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Originally Posted by Supz
Where I am sure some people are not doing as well. Look at some cases. Brittany Spears, Nicky Minaj for instance...shows like X-factor or American Idol were never around prior to this era. These broads will make 15 million this year just from doing 1 season of these shows. They dont have to make a record, they dont have to go on tour etc...There are plenty of people making plenty of dough. It might not be the actual people who make good music, and those people might be struggling. People have Vodka's they have clothing lines. This stuff did not exist before. They have many ways to make money besides record sales. Any main artist doesnt sell an album for 99 cents. more like 9.99. And they sell it digitally. Which means they do not have to pay for the actual pressing of the record, tape or CD. It is the same file being downloaded over and over again. Its not the age of good musicians making money for good music. Its the age of terrible music making tons of money because of PR and Social Networking.
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The problem here is that you are using a few choice examples in an effort to paint a large picture.
Of course Britney Spears got $15 million to do X-Factor and she is about to land $100+ million for a series of shows in Vegas. How? Not because of the internet, because for the last 10 years she has been one of the best selling most heavily marketed singers in the world.
Sure, there are still some people make a ton of money. Sure, there are plenty of artists who are making bank, but many are not as well.
When I said that the industry is a singles based industry now I didn't mean big well-known artists, I mean up and coming artists. These days it is not uncommon for an artist to be signed and they record and release a single. If the single doesn't sell well they don't even bother having them make an album, they just kick them to the curb and move on.
The record companies aren't innocent in all of this. They have gone from being companies that sold art and developed artists to selling a product and developing a brand. When it works, it works great, but often bands or artists that might develop into good selling artists are tossed out before they ever had a chance to develop. They can go on and do their own thing and use the internet to reach their fans, but that is not an easy thing to do either.
In order to get the clothing lines and the vodkas and all of that stuff you have to have prior success. Do you think some nobody with one single that barely has sold is going to get a clothing line a booze line or fragrance? Hell no. Those companies only work with established people