I think people misunderstand this recommendation a lot of the time. It doesn't mean that concerts are actually more lucrative then records ever were. That would

I think people misunderstand this recommendation a lot of the time. It doesn't mean that concerts are actually more lucrative then records ever were. That would imply that the record industry of the past 50 years was stupid because concerts and t shirts were always available to them as a way to make money. Concerts are a less good way of making money then records were but records are a worse way of making money relative to the past. This is a trend. Records are getting worse all the time. At some point, it makes sense to switch to the second best thing, concerts. One thing hasn't changed, this is a popularity business. That means that giving away or subsidising some stuff to sell others is likely to stay part of the game. One major difference between selling concert tickets and selling albums is the margin. A concert can happily use up the whole ticket take or more. Concerts that spend more can be better, so it's not like selling a zero marginal cost product. Marginal cost considerations are something that needs to be considered by this new concert star crowd. That David Byrne post is elbow deep in that.