Emily White admits that she didn't purchase the vast majority of the 11,000 songs in her iTunes library. David Lowery, who teaches "the economics of the music business at the University of Georgia," responds by explaining misconceptions of the music industry. Among them is the idea that "artists can make money on the road":
The average income of a musician that files taxes is something like 35k a year w/o benefits. The vast majority of artists do not make significant money on the road. Until recently, most touring activity was a money losing operation. The idea was the artists would make up the loss through recorded music sales. This has been reversed by the financial logic of file-sharing and streaming. You now tour to support making albums if you are very, very lucky. Otherwise, you pay for making albums out of your own pocket. Only the very top tier of musicians make ANY money on the road. And only the 1% of the 1% makes significant money on the road. (For now.)
(Chart by Michael DeGusta)
The Dish 