Another excellent ZeroPaid article.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9861/Sir+Paul+McCartney+Doesn%27t+Object+to+FileSharingWhile high profile artists are still grappling with the file-sharing movement, another high profile artist, Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles has openly taken a side in the file-sharing debate, saying that people downloading music without paying for it "doesn't bother him."
McCartney is far from the last who had issues with iTunes and major record labels. Comic artist Weird Al responded to a fan question at one point about fans who bought from iTunes vs the physical album saying, "This is the one thing about my renegotiated record contract that never made much sense to me. It costs the label NOTHING for somebody to download an album (no manufacturing costs, shipping, or really any overhead of any kind) and yet the artist (me) winds up making less from it. Go figure."
For years, artists have been finding new ways to reach their fans. A large number of independent artists actively distribute their music on sites like NewGrounds, SoundClick and CCMixter. A large number of artists featured on these sites have a Creative Commons License which is, more often then not, an open invitation to share the files on file-sharing for free.
This articles worth a full read and makes plain something we have been stating here for a long time, the labels are doing all they can to make excessive profits but at the work-face the artist is not really seeing any changes in their revenue stream, only some of the more established tech savvy artists are making deals that include sponsorship/product endorsement, fan paraphernalia such as T shirts etc along with the lucrative live performances , in a decent deal involving the bigger picture model an artist can make a decent income, relying on a recording industry deal alone is not the income provider it once was and many artists bow out after not cracking the market on the first go, a shame but a financial reality for many of the scenario above.
