Originally Posted by Notes Norton
This is true, not only in the music business, but many of the arts. The artist buys the paint, the canvas, buys the frame, pays for it to be mounted, puts it in the gallery, and the gallery takes 60% of the money.

Gordon said
It isn't even just the arts, though the arts get a worse deal than many.

In general, the product I produce and sell for four dollars gets sold at retail for twenty-five dollars. In the best years, I make an 11% gross profit. In years where hurricanes destroy significant parts of my operations, my gross can drop to zero or below.

The music business is dominated by corporations like the major studios, which are in the business of producing profit for their shareholders. Art is more difficult to sell and involves more risk than some other products. The "Hurricanes" in the music business are the millions invested in art/artists that don't produce any money.

There has obviously been fraud and unfair advantage taken on musicians who were not intelligent enough to prevent it. These sorts of things do not happen solely to musicians. They are common in business relations.
I lose substantial amounts of money each year due to fraud and unfair advantage. My only solution is to increase gross revenues to compensate for the losses. Work harder for less money!

It is not easy to make a lot of money doing anything or even enough to live comfortably.

Copyright is just one of the many issues to solve and is only relevant if you are selling something.

Every business has to deal with the legal issues of copyright, patents, trademarks, and the like.

It is fun to discuss this stuff on the forum, but what is said here is not helpful in a legal sense. It is like going to Facebook to get medical advice...lol

Cheers,

Billy

“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”