Written by Chris Simoni Thursday, 14 May 2009 17:10

Question: Does Dirt Cheap!!! play music for a living?

Answer: Only in our dreams. Just joking, but really the music profession is not what people think that it is. These days with free online file sharing, making money from music recordings(CD's) is pretty much a thing of the past. Many pop artists today only put out singles, because only "Hits" sell on iTunes and other online music retailers. At $1.29 each song(price just went up), the math is not hard. Don't forget iTunes gets half($0.65), not including the split with the record company. And of course, files downloaded from Limewire, bitTorrent, etc. are free. With filesharing the artists make $0.

Who does this affect? Of course it affects the artist, but it also affects you, the consumer ,too. Imagine, record companies are dying, and they are bleeding money. Why would they take a risk on a great up and coming artist, only to lose? Record companies are not willing to gamble these days. But you say you hear of new artists all the time? Of course, but usually they are clones of already established bands. Can you tell the difference between Coldplay and U2? Probably not.

For us, music is, and will always be a hobby and for fun.