to their fans, chat with them on facebook or on forums etc. 
 
This is fantastic for some of us that have families, or full time jobs, or anything that stops them from touring. There's no time pressure on getting your music written. There's no $1,000,000's right away, but then there's no advance to be paid back. 
 
Now we can still get our music out there and with a bit of self marketing effort, get it reaching a good number of people, and hopefully at least get our music to pay for our gear!
 
 

tlw


The current situation at least allows musicians themselves to put out recordings, even if they’re unlikely to sell more than a few hundred copies. If access to the market was still based on needing a distribution deal for physical product and heavy advertising to persuade the shops to stock the product then that wouldn’t be the case.

I agree with this comment only to the extent that access to an imaginary market is far less restricted than when you had to have a record pressing factory or a lot of cash to order your own self-published run. In other words, failure as a financial enterprise is less expensive for self-funded musicians than it has ever been. One problem faced by musicians that is not faced by plumbers, is that there are many more people willing to create and self-publish songs at a small loss than to pay someone to let them unplug toilets. Talented musicians are incredibly numerous, a conclusion that was largely masked by the access limitations imposed by the high cost of entry represented by the recording industry. Even if only a tiny percentage of all those who love to create music were capable of making something we could stand to listen to (which I submit is the case), there would still be many, many more musicians and songs than anyone could follow. When you have a vast pool of capable labor made up of people who are willing to work for the love of the art or a miscalculated probability that they will win the music market lottery, the price bargaining power of all is markedly diminished. Paltry streaming deals are largely an effect of an overcrowded labor market, where the threat to established acts held by the exploiters is that they can offshore your job to some rising star of the internet. Of course for wannabees, no threat is needed. They are like the proverbial crabs in a basket where no lid is needed because the ones at the bottom pull anyone who tries to climb up back down in their own efforts to reach the top.