Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn
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Interesting observation. Before the USA had a big corporate music recording industry, lots of songs were written and shared rather than sold. The folks making money off the music were the performers who had learned the songs and were hired to perform them at an event. <...>


The gigging musicians have been the ones making a living playing music for almost all of history.

The recording industry is a mere blip of time in the history of music, and even then most musicians made their living playing live.

For every famous artist making the big bucks, there are thousands making a living, from buskers to lounge musicians to corporate event musicians to wedding musicians, to nursing home musicians, to private party musicians to whatever and wherever music is being played.

Don't take statistical articles too seriously.

Remember, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics (Mark Twain).

Second of all, physical or streaming sales may be big news, but they don't reflect the majority of music being made in the US or the world. The majority of money being made in music is by live musicians. Sure we don't get Paul McCartney type money, but we outnumber those people.

I've played music as my primary means of making a living for most of my life (I did have 2 short lived 'day jobs' while seeing what normal was like - and even then I was gigging on the weekends). I've recorded on other people's records, and was in a band that had a local 45RPM single hit many years ago (we didn't make any money from that). I've been in dive bars, on concert stage with major stars, and every venue in between. In our medium sized town I know many musicians who make their living gigging.

But the press needs something to write about, and celebrities and their money "sells newspapers and magazines".

True, live music isn't as popular as it once was, there are DJs making music doing what traditional musicians used to do, but gigging is still the way most musicians get paid.

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