Note that the artists (with some exceptions) really aren\'t the ones against this file sharing. It is the RIAA, which is the recording studio business. They are the ones who make money from the CD sales.
Artists make most of their money either from radio play royalties or from concert appearances. Contrary to CD sales, artists fund their own concert tours, pay for their own stage, roadies, light show, etc. and thus make all the money from the ticket sales on the tour.
Older artists get zero radio play, don\'t sell that many albums (where are they on the charts) but make huge $.
This url shows that Bruce Springsteen made $115.9 million last year on tour. Celine Dion made $80.5 million.
Dave Matthews made > $50 million last summer in his concert tour. Shania Twain and Toby Keith each made > $45 million.
The numbers are really staggering. With albums bringing in <$1 per sale, and big albums only selling a million copies or so (most much less), license revenue for the artists is really negligible. Albums and radio are both really just ways to get people to come to your concerts.
Thus, P2P file sharing makes more free advertising for the musicians and can only increase how many people go to a particular concert--benefitting the artists but hurting the recording companies.
- Venge
