Successful Starving Artists

Longtime blog readers will know how much I love the music recording industry. While I believe in supporting the artists, and I have no problem supporting those who bring the music to me by way of recorded media, like CDs - theoretically. I do have a problem when big business sues the little guy. Especially when the little guy is homeless, or a grandmother who's never owned a computer, or a little girl, or a dead person, or someone other than Bill Gates. It just seems so wrong. Espeically when the evidence of the wrong-doing is weak and easily faked. I used to buy a lot of CDs, until the lawsuits started. Now I boycotte. I only buy music from independent labels.

Then I stumbled across these articles.

• http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml
• http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091119/1634117011.shtml
• http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2000/06/14/love

It turns out that buying CDs don't really support the artists that much anyway. Read the articles to see the actual math, but a typical artist gets about $24 for every $1000 of record sales.   If you buy a CD for $10, the artist gets 24 cents.  The system seems designed to keep the artists down, while making the record execs rich. When the industry sues you for allegedly downloading music, they're not fighting for the artists. They're fighting for themselves.