>I usually listen to a song multiple times each day. Used to be I bought a CD for say $10, listened to it probably hundreds to thousands of times, say around a

>I usually listen to a song multiple times each day. Used to be I bought a CD for say $10, listened to it probably hundreds to thousands of times, say around a penny per listen. Then I'd resell the CD, say for $5, and someone else could get another 1000 listens with no money going to an artist. An artist used to get around 10% minus packaging costs, so say at most $1 per CD. So an artist then could get under 0.1 cents per listen, maybe vastly less. Next, a song plays on the radio to millions, and the artist gets (?). I think that was quite small too. Even then, touring was where most of the money was made - the CD and radio game was to get exposure and fans, many of whom would then pay $50-$100 for one evening of listening to the band live. I'm not sure how all the econ works out now without spending too much time digging into it, but making music has never been a good income stream for any but a tiny, tiny percent of artists.