Streaming services have not been kind to artists, and unfortunately they're by far the biggest player in the industry. If you're in a band, you're doomed to tour until you can't anymore to make a living off your music. So music isn't profitable then, right? For you, absolutely. Not quite the same for the industry.
According to a lengthy study published by Citigroup, the music industry brought in a whopping $43 billion in total. Of that $43 billion, a very not whopping 12% of it went to artists. For those disinclined to do math, that's $5.1 billion split among all artists. The report says a lot of that $43 billion total goes to middlemen like radio, online platforms, and record labels.
Consequence Of Sound points out that 12% of all revenue is actually an improvement over the year 2000, when only 7% went to artists. So just like you've always imagined, being an artists isn't easy.
