Music contracts are straight up sharecropping. The artist is charged costs for all studio time, yet the record company owns the recordings. Then the artist is bled on royalties and given a pittance on the sales, leaving concerts as the main source of income. I never liked the Grateful Dead, but they sure had a handle on how to survive in the business.
The encouragement of heroin/drug/alcohol abuse is an important part of the equation. It's very important to keep "entertainers" in a state of substance-addled fog and narcissism, so they fail to pay attention to how badly the "entertainment" industry rips them off. If/when they die of their excesses, this generates more publicity thus selling more "product."
Music contracts are straight up sharecropping. The artist is charged costs for all studio time, yet the record company owns the recordings. Then the artist is bled on royalties and given a pittance on the sales, leaving concerts as the main source of income. I never liked the Grateful Dead, but they sure had a handle on how to survive in the business.
Not a very good handle on the heroin though.
The encouragement of heroin/drug/alcohol abuse is an important part of the equation. It's very important to keep "entertainers" in a state of substance-addled fog and narcissism, so they fail to pay attention to how badly the "entertainment" industry rips them off. If/when they die of their excesses, this generates more publicity thus selling more "product."