An Excellent New Read: "A Brief History Of Why Artists Are No Longer Making A Living..."

I think as someone on the outside looking in my opinion isn't really valid.My son is a professional musician(currently serving in the military)gigging whenever and wherever possible nights and weekends.I have friends in the business and from what I know of their lives it's rather difficult to practice their craft and make a living at it.
They develop a network of as many people in the 'biz' as possible and pick up small gigs here and there - radio commercials,subing in bands when someone needs a night off,studio work,giving private lessons,doing free gigs which gets them more exposure,etc.I have no idea how important websites and Facebook pages are where a fan can download music.Will they pay for it or only want it if it's free?

@ivan_nosnibor : What you are describing seems to me the same as it has been for the last 40 years. Bands were given money up front, but they had to earn it back and they were forced to tour in order to do that. So I don't see the touring grind as anything new. It comes with the territory. And for smaller bands the touring is where the money is.

In the British band I mentioned above they had the opposite experience. They could not generate interest at home or on the continent. So they came to the US. Toured like crazy and built up a fan base. They are based in L.A. now. Their success here has allowed them to return to Europe recently with great success.

As far as being able to see lots of bands on tour, well, this is a new thing for me. Used to go to concerts when I was young but nothing in the last 20 years or so. Now I'm going again and there is no shortage of bands to see live. Virtually all of the bands I want to see who aren't major pop names come to venues in my area with some regularity.

Maybe the exceptions prove the rule as laid out in the article. But as a fan I don't see it. I see lots of new and exciting acts making great music, touring where I can easily see them and making a good living at it too. 

If your son is a musician, then your opinion might be more valid than mine since you have a window into it that I don't. No one in my family is a practicing musician. 

"Will they pay for it or only want it if it's free?"

I don't know. I mean there's no way (for me) to know what the public reaction will be to paying for a band, that I'm not familiar with, anyway. Just might depend on how much demand there is for their music...no other way to know, I think. If the band can set up such a page with minimal investment, or even by themselves - if that's even possible yet - then maybe there's a chance someone might pay something for a download...?? It's not all that clear to me at that level, sorry for my not being much help on that.

@n80
If your experience is that touring is sustainably vigorous then I’m inclined to take that as a reassuring sign, I think. But what I was talking about was not just that more bands are touring (which is true), but that, where 40 yrs ago they would’ve had the benefit of merchandise and album sales as well, many bands may now only have touring and possibly some merchandise...that the profits margins from new discs have all but evaporated these days...making them more vulnerable than they might have been had they been operating back then.

First and foremost, this forum should stick to all things concerning turntable set up, or similar subject, because people here have no idea of what's going on outside of their on little "ballywick" meaning the big world outside of audio.

Has anyone noticed that almost all of the major cities in this country that were thriving metropolises not long ago are now urban slums. Those were places where musicians began their careers by playing the bars, nightclubs, and lounges that hired musicians; that's where musicians who are now household names began.

I'll name some that I saw in small clubs that no longer exist: Chuck Berry, Ike and Tina Turner, plus Albert King began in small clubs in St. Louis. I saw Aretha in Detroit at a night club; hundreds of those types of clubs no longer exist. How is a musician suppose to even start to becoming a paid performer?

So many things begin with the great big picture, "the economy" that affect the little tiny picture; small clubs that entertain people which no longer exist; that's where it starts.

The answer to the question posed, goes far beyond the musicians.