In the mid 90's MTV did a salary survey of moderately successful bands and found that the average yearly salary was about 30k, putting it in the range of an ent

In the mid 90's MTV did a salary survey of moderately successful bands and found that the average yearly salary was about 30k, putting it in the range of an entry level office job. These weren't the biggest names in music, but they were definitely on the high end. This was long before the rise of peer to peer downloads, and even then professional music was not a viable career path. Blaming technology advancements for artists not being able to make a living off of their art is just a scape goat. The concept of a "starving artist" predates the rise of computers and transcends all media. The only difference between the music industry and painting, sculpting, writing, or any other form of art is that a myth of past profitability has been propagated in recent years. The (unchanged) reality is that artistic expression doesn't generate revenue streams except for the very few, lucky artists.