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Perhaps the problem is there are simply too many musicians all fighting for the same fixed size pie. I'm guessing the reason is there are a lot of people willin

Perhaps the problem is there are simply too many musicians all fighting for the same fixed size pie. I'm guessing the reason is there are a lot of people willing to work for a very low pay because they want to be a musician and not that they see it as a profitable pursuit.

asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
This is what is known in economics as a compensating differential. It's also my pet theory for why bog standard backend devs tend to get paid a lot more than game devs, even though the game devs tend to be more skilled and harder working.
- cosmodisk 6y ago
  So what you are saying is that because the job of the backend dev isn't as interesting as game dev,they are paid more? I very much doubt that's the reason.
  - Aerroon 6y ago
    No, it's the other way around. Gamedevs make less, because there are so many people that want to work as gamedevs.
  - WorldMaker 6y ago
    While I absolutely disagree with the above comment that "bog standard" backend devs have less skills than game devs [0], the call to "passion" does tend to deflate salaries and inflate working hours (at very real costs of work/life balance and burnout/early "retirement") in games. (It's among many reasons game developers pretty much need to unionize to avoid mistreatment from management, because "passion" is always going to be a weakness in negotiation.) [0] The call to "passion" tends to work the other direction too in that game developers are overwhelmingly young, fresh out of school, and the turnover ratio in the industry implies a huge turnover of skills and experience over time as well as consequent losses to institutional memory. There aren't a lot of safe spaces in games to build skills and game companies have fewer incentives to retain skilled workers than a lot of the, for instance, "dark matter" enterprise uses of backend developers where the backend developer becomes an institutional knowledge bottleneck.
em500 6y ago
Exactly this. No need to drag Pareto out of the barn just because you see 80%. The fundamental issue is a huge supply of wannabe musicians. If the distribution were completely flat, nobody rather than a small percentage would be making a living from Spotify. Not exactly new or groundbreaking stuff.
- vlovich123 6y ago
  Pareto is an observation of the distribution, not some special insight into “why” the result is Pareto. Just saying this phenomenon appears everywhere - the underlying causes may be the same or they may be different but the distribution remains the same.

asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago

This is what is known in economics as a compensating differential. It's also my pet theory for why bog standard backend devs tend to get paid a lot more than game devs, even though the game devs tend to be more skilled and harder working.

cosmodisk 6y ago
So what you are saying is that because the job of the backend dev isn't as interesting as game dev,they are paid more? I very much doubt that's the reason.
- Aerroon 6y ago
  No, it's the other way around. Gamedevs make less, because there are so many people that want to work as gamedevs.
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  While I absolutely disagree with the above comment that "bog standard" backend devs have less skills than game devs [0], the call to "passion" does tend to deflate salaries and inflate working hours (at very real costs of work/life balance and burnout/early "retirement") in games. (It's among many reasons game developers pretty much need to unionize to avoid mistreatment from management, because "passion" is always going to be a weakness in negotiation.) [0] The call to "passion" tends to work the other direction too in that game developers are overwhelmingly young, fresh out of school, and the turnover ratio in the industry implies a huge turnover of skills and experience over time as well as consequent losses to institutional memory. There aren't a lot of safe spaces in games to build skills and game companies have fewer incentives to retain skilled workers than a lot of the, for instance, "dark matter" enterprise uses of backend developers where the backend developer becomes an institutional knowledge bottleneck.

em500 6y ago

Exactly this. No need to drag Pareto out of the barn just because you see 80%. The fundamental issue is a huge supply of wannabe musicians. If the distribution were completely flat, nobody rather than a small percentage would be making a living from Spotify. Not exactly new or groundbreaking stuff.

vlovich123 6y ago
Pareto is an observation of the distribution, not some special insight into “why” the result is Pareto. Just saying this phenomenon appears everywhere - the underlying causes may be the same or they may be different but the distribution remains the same.