How Musicians Make Money, Or Don’t, In 2018
Forget money.  As a musician I struggle to even get people to listen to my music for free.<p>There&#x27;s an absolute glut of content out there, due to two things:<p>1 - The increasing ease of making music.  It used to be that you had to invest time in acquiring some skill, some relatively expensive instruments, and some in-person relationships with other musicians to make music that was palatable to a significant number of listeners.  Today all you need is some free software on a phone or computer you probably already have, and it all but makes the music for you.<p>2 - The ease of distributing music.  You used to have to get contracts with record labels, make other connections with the music industry, or spend a lot of money to get much of an audience.  Now we&#x27;ve mostly cut out the middle men, and distribution is virtually free.<p>As a result there&#x27;s vastly more content and much more competition between artists for an audience.  No longer are consumers limited to a dozen radio stations or having to read music reviews, physically go down to the record store, listen to and buy records.  The consumer has virtually the world&#x27;s entire musical output at their fingertips and far more free content than they even have time to listen to.