[ThomPete]

The ability to make a living is not a right, it's an opportunity.

The same opportunity that made it possible for artists to record once and resell in the millions is now working against them.

Where where they when the distribution companies who used to make a living from the music industry was laid off? Or the record stores?

It's not a right, it's an opportunity.

[tunesmith]

This is simplistic. Major labels still have the relationships which allow them to dictate favorable terms to these services that supposedly are so great for indies. These favorable terms mean that the services need onerous terms from the indies in order to break even. This effectively means the indies are subsidizing the major labels. That dynamic needs to change before we can argue that this meets some level of fairness.

[ThomPete]

Thats a whole different discussion though.

[205guy]

My point was we're trying to judge the merit of an entire system by one tiny facet. What's a fair amount of money for this guy to get if it's not X? What if I was a QA tester and I complained on my blog that my dev team was unfairly closing the bugs I open as invalid, thus depriving me of my bug-based bonus? Seems crummy, but maybe that just how the industry goes and I'm still living comfortably.

Obviously, there is no "right" to earn a living in the legal sense of a right. But it seems moral to say that if someone puts in average work, and they're average talent, they should make an average living out of some industry that is still in demand.

You raise an interesting point about the producers and salespeople of the industry. Why shouldn't they have a "right" to make an average living as well. Indeed, but they could also follow the technology, eg from "curating" a record store to "curating" a recommendations website. Or, since they also have more portable jobs, they could produce or sell other products or talents.

The musician, on the other hand, is stuck. If musicians can't live from their music, even if they are in demand, will stop making music for us consumers.

[ThomPete]

You last claim is simply not true. There have never in the history of human history been so many artists out there. If anything it's the amount of competition amongst musicians that is pushing the returns down.

[gburt]

"Average work with average talent" should NOT equal average wage because people should be self-selecting in to things they are above average at as a profession. As a society, we don't want a bunch of mediocre musicians, we want only good ones.

This sort of explains why many areas are winner takes all or extremely exponential in wage/quality.

[bisrig]

When you take the timeline of the history of the planet Earth into account, there was a not so distant past where an artist, musician, etc. could make a living based solely on the support of a single benefactor. It seems as though the past 50 years is likely to be seen as a blip on the trend of how an artist is compensated for their work.

[dllthomas]

What you say may be true, but it's only relevant to the question of what we do with that part of the discussion. It doesn't, by any means, mean it's not something we should be aware of.

[ThomPete]

Having lived of music myself in my younger years I am all too familiar with the discussion.

The problem is that once you start digging into it, the reality is that claiming "i wrote this song" is a much more muddled claim than you might think and so is the claims about how much one should earn and that others are stealing when pirating.

In reality 99% of the people playing music wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for the same technology that is now making it impossible for them to make a living.

So deal with it and find a way to make money or quit. That's really all there is to say IMO.

[dllthomas]

"So deal with it and find a way to make money or quit. That's really all there is to say IMO."

I listen to music, I don't create it[1]. This is not the choice that I face, and there's plenty else to say in terms of how I want to direct my attention and my dollars.

[1] at least, not for other people [2]

[2] or at least, they don't appreciate it when it is...

[paulhauggis]

When unions are discussed here on HN, will you have the same opinion?

Many unions force companies to pay workers inflated wages which are well above the current rate.

[ThomPete]

I am not sure I understand the question. Care to elaborate?