Want to make a living a musician? Then make great music, press your own cd’s and sell them online. If you sell about 150 of them each month, you might make minimum wage. Any other road will mean you shouldn’t quite your day job. That’s the quick answer provided by graphs made by Information is Beautiful.

Of course, this might be excluding any other amount of investments you need to make (recording the music, buying instruments), but still the picture painted is quite realistic. And it explains why record companies only seem to care about big artists who sell a lot. Their entire system is not only set up on making big artists even bigger, it’s their only tactic for survival and why they are shitting their pants about what’s happening on the internet.This is why they are using bogus arguments that even the US government is no longer buying.

You may say Freeloaders are ruining entertainment, but let’s face it, copying is not theft. If you’re a self-respecting artist, be realistic. Make music because you love it, not because you have to make a living out of it. It’s nice if you can or at least make an extra buck, but never corner yourself in a position where you accuse your own fans of ripping you off. I know plenty of artists who don’t make an income off their art, but make an income to be able to make art. And there’s nothing wrong with that.