text: Well, there are two different topics here:\n\n1) The music creation / artistic part of making music\n2) The music business itself (i.e., lawyers, labels,\ncontracts, profits, royalties, paychecks, etc).\n\nWell, obviously, creating the music is the rewarding part emotionally.  You get to create something from your imagination and also something that reflects your personality and give it to public listening.  This is the part that is also the most fun portion.  It should not be tied down by business rules.  But, in many cases it is.\n\nThe music business is, as is all other money making industries, just a business solely interested in making money.  So, as long as the music is popular and it continues to make money, that artist is at the top.  If that stops, then the artist becomes a has-been.  If the artist was industry created (like so many artists of today), then that person becomes a nobody as fast as they became a somebody.  Today, the music business is almost solely focused on piracy without regard to anything else.  They are so entranced by this issue that they have forgotten that they really need to provide quality music to the listening public.\n\nSo, because of the piracy issue, the music of today is really not that great.  Much of today's music is primarily created in the producer's mind and by the producers... hiring people solely to fill the roles (just as as a film might hire an actor).  In the past, a group of musicians would get together and create music and then be discovered.  Today, it's just the opposite.  Producers create the music up front and then find someone with the look and a reasonably decent voice to fill the role.  Rarely is commercial pop music actually created by talented musicians.  It's now almost solely created by a producer who then hires musicians to play the music to what was already written (requiring only musical instrument skill, but little, if any, writing talent).\n\nThe contractual part of the music industry is where most new artists get bitten hard.  If you're undiscovered, then they rope you in to signing a horrible contract with small amount of pay and lots of concert work.  So, you get little in the way of pay, but you do a lot of work for them (that you are contractually obligated to provide).  So, if you ever get into the position of signing a record contract, be careful to read the verbiage exactly (and have a lawyer that you have hired go over it with you).  Don't blindly sign it simply because you want a record deal.