Based on the highly unscientific sample of responses to yesterday’s post, free downloads of music appear to have a huge impact on creating an audience for unknown musicians.
The next logical question is how much money are those unknown musicians making? That’s not rhetorical. I wonder if they are making more or less than a typical cubicle job. I assume they play smaller venues, and don’t perform live as often as they want.
If I owned a venue for live music, and suddenly I had access to more musicians that could fill the smallish house, thanks to exposure on the Internet, I would pay them less than if only a few bands could bring in a crowd. It’s basic supply and demand.
In yesterday’s comments I saw the names of lots of bands I never heard of. Can anyone point to a link that would tell me whether or not they are making a decent living? Obviously they make enough to eat, but do they make more than a cubicle job with health benefits and a retirement plan?
It seems to me that economic forces would eventually drive the value of musicians – even good ones – down to a very low level, as long as lots of good musicians prefer playing live music to being in cubicles.
Are you doing a musician a favor by attending a live performance and postponing the day he will be inspired to get a real job with a health plan and start saving for his retirement?