Originally Posted by kane

Here is why artists get paid over and over again for the thing they created: they created something that is lasting. If you make a record and it sucks and nobody buys it, 20 years from now you will not be getting paid for it. A McDonald's employee makes a burger, it gets eaten and it is gone. they have to make another. You can't buy a big mac and eat it over and over again and again and nobody is going to go pay to see a McDonald's employee work (which is what you are doing when you pay to see a concert live).

If you make a record that has a lasting impact and people are still buying it 10, 20, 30 years after you made it why shouldn't you get paid for it? Artists are paid what they earn. Yes, there are some who sign big contracts and never live up to them and are overpaid, but most of them who have millions of dollars have that money because people plunk down their hard earned money to see them.

Answer me this: If a chef comes up with a bunch of great recipes and builds a kick ass menu around it and then opens up a restaurant using those recipes then they hire managers to run the place and they just step back and let it all work should they only get paid for the first batch of customers through the door? Ten years later if they still own the restaurant and the restaurant is still using those recipes should then not get paid? that is what a record it. You record it, it goes out and if it sells you get paid. Over the years if it continues to sell the distributor pays someone to make more copies of it and they sell them. You deserve to be paid for that.