Guys please don't let the fantasy of a handful of bands being "successful" (not compared of course to the days before piracy) by giving away their music for free blind you to the reality.
Reality is...the music biz is decimated. The vast majority of the money being made in 2013 is done by touring.
No way in hell a band selling a million downloads on ITunes in 2013 (and you can count those artists on one hand) comes even close to the money being made by a band like KISS in the 1970's with multi-platinum (which "platinum" back then meant one million) ALBUM sales.
Anybody that's been to L.A. and seen the giant empty Tower Records building knows the truth.
There's a reason that no big bands are breaking anymore. There is no modern day Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Who, Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Soundgarden...and there aren't going to be any.
What we have now are bands making a few online sales from their faithful fans. But they will never break into a wider market and become superstars like the bands used to do.
As for porn...we can't tour. So we don't even have that kind of revenue base to turn to.
