"doing absolutely nothing" isn't only wrong, it's deeply offensive. Good recordings take an investment of time and money: time to develop the performance abili

"doing absolutely nothing" isn't only wrong, it's deeply offensive. Good recordings take an investment of time and money: time to develop the performance ability, time to develop the production skill, time to develop the composition behind the recording itself. By the time you hear it, there's already plenty of stuff that was far from "doing absolutely nothing" that's gone into it, and chances are that even successful recordings won't earn back the time involved in all of it at an above-average wage. Sure, it's possible to make money off of performances, but touring is capital intensive (particularly for any kind of large band production), risky, and as we like to say here, doesn't scale well. "Merchandising" is just another way of saying you think artists should have another job besides making music, because that's what it is. Finally, would you say this? "The antiquated idea is that an author should be getting money for doing absolutely nothing because they once wrote a book months or years ago...." Because it's pretty much the same thing. Though I'm actually waiting for people to suggest authors should make money off of merchandising and live appearances and "creative business models" and "innovation", given the way culture seems to be going.